Provence Blog by ProvenceBeyond

Tour de France 2009 passing Seillans

Today we watched stage 2 of the 2009 Tour de France pass the perched Var village of Seillans.
    It's a real event watching the "Tour" pass by. Checking out a possible spot a few weeks in advance.
    Arriving around 9 AM on The Day. Getting the car parked (thankfully in the shade) not too far away. Then locating a suitable spot and calculating how well it needs to be protected. Going for a hike to while away a couple of hours.
    Setting up in the selected spot an hour and a half before the preliminaries start and settling in with cold water, a bit of lunch, and relaxing for awhile. Around 13h30 the beginning of the "caravan" begins: the circus of advertising trucks, vans, cars and floats that pitch the sponsors' wares and through out free gifts to the worthy. The caravan parade takse about an hour; then there's a gap of 20-30 minutes while course cars, press and other official cars pass by.
    A bit of excitement from the crowd, the leading media motorcycles and gendarmes, and a break-away group (les echappés) of 4 riders comes through [1st photo], and are gone in the blink of an eye. Radio information passes through the crowd that the echappé is 5 minutes ahead of the main group.
    Another flurry of excitement and then the main group of riders rolls into view [photo 2, with Seillans behind]. Lots of shouting and waving, and the Beyond camera is operating too fast to allow time to actually look at the riders. About 180 cyclists pass through in under 60 seconds (all of our photos are time-stamped with the same minute).
    Six hours after we had arrived, the 60-second burst of racing occured, and we gathered  up our things and joined the exodust, very satisfied by the day's adventure.

Alpes-Maritimes Autoroutes limited to 110 km/h

Beginning 15 July 2009 (in two weeks), all parts of the A8 autoroute in the Alpes-Maritimes will be limited to 110 kph (68 mph), down from the Nation-wide limit of 130 kph (81 mph). The western edge of the Alpes-Maritimes is about 7.5 km west of the Cannes-Mandelieu autoroute junction, exit 40.

There are 72 kilometres of A8 autoroute passing through the Alpes-Maritimes, from the Var department to Italy. Currently, the only 130-kph sections are from the Var to the Antibes tollbooth (20 km), and from the Var river near the Nice airport to the tollbooth at Nice Saint-Isidore (4.3 km). So, only about 25 km are affected.

The section from the Antibes tollbooth to the Nice airport has been limited to 110 kph for a year or two (although the final 5 km westbound section is at 130 kph). From the Nice Saint-Isidore tollbooth, around past the north of Nice, Monaco and Menton to Italy is mostly 110 or 90 kph, sometimes slower, depending on traffic (speed-limit signs are electronically controlled by Big Brother).

Roumoules village on the Valensole Plateau

The little village of Roumoules has been added to Beyond. Roumoules is located beside the village of Riez on the Valensole Plateau, a main site of the Lavender Fields of Beyond. It's a tiny village, with a shady terrace café, and a great little restaurant.

Lavender Fields in Bloom

We spent 3 days touring the Lavender Fields of Provence, passing through the lavender areas of Pay de Digne, Valensole, Forcalquier, and Apt. The photo here is from the Pays de Valensole, near the villages of Valensole and Puimoisson.

Apart from the vast fields of lavender around the Valensole Plateau, we saw many smaller fields tucked away here and there. Near Apt, the lavender fields include bories. Near Gordes, the Senanque Abbey has its own picturesque lavender field.

12th-century Senanque Cistercian Abbey

The 12th-century Senanque Abbey is in the Vaucluse, in a narrow valley north of the clifftop village of Gordes. We've had Senanque online in Beyond for a few years but, following a recent visit, we've added 18 new photos and updated the text.

We're heading up there again this weekend, to see if the lavender fields in front of the Abbey are in bloom yet.

Thoronet Abbey Vastly Improved

Beyond's page for the Cistercian Abbey de Thoronet is vastly improve (not the abbey itself). We've expanded the text with a lot of new information, and replaced the original 4 medium-sized photos with 18 larger and improved photos.
Some of our photos are from previous trips to the abbey, in 1995 and 2003, but most are from our visit there last Saturday.
We also visited the Senanque Abbey in the Vaucluse a couple of weeks ago, and will be updating that page soon with new photos and text. We're going to try to make another trip there soon to see if the lavender fields in front of the abbey are in bloom yet.

Sainte Anastasie-sur-Issole in the Var

Another Var village, Sainte Anastasie-sur-Issole, has been added to Beyond. This is a small village in a very attractive setting.

