Ardeche and Carmargue
Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 4:50 pm
Hi, has anyone ever done any riding and/ore bikepacking in that part of the South of France? If you have, please could you share any info or tips you have?
I'm currently toying with the idea of taking my dad, or rather some of his ashes, on one last road trip, to some of the places he loved best, and me too, with happy memories of family holidays and road trips with just him and me.
Thinking of a mixture of trains and bikepacking, maybe I'll try out that 4 day interrail ticket which I saw Emily Chappell talk about recently.,
He first went down there as a 17 year old, still a piss poor post war lad, but he had comparatively rich kid friend, who had a vespa. It's one of my favourite stories of his, and he only told me it couple of year ago. The thought of it being the summer of 1955, these lads had grown up during the war, and there they set off on this huge adventure, two 17 year olds, all of their luggage, which presumably included some sort of canvas tent, all strapped to a vespa (how?!?!), all the way from the middle of Germany, down through France to the glitz and glamour of the med... and then back!
It's on this trip that he first went to the Ardeche, and the Carmargue and Les Saintes Maries de la Mer down there, and they went as far as just across the border into Spain on the edge of the Pyrenees.
He then went back there many years later when he and my mum were newlyweds, and then later on we went every year for about 8 years as a family, canoeing, camping and also a bit of cycling in the Ardeche area, and one year my dad took me on a road trip to the Carmargue.
Anyway, I think it would be a great adventure for myself, and a fitting tribute to the man who I've had the privilege of being able to call my dad.
I'm currently toying with the idea of taking my dad, or rather some of his ashes, on one last road trip, to some of the places he loved best, and me too, with happy memories of family holidays and road trips with just him and me.
Thinking of a mixture of trains and bikepacking, maybe I'll try out that 4 day interrail ticket which I saw Emily Chappell talk about recently.,
He first went down there as a 17 year old, still a piss poor post war lad, but he had comparatively rich kid friend, who had a vespa. It's one of my favourite stories of his, and he only told me it couple of year ago. The thought of it being the summer of 1955, these lads had grown up during the war, and there they set off on this huge adventure, two 17 year olds, all of their luggage, which presumably included some sort of canvas tent, all strapped to a vespa (how?!?!), all the way from the middle of Germany, down through France to the glitz and glamour of the med... and then back!
It's on this trip that he first went to the Ardeche, and the Carmargue and Les Saintes Maries de la Mer down there, and they went as far as just across the border into Spain on the edge of the Pyrenees.
He then went back there many years later when he and my mum were newlyweds, and then later on we went every year for about 8 years as a family, canoeing, camping and also a bit of cycling in the Ardeche area, and one year my dad took me on a road trip to the Carmargue.
Anyway, I think it would be a great adventure for myself, and a fitting tribute to the man who I've had the privilege of being able to call my dad.
