Mont Ventoux Loop from Bédoin

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Bedoin

   Bédoin is the village at the foot of Mont Ventoux, the white, bald summit that dominates Provence, and it is where the hardest and most famous approach starts. The mountain rises to 1,912 metres, and from far away it looks like it is covered in snow, though the whiteness is bare limestone scree. The ascent from Bédoin is about twenty-one kilometres, climbing through vineyards and cherry orchards and then through a dense forest of cedar and pine, before bursting out above the tree line at Chalet Reynard into a lunar landscape of pale stones, with a weather station and a radio mast on top. The Tour de France has crossed it many times, and the tiny memorial to the British cyclist Tom Simpson, who died near the summit in 1967, is a place of pilgrimage for cyclists.

   Read the complete Bédoin write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Bedoin is where the day begins. Next is Mont Ventoux summit.

2. 2. Mont Ventoux summit

   Mont Ventoux rises alone from the plains of Provence, and the summit, at 1,909 metres, is a bald white dome of shattered limestone that looks from a distance like a snowfield even in July. Nothing else stands near it. This isolation is the key to its character, because the mistral, the cold northerly wind of the Rhône valley, hits it with full force, and the weather on top is often wild when the lowlands are warm and sunny. Gusts above a hundred kilometres per hour are not unusual, and the summit has a long record of cold, wind and fog.

   Read the complete Mont Ventoux summit write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Mont Ventoux summit comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Sault, mostly downhill.

3. 3. Sault

   On a hot July afternoon, Sault is the best place in Provence to understand why people write poems about lavender. The village sits on a rocky spur at about 750 metres, on the edge of the great plateau that runs between Mont Ventoux and the Luberon hills, and in the weeks of the bloom, from late June to late July, the fields around it turn violet in long, curved lines up to the horizon. The smell is overwhelming on warm days, sweet, resinous and slightly medicinal, and bees fill the air. The villagers hold a lavender festival every year on 15 August, with processions, markets and music.

   Read the complete Sault write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Sault. Next is Gorges de la Nesque.

4. 4. Gorges de la Nesque

   The Gorges de la Nesque is a road that cuts across the limestone rim of a canyon, with sheer cliffs on one side and a drop of several hundred metres on the other. The Nesque river, which flows from the Monts de Vaucluse, has carved a gorge about twenty kilometres long and as much as four hundred metres deep through the plateau, and the road, the D942, follows the cliffs high above the river, with a series of belvederes, short tunnels and long, clean bends. It runs between Villes-sur-Auzon, on the western side, and Sault, on the lavender plateau, and it is among the most beautiful drives in Provence.

   Read the complete Gorges de la Nesque write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Gorges de la Nesque, late in the day. Next is Bedoin.

5. 5. Bedoin

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Bédoin write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Bedoin. That is the ride.