The Théâtre antique d'Orange is one of the best-preserved Roman theatres anywhere, and the thing that surprises people is the wall. The stage wall at the back, known as the scaenae frons, still stands to its full height of around thirty-six metres, a huge, sun-bleached cliff of stone that Louis XIV is supposed to have called the finest wall in his kingdom. Built in the early first century AD when Orange was the Roman colony of Arausio, the theatre could seat several thousand, and the acoustics are so good that it hosts the Chorégies d'Orange opera festival every summer, as it has for generations.
Orange is a town of thirty thousand people on the Rhône plain in northern Provence, and the theatre sits right in the middle of it, a hundred steps from the cafés and the pedestrianised streets. A few hundred metres away stands the Arc de Triomphe, one of the oldest surviving Roman triumphal arches in Gaul, set on a roundabout on the old Via Agrippa. Together they earned a UNESCO listing, and an hour on foot covers both.
As for the riding, this is a town stop, but what a town stop. The surrounding country is flat vineyards of the southern Rhône, with Châteauneuf-du-Pape just to the south and the dry limestone ridges of the Dentelles de Montmirail to the east, and the mistral can blow hard enough to push a loaded bike across the lane. If a forecast says mistral, be ready for sharp gusts on open stretches and bridges, especially on the Rhône valley highway. In summer the heat is fierce by midday, so the best hours are early morning and evening, when the stone glows warm gold.
Fuel, food and coffee are all easy in Orange, with supermarkets on the edge of town and plenty of cafés around the Place aux Herbes. The local specialities are what you would expect from the southern Rhône: olives, tapenade, lavender honey, and the wines of Côtes du Rhône, though the bike limits you to a sip. A morning market in the town fills the streets on Thursdays, which is worth knowing both for the pleasure and for the parking.
Go early, before the tour buses arrive, and take the hour to sit in the stone seats and look at that wall. It is the kind of place that makes a ride feel older than it is.