9 juin - Rode for 3.5 Hours

Enjoyed a peaceful morning et l’Equipe, café noir, et croissants. Returned to our field outside of the campsite and tried to get a legitimate site. The proprietor asked us to come back later after he had check out the campers who had to go back to work after the weekend. Changed into bike geek clothes and went for a great ride that Chris had selected. We rode out of bedoin on D974, then took D14 to Momoiron, then we followed D422 to Villes-sur-Auzon (which is a groovy village with camping, a boulangerie, and a presse). Then we rode through the Gorges de la Nesque. Absolutely incredible riding - after an initial ascent, we rode along the gorge for several kilometres, then we had an outstanding descent into Monieux. In Monieux, we caught D1 and climbed for a while, then rode through some incredible rustic areas, and then caught back up with D1 for an epic descent down the desolate four lane highway at sppeds approximating 50 mph into Villes-sur-Auzon. Then the fun was over, we climbed a 2% grade along D19 into Flaggon, then returned into Bedoin. Returned to the campsite to learn that it was closed but we re-open at 15:30 - exactly 15 minutes after we needed to be on the road to Vaison-la-Romaine to catch the 1^st stage of the Dauphine. We reached the town, parked a block from the race, and found a brassserie 250 metres from the finish - much more chill than the TdF. Post-race, we met up with Ric and Marci. We intended to loop across and bust on the racers - but we stumbled upon the Caves de Vaison-la-Romaine. They had free cold water and were generous with their wine. We left with the beginnings of a nice buzz and several bottles of wine. After dinner, we headed back to Bedoin. It was too late to visit the brasserie, so we called it a night and tried to sleep in our field. The coyotes’ howling  made this a somewhat of along night.