Out and About - Winter 2021

TAKING A VIEW

JONATHAN HOPSON’s cycling adventures take him to the south of France where the ‘cyclist-friendly roads’ make for an all-round pleasant experience

D uring early few friends for a few days cycling in southern France. Our cycling host, Angus and his wife Darian, have a beautiful house half an hour north of Nimes in the former Languedoc- Roussillon area, (since 2006 this area is now known as Occitania). Two of our group travelled out via a late-night flight from Stansted to Marseille. The journey was disrupted somewhat due to the late arrival of the flight at Marseille and the car hire company’s slightly strange decision, (despite an email confirming our reservation) to close their office less than 15 minutes after our flight landed and before we could collect our hire car. Undaunted, we managed to track down a taxi prepared to make the 90-minute trip northwards. The next morning a brief visit to the excellent Location Vélos in Uzes to hire a road bike and we were underway. Although we cycled more than 200 kilometres and climbed over 2,500 metres, September, I was fortunate to be invited to join a

Vesenobres

hour drinking coffee and eating pastries in the sunshine outside the delightful La Floriane restaurant and doing what the French seem to do very well – watching the world go by. Between Uzes and Barjac, the mediaeval town of Lussan is perched on a hilltop and is one of the prettiest villages in Languedoc. The town is completely car- free and it’s well worth the effort ascending to the top for the striking beauty of the panoramic views. From Lussan it was about

we took a generous three days to do so. This was always going to be much more of a social get- together with opportunities for a long leisurely lunch, rather than thrashing as fast as possible across the French countryside. One of the advantages about cycling in France is the huge choice of cyclist- friendly roads, largely devoid of traffic, and the opportunity to make frequent pit-stops. Irrespective of how small the town was, there was always at least one good restaurant – our host’s research was impeccable. One such stop-off point was the picturesque town of Sauve. We spent a very amiable

Grenier d’Aladin. A word of warning, you may prefer to assuage your thirst from the selection of drinks available other than beer – there was only a choice of one beer when we visited, a blond variety, with a somewhat dubious taste. Our all-too-brief trip ended with a delicious evening meal at the aptly-named Ten restaurant in the centre of Uzes. The food, wine and service were all outstanding and a most convivial atmosphere too. A written description cannot really do it justice – it should be sampled direct!

an hour and a half to another hilltop village,

Vezenobres, and the chance to sample the gastronomic delights available at Au

Near Uzes looking north towards the Cevennes

Angus, David and Anton

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O&A WINTER 2021