2018 Bike Trip - Day 5

The next segment was fairly short – about 23km – and relatively easy.  It had been planned that way on purpose as we had had a quite strenuous last few days.  Gérard and Roger are much more experienced bikers than Tom and I, but even they admitted to being very fatigued.

We started out with an uphill climb, then into a series of ups and downs, luckily trending mostly down, through fields and vineyards.

The last 10 or 11km is on a Voie Vert, in this case a bikes-only route built on a former railroad right-of-way.  As railroads cannot manage steep hills, such paths have very slight gradients.  This one was mostly down which made for easy riding.  Along the way we passed an old abandoned passenger station for the town of Saignon.  Saignon is actually an old perched village some distance away that we could not see as we were in a wooded area.

Abandoned Gare for Saignon - web photo

Saignon from the web

We arrived in Apt in time to have lunch at a restaurant next to our hotel, then did some exploring around town.  Apt is a Cathedral city, but St Anne’s is not terribly impressive as the building is in poor repair and closely hemmed in on all sides.  It’s almost impossible to get an exterior photo of the building as one cannot get far enough away without having one’s view blocked by other buildings.    The interior was more impressive but in dire need of repair.

Interior of Ste Anne's Cathedral in Apt
 

Someone had created a tableau in Apt

We had dinner at a restaurant near our hotel - plain but pleasant.

Waiting for Dinner in Apt.

We had arranged for a hotel stay in Avignon the following night before heading home, but decided to skip that and just drive back to Lyon once we picked up the car in Cavaillon.  Unfortunately we were not able to cancel our reservations, so decided to stay a night in Avignon as planned.