Paul picked up our lease car at the airport in Lyon, drove back to the apartment behind the Hotel de Ville to collect me and the bags, and we were off.
The temperature had been gradually building in Lyon, and has kept increasing as we have slowly moved southward. We followed the Rhone and its Côtes du Rhone vineyards from Lyon halfway to Orange and then struck east for Nyons, where we spent a pleasant week in 2006.
Our first glimpse of lavender outside Nyons reminded us that much of Provence will be this glorious colour for the next month or so. Nyons is in the Drôme department of the Rhône-Alps region.
Nyons and its 14th C square looked exactly the same as it had years ago, baking in the late afternoon sun.
We had dinner under the same ancient stone vaulted arches as we had done nearly ten years ago but the food was not as good.
After dinner we walked up to the 'new' bridge and had a lovely view along the river which would rage in Spring at snowmelt. The ancient stone bridge, beautifully lit at night. I love the ghostly grey/white colour of these ancient river stones. The rivers are this colour everywhere in the Alps.
Nyons is in the foothills of the Alps and grows olives and grapes. The surrounding countryside looks like this.
Dotted everywhere are tiny stone villages like this one with traditional pencil cypress.
After an uncomfortable night on an uncomfortable mattress, we decided to drive up Mont Ventoux before continuing south to our next location in the heart of Provence. This photo was taken at the 885m mark on Mont Ventoux. This is the same altitude as Mount Kosciusko.
Mont Ventoux is 1883m, well above the tree line. Those blue snow marker poles are 2m tall.
Many people walk around the paths at the summit.
But most seem to stand around taking photos.
Or imagining they were on the top of the world.
The weather station and communications towers at the summit. I was unaware that I had knocked my phone on to black and white.
Once again in black and white, this is the view from a large staging area on the tree line, just before the painful climb to the top, that is used for the numerous cycling races that are held here. The road still shows signs of the painted signs from the last Tour de France.
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