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France in May 2013 - Sun, Rain, Hail and Snow

In 14 days from Paris to Mt Ventoux, along the edge of the Alps and through the Jura to the southwest corner of Germany.

"Et eunt homines mirari alta montium et ingentes fluctus maris et latissimos lapsus fluminum et oceani ambitum et gyros siderum, et relinquunt se ipsos." (And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the broad tides of rivers, and the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, and pass themselves by. (Augustine, 354-430, Confessiones X, 8; Francesco Petrarca, 1304-1374, read this passage at the summit of Mont Ventoux in 1336))

My last trips to France (Route des Grandes Alpes - French Alps, From Munich to Paris and Tour de France) left unexplored gaps in the middle of France. I wanted to visit these white spots and return to Mont Ventoux in the south of France, which Petrarch climbed in the 14th century.
The tour lasted exactly 14 days and at the end of May I experienced sunshine, rain, hail and snow. Reliable companions were my bike and my tent (shown here on Mt Ventoux and in Switzerland, with the caption built into the picture)

and here is the route on a map for an overview.

After a normal working day I took the night train from Munich to Paris; with the train a good hour late I cycled out of the big city towards the southwest in the late morning; via Chartres (left cathedral) to the Loire at Tours (right cathedral).

Balloonists were out in the evening in Amboise, and the first two days were mostly sunny to cloudy with thunderstorms at night.

Upstream along the Loire, past a few vineyards and châteaux, in a strong east wind and intermittent rain, via Blois and the Château de Chambord to Orléans, to admire, among other things, building styles of different eras there.

After a visit to the Benedictines in Fleury and some philosophical thoughts on the dark century, on upstream to Sully-sur-Loire.

The pictures show the crossing of two waterways, which is solved here in the form of a canal bridge over the Loire.

Soon heavy rain began again, and I scrapped the excursion to Bourges and stayed on the Loire towards Nevers, on cycle paths along the river that were in places somewhat boring and dead straight, but which could be ridden quickly, and it became a somewhat longer day with about 230 km.

The Allier delighted with the most beautiful minor roads over various hills, but unfortunately it was a damp affair until I returned to the Loire in the evening.

The next stage destination was Puy-en-Velay, a starting point for pilgrims on the Way of St James.

A disused railway line with some long, very dark tunnels saved me some climbing in the morning; the rest of the day brought rain and a few cols on the way over the watershed between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. And in the late afternoon, looking down into the Valgorge, hope arose that the weather on the horizon might get a little better.

I had the Gorges de l’Ardèche all to myself in the early morning (only a few sunbathers were already loafing around on the asphalt at that early hour).

I crossed the Rhône valley on the way to Mont Ventoux and pitched my tent at a good 1400 m altitude.

The night and the next morning were bitterly cold, and a strong wind did not make the perceived temperature any warmer.

I descended to Bedoin and took the road through the Gorges de la Nesque to Sault. Many road cyclists, some of them organised in groups with a support vehicle, were out there.

Through various small gorges and hills I now headed north (after a circuit of Mt Ventoux) on little-used roads through photogenic landscapes.

The warm sunshine was over for the time being, and the next pass, the Col de Premol (just under 1000 m high), presented itself in a snow flurry; the door to the Vercors was not very inviting either, with a mixed message to the south that I want to illustrate with 3 pictures taken from the same spot. On arriving at the summit it was bitterly cold, wet with snow, no distant view and no hope of improvement. I therefore took a shortcut through the Vercors (look back in the fifth picture), but had to climb a few more metres because of roadworks, which then turned out to be a stroke of luck. A long descent took me to Grenoble.

A proper bed at a colleague’s place in the evening was a welcome change, and the next morning, a weekend day, was a luxury: drinking tea and reading in the kitchen, I could wait out the worst of the precipitation and then had comparatively good weather through the Chartreuse, although quite a lot of snow was lying around.

The Bauges massif was also cool and wet, and the hail on the descent to Annecy was really unpleasant. Two days through the Jura mountains followed until I could see the Vosges on the horizon south of Porrentruy. I gave up my original plan to cross the Vosges to Strasbourg early in the morning in Cernay because of heavy rain (and the persistently bad weather forecasts for the next days) and made my way over the Rhine to Müllheim to take the train back to Munich.