After spending last week eating and drinking my way through our first and last tour of the year – Haute Route Ventoux – I got back on the bike and drove up to Alès to do a loop in the Cévennes. Here are a few shots from the cockpit.
I started my ride in a city, so the first 30 minutes was on a ‘big road’, but on a Saturday morning, it was pretty quiet.
The big road peaks out at around 450 meters, which looks like it could have been 500 meters if they hadn’t sliced the mountain in half to make the road.
My next road – the D297b – was a new one for me and is one of the many roads that lead to Bessèges, a pretty depressing town these days, but a major center of the mining industry in its heyday.
This blurry photo tells you that I’m in Europe, or at least not in Canada! These low stone walls are ubiquitous here on the smaller roads and are the perfect height to sit on and munch a banana, or stop and take a photo, which I see I should have probably done.
A little side road near Génolhac that crosses over one of the oldest stretches of railway in France, built in the 1830s to bring coal from the mountains to the Rhône River.
And finally, 12th century Château de Portes, because no ride in France is complete without a castle!
I didn’t write anything about the weekend, so you didn’t miss a thing! It was nice to run a tour after a whole year of nothing and it was good to see two brave souls coming to France to ride.
The Vicious Cycle 
Where are all the cars? Looks like cycling Nirvana to me.
I did have to wait for a few motorcycles to pass before taking the castle photo, otherwise it was pretty tranquille!
Beautiful shots. Thanks for sharing.
Did some m/c enduro riding around there a few years ago, an amazing place and one i ve wanted to back to on a bicycle!
That must have been fun. There’s a whole off-road world in France that I know nothing about.
A good place for a quiet ride.
It really is, but you have to like climbing quietly.
Gentle climbing is the only sort that I know. 🙂
Lovely photos. I may have missed your post on HR Ventoux but how was it?
I didn’t write anything about the weekend, so you didn’t miss a thing! It was nice to run a tour after a whole year of nothing and it was good to see two brave souls coming to France to ride.