Flassans-sur-Issole added to Beyond

Flassans-sur-Issole is a village in the central Var department southeast of Brignoles and northwest of Saint Tropez. It's positioned on the Issole river and has the ruins of a castle and the old village on the adjacent hilltop.

Javon Chateau in the Vaucluse

The picturesque 16th-century Chateau of Javon has been added to Beyond. Sitting beside the road, the Javon Chateau makes a wonderful accidental discovery while driving up the road through the forest from Cavaillon or Gordes to Sault.

Saint Jean-de-Sault in the Vaucluse

St Jean-de-Sault is a wee hamlet in the commune of Sault, within site of Mont Ventoux. Not much in the hamlet, but it's a great place for hiking.

Aurel village in the Vaucluse

We've just added the Vaucluse village of Aurel to Beyond. Located next to Sault, in a region of lavender fields on the southern slopes of Mont Ventoux,  Aurel  will be very active on the 25th of July when the 2009 Tour de France cycling races passes through the village.

St Honorat Island and Lérins Abbey

We've made a new page for the Lérins Abbey (known also as the St Honorat Monastery), separating it from the http://www.beyond.fr/sites/sthonorat.htmlSaint Honorat Island page. At the same time, we added a lot of new photos to both pages.

Prehistoric Dolmens of Adrets (Var)

We've added a page about the 3 prehistoric dolmen sites of Adrets in the Var. Located north of Brignoles and southeast of the little village of Le Val, the dolmens are accessible by a couple of hours of hiking, although some of it is cross-country without trails.

Brignoles Refreshed

We've refreshed Beyond's page for the Var town of Brignoles, with updated text reflecting the updated town, and a batch of new photographs. Brignoles, located in the Var department, between Marseille and Cannes, will be a stage finish next month for the Tour de France 2009 cycling race.

Besse-sur-Issole village in the Var

We've added the Var town of Besse-sur-Issole to Beyond. A nice little town (or large village) on the Issole river, southeast of Brignoles and northeast of Toulon, Besse-sur-Issole has a lot of old fountains, and a small lake right at the edge of the center.

Our Besse-sur-Issole page includes over 20 photos, of the village and the ancient Medieval stone bride. We've put a collection of the Besse-sur-Issole Fountains on a separate page.

Tour de France 2009 Detailed Route Stage Maps

We now have the detailed stage-by-stage route maps for the 2009 Tour de France. Made available yesterday (5 June 2009) on the official Le Tour website, we've put the maps on Beyond. With any of the detailed maps displayed, simply click on the left/right "Scroll big photos" arrows to scroll through all of the stage maps.

Route and stage information, including dates, is on Beyond's Tour de France 2009 main page. Beyond's own Tour de France 2009 Route Map for all of france is click-zoomable to the regional detail maps.

Vins-sur-Caramy village (Var)

 We've added a new Var village to Beyond: Vins-sur-Caramy is located in the central Var, northeast of Brignoles and west of the Thoronet Abbey.  Vins-sur-Caramy village has a Renaissance style chateau and a very lovely Medieval stone bridge across the adjacent river.

Cabasse village (Var) added

We've added the Central-Var village of Cabasse to Beyond. This village is located northeast of Brignoles and southwest of the Thoronet Abbey, in an area of low forested hills and vineyards.

Comps-sur-Artuby refreshed, new photos

We've updated our page for Comps-sur-Artuby, a village in the Var department south of the Gorges du Verdon. We added a lot of new photos for Comps-sur-Artuby. Our previous photos were from 1995; not too bad, but we didn't have very many of them.
   Our photo here is of the nearby "Roman" bridge, built 17 centuries after the Romans.

Samuel Beckett was and is in Beyond

We've added a page about the Irish Nobel-Prize winning writer and poet Samuel Beckett to Beyond's People section. M. Beckett is an obvious choice for our pages: he studied French, he lived most of his life in France, he wrote most of his work in French (and translated it himself into English), and he lived a few years in the heart of Provence, in the picturesque village of Roussillon.

Caille Village and Meteorite Added

We've added the little Alpes-Maritimes village of Caille to Beyond. Set in the forested mountains north of Grasse, Caille is a great place for hiking, mountain biking and winter cross-country skiing.

Cycling Tour de France 2009 Update

We've added some route details to Beyond's Tour de France 2009 page. The official La Tour website still hasn't released the route details (other than the stage start and end towns and the mountain stages), but we've found some more details for the last two stages, especially for the urban villages approaching Paris from the southeast on the final day (Sunday, 26 July).