Gallery
The first 52 photos in this gallery were added when I set up the website in March 2022.
See 53 onwards for more added in May, 72 onwards for photos from our July 2022 trip to the Cévennes and Auvergne (Ardèche and Haute-Loire)
91 onwards are photos taken in June 2023 when the two elderly Bromptons and their even more elderly riders took themselves off to Provence. Not just Provence but Upper Provence, in both the northerly and mountainous sense!
1. David, my travelling companion for many decades
2. Gordes, Provence 1996
3. Camping with chickens near Gramat, Lot 1993
7. David swoops down to St-Antonin-noble-Val 2008
8. Travels with a donkey, if not a Brompton.
New Forest 2010
11. We loved this Perpignan hotel! 2011
13. Roussillon 2011
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15. We were lucky to find this lovely
Lagrasse chambre d'hôte 2011
Roussillon landscape 2011
20. Jura residents, 2012
24. Blue skies near Les Baux-de-Provence, 2013
25. Author at work! Tarascon 2013
26. This is what Tiggers like! Provence 2013
29. Sault, world lavender capital and starting point
34, A typical French scene
35. Ochre cliffs in Provence
40. A rare food photo - there's not usually time
42. The Verdon gorges, Provence 2014
17. Jura, 2012
18. Bikes take a rest in the Jura, 2012
19. Jura landscape, 2012
21. They make pipes in St-Claude, Jura!
22. Blue skies over Roman Glanum, Provence, 2013
23. David lends a hand
27. Tarmac at last. Provence 2013
28. Hotel le Palais, Apt 2013 - one of our favourites
for the ascent of Mont Ventoux 2013
30. David on the way up Ventoux, observatory
in background 2013
31. It was 35 degrees on the plains but this was very well named.
Nearly at the top of Ventoux 2013
32. Made it to the top of Mont Ventoux 2013
33. On the way down - we felt we deserved these!
36. About to go down the Nesque gorge
(having climbed up) 2013
Ventoux in the background
37. A tunnel in the Nesque gorge, Provence 2013
38. A delightful chambre d'hôte in Villes-sur-Auzon
at the foot of the Nesque gorge
39. Street scene, Villes
before I eat it!
Isle-sur-la-Sorgue 2013.
41. En route for the Verdon, Provence 2014
(we like our gorges)
tell the cat!
45. How many times have we had a drink
in the square? How many squares?
46. Sélestat, Alsace 2017. The pointy bit is where
we went the next day.
we were looking at from Sélestat
48. Sélestat, Alsace 2017. See the stork
nest atop.
52. Where we hope to be in July 2022 - back
in the Cévennes
53. Birleys and Bromptons arriving at book
launch, 26th April 2022
54. What better place for a launch lunch?
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sign any books.
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always on a Brompton!
Note matching sky and jersey...
61. Not too difficult to tell the sheep from the goats
in Provence
de-Provence (see no. 27)
64. Cat on a frog, St-Remy-de-Provence
trip to Provence
70. View from our hotel room in Aix-en-Provence
71. 'La pile' is French for 'battery'. Translation can
be fraught with problems! Please note - not my annotation!
🍷🍷🍷
2022
July 2022 Auvergne/Vivarais/Ardèche/Haute-Loire...
72. 5th July 2022 Toulaud, a village on our way up west from Valence.
That's UP. The Rhône at Valence is about 100m or 330ft and our
destination, Vernoux-en-Vivarais, was at 580m or 1914 ft, which was
quite a climb on this, our first day!
73. 6/7/22 Chalençon, a lovely village with no food, until the
café owners offered us and some other hungry people
'what we're having'. It was delicious!
old railway and uphill of course. But the hotel L'Art Chais, near the
former station, was well worth it. Some odd people around, though!
the Vivarais where Jewish children were hidden in the 2nd War.
This is the Lieu de Mémoire which commemorates the heroic story.
children were hidden, we met a descendant of Modestine. He was all on his own
in a huge field so was very keen to chat. His nose is heading for my Brompton
pannier - he probably hoped there were edibles in it (there weren't).
allowed to bring his drink onto the terrace...
Mézenc (1753m or 5785ft), we stopped for refreshments at Chaudeyrolles. The
patron served us drinks, then shut for lunch. He said, though, that we could sit on his
terrace for as long as we wanted. You can just see the Bromptons having a rest too.
4442ft. We'd done a lot of up and downing to get there (it's a ski resort
in winter) and were delighted to find a bar that proved we'd
returned to the Cévennes!
were between Les Estables and Le Monastier. So typical of the scenery - open,
fabulous views. Searing heat but always a breeze thanks to the altitude. But lots
of forests too. The French are not short of wood!
Stevenson bought Modestine and from which they started their walk. We
headed for the Bar Stevenson and had wonderful ice-creams.
It was delightful and was called 'File dans ta chambre' (Go to your room).
Gerbier de Jonc, near Mont Mézenc. Over 1000km in length, it's the
longest river in France. Pictures in drought-ridden France soon after
we got home showed it looking like the Sahara.
These two rocky volcanic cones are Rocher St-Michel (in the foreground)
and Rocher Corneille, which is surmounted by a statue of Notre Dame. The fine
cathedral is an important point on the Santiago de Compostela route.
which we partook of breakfast.
in France)! Fortunately most shops were open so we were
able to hunt down and buy some Puy lentils.
to run. Our veg lady has a wonderful stall but Rosie isn't much help!
🍷🍷🍷
2023
91. On 6/6/23 we left home about 4.30am and travelled by train to Marseille,
changing there for another train to Manosque which we reached at 8pm.
We stayed two nights there and had a day's cycle in the eastern Luberon.
We didn't get very far as we were distracted by this nice bar in Pierreverte,
especially once we found it had a lovely restaurant with terrace (below).
nice going down, though!
93. Forcalquier, a lovely town. Again, we stayed two nights in a
fine appartment. It's the first time we've parked the Bromptons
next to a unicorn with socks (or even a unicorn).
94. The Bromptons enjoyed the chance to sleep in the
kitchen of the Forcalquier appartment.
look at them as we'd dived into this auberge as we could
see rain coming - which it mostly certainly did!
Work in progress...!