Charlotte's Web: July 2019

The 40ths have begun... and my friend Cassie's gone and set the bar pretty high with a 5 day cycling trip to Mt Ventoux in the Provence region of Southern France. Epic planning by Cassie, from picking a beautiful maison d'hôtes with a swimming pool, hot tub and massive garden (www.la-sidoine.fr) to booking cocktails at the same hotel where some Hollywood couple (who admittedly I'd never heard of but it sounds very cool...) got married the week before and an incredible birthday dinner at Les Remparts in Venasque.

What she hadn't planned so well was the little matter of France's biggest heatwave in years. In the days leading up to the trip we were all very excited that it looked like it would be a) dry and b) a steady 25 degrees (still hot for cyling, but manageable)... but the temperature kept rising into the late 30s. So to miss the most intense heat we were up at 5am most mornings and in bed between 9 and 10pm - oh how our 30th birthday selves would have laughed/scoffed (-:

Mt Ventoux is the largest mountain in the region and is often referred to as the 'Giant of Provence' or 'The Bald Mountain.' We could see it towering above the surrounding lavender fields and cherry orchards from the garden of the maison d'hôtes.

There are three different routes up the mountain:

Via Sault - (Average gradient: 4.5% - Maximum gradient: 11.0% - Distance 25.7km - Height gain 1152m)

Via Bedoin - (Average gradient: 7.1% - Maximum gradient : 11.0% - Distance 22.7km - Height gain 1622m)

Via Malaucene - (Average gradient: 7.2% - Maximum gradient : 10.9% - Distance 21.2km - Height gain 1535m)

Apparently Bedoin is the most famous and hardest (and the route used for the TdF) so of course we did that one three times (rolling eye emoji), once via Malaucene (my favourite for scenery) and only descended via Sault. Average gradient of 4.55 - pah, barely a hill! Till next time, windy mountain...