Easy Peeler!

Monday 25th September 2023. Orange.

What a great win last night by Wales v Australia (40-6), possibly their best result ever against Australia . However, today was a non rugby day and an easy riding day too. Janice and I parted company in the morning (Janice in the van, me on the bike). My route was on the western side of the Rhône till I got closer to Orange.

The coincidence of the day was that I pedalled to a roundabout exactly at the same time as Janice arrived in the van. She has probably missed her only opportunity to run me down! I know we are going to the same place ultimately but we are travelling different routes and the chances of bumping into each other is fairly small especially considering our different speeds.

We had booked an ‘aire’ at Orange to catch up on filling and emptying and some clothes washing. The reviews of the aire raved about Michel, his warm welcome….and the place being ‘in nature’! We had chosen it but we suspected that it may not be quite as good as it was reviewed.

When we arrived the owners wife told us to park in one place and wait for her husband to locate us to our place. That was a warning sign too. There were only two places that I felt were suitable for the van and no one else was parked up! Why do we need Michel to tell us where to put the van! Michel arrived and went through his ‘welcome’…he could speak decent English but micro managed our positioning into one of the two places I knew were appropriate. He talked us through the rules and the Wi-Fi code (that didn’t work). He made a big play on giving us a bag of ice cubes (he said the cubes were for our aperitives). We have ice cubes and don’t need any more! He wanted to sell us some ‘local’ wine which we turned down immediately. The place has no toilet or grey water emptying which I consider the minimum for an aire! Are we being ungracious?

After lunch we cycled into Orange. Strange name I know but it has plenty of history and is a pretty town. It was easy to see the sights. The towns biggest draw is its Roman Theatre. it is certainly worth a visit….

We also visited the towns museum and learned that the name Orange was connected to the Royal Family of Orange from the Netherlands and William of Orange who became King of England in 1688. It would have been silly for the town to be called Jaffa or Satsuma! If it was larger it could be called ‘Grapefruit’ or smaller it would be ‘Easy Peeler’! You don’t get many towns called after a type of fruit!

We returned to the aire for a quiet night. All washing was dry already. I checked the bikes out, pumped up the tyres and gave them a wash down (very much needed).

We have about nine days to get to Lyon for our ticketed match of New Zealand v Uruguay. Plenty of time….probably too much, we may look for a day or two off the route to visit places that take our fancy. No, I am not cycling up Ventoux again!