Mt. Biking - Vallebregues Barrage to Bequcaire and Tarascon

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Forces-of-Nature » Personal Diaries » Mt. Biking - Vallebregues Barrage to Bequcaire and Tarascon

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Owner: squiz
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Member#: 6644
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Registered: 27-05-2007
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11th October 2014
Mt. Biking: Vallebregues Barrage to Bequcaire and Tarascon
Wind Direction:
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Weather: sunny periods
Max Speed:
Distance Covered: 13 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise)

Saturday 11th October – Bike **** Vallebregues Barrage to Bequcaire and Tarascon – 13 n. miles – sunny periods

Thunder, lightning and torrential rain in the night and Mag found this hilarious - in between downpours I went out with a torch to stop my board bag dripping and attempted to wash the sand from the Camargue (of which there was a lot!!) off the van!! It was 1 a.m. but unbelievably just as I got out there with nothing on a car starts coming down from the viewing point just up the road!! I ducked behind the van and turned the torch off but Mag was having a good laugh inside! The rain stopped and so did the dripping so we got back to sleep. This morning was amazingly fine, a bit cloudy but with lots of blue sky too. Did exercises on a dry bit of ground by the van then after breakfast packed up to finally leave our lovely spot. We drove to the Abbey St. Michel de Frigolet and saw yet more hunters on the way up there. The Abbey is set in lovely tranquil grounds but is a bit weird. A Monastery but with a boutique, a shop, a hotel and no access to the church! We had a wander round the grounds and took some photos of the twin spires of the abbey but didn’t hang around. Headed through more rocky hillside to the River Rhone trying to find a good spot to park to bike. We crossed the barrage near Vallebregues and the water thundering through it was amazing! They had opened all the sluices and it looked like a rough sea! It didn’t smell too fresh either as it had been soooo churned up and there are big trees floating down it again. All due to the huge amount of rain last night. Even the locals turned out in force to look so it must be unusual. We parked on the bank of the canal (the Rhone is in two parts again here, canal one side and barrage and river the other). Had our lunch and I had to have another go at the puncture as the tyre had gone down again:( We set out to bike to Beaucaire and Tarascon which are just downstream from where we are parked. We crossed the barrage and had to go on the busy road to begin with but then on local road into the centre of Beaucaire. It has an ancient centre which we cycled through with difficulty because they have dug all the road up to re-lay. It reminded us of Morocco. There is a canal basin with lots of boats in, a castle and a really tall old flood wall which we biked round after carrying our bikes up the steps! We crossed the bridge to Tarascon and shock horror we paid 15 euros to go into the castle!!! This is virtually unheard of for us. It was beautifully preserved with all its rooms, terraces, galleries, courtyards and the open terrace on the roof all intact. We had a good hour mooching round and really enjoyed it. Biked back to the van along the canal footpath making it a circular route. Moved to a track along the side of the river which was still quite busy with locals looking at the barrage but as the evening wore on they moved off and left us to watch the beautiful sunset:)

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