by PhilBixby
Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:55 pm
This is just to see if there's any interest - this idea is still in the very early stages of getting organised and may not happen!
As some of you will know, my partner sings in a couple of vocal groups and she is, with one of them, looking at organising a one-week singing course over in France next summer. This would be based at a holiday/arts centre at Vaison-la-Romaine in northern Provence. Okay, what's this got to do with cycling?
The base they'd be using provides accommodation and flexible catering arrangements at a very reasonable price (something like 200-odd Euros per person for the week). It's unlikely they'd fill it. Rather than risk having to share it with a bunch of French schoolkids en vacances it occured to me that if there were enough people interested in a week's cycling over there, we could block-book the whole place. The singing mob would also be using the meeting facilities and would want lunches, we'd just be after the accommodation and brekkie. We could do touristy things individually or together in spare time, and might get sung at sometime towards the end of it.
Vaison is a lovely town, lots of history, lots of cafes and bars. It's about 20 miles north of Mont Ventoux (this year's Dauphine Libere went through it en route to Bedoin and the climb to the top) and there's a stack of good countryside around and about. I only know the roads, but I'd guess there might be good MTB territory too. We'd be travelling down by train (Eurostar/TGV) which is easy with a bagged bike, though of course there are plenty of other transport options.
Dates are not decided yet but it'll probably be August. All I'm trying to find out at this stage is whether enough people are vaguely interested to make it worthwhile including a cycling group in the overall scheme of things. Anyone?
As some of you will know, my partner sings in a couple of vocal groups and she is, with one of them, looking at organising a one-week singing course over in France next summer. This would be based at a holiday/arts centre at Vaison-la-Romaine in northern Provence. Okay, what's this got to do with cycling?
The base they'd be using provides accommodation and flexible catering arrangements at a very reasonable price (something like 200-odd Euros per person for the week). It's unlikely they'd fill it. Rather than risk having to share it with a bunch of French schoolkids en vacances it occured to me that if there were enough people interested in a week's cycling over there, we could block-book the whole place. The singing mob would also be using the meeting facilities and would want lunches, we'd just be after the accommodation and brekkie. We could do touristy things individually or together in spare time, and might get sung at sometime towards the end of it.
Vaison is a lovely town, lots of history, lots of cafes and bars. It's about 20 miles north of Mont Ventoux (this year's Dauphine Libere went through it en route to Bedoin and the climb to the top) and there's a stack of good countryside around and about. I only know the roads, but I'd guess there might be good MTB territory too. We'd be travelling down by train (Eurostar/TGV) which is easy with a bagged bike, though of course there are plenty of other transport options.
Dates are not decided yet but it'll probably be August. All I'm trying to find out at this stage is whether enough people are vaguely interested to make it worthwhile including a cycling group in the overall scheme of things. Anyone?