La Syrah (Caromb) - Canal de Carpentras - Via Vennaissia

A lovelly morning bike ride that has it all - bike through the centre of the old town of Beaumes-de-Venise (you pass a good bakery), a towpath ride along the canal and a good strech of the delightfully elevated former railway line from Orange-Carpentras. Very few major roads or steep ascents.

If you don't want to climb to the church of Notre Dame d'Auburne (said to have links with pre-Christian times) take the towpath on the Canal instead. The Chemin de Mornas is not just a convenient short cut -the canal bank was not well maintained when we did it. There is also quite a climb at the Route des Roques, you could consider rejoining the canal and going further north, otherwise you will be rewarded with a nice coast until you join the reailway line near Jonquieres.

The bakery at Serres is a good recharing point halfway along the long ascent home, note however closed on Wednesdays, lunch at the petite Serroise however looks promising if you made a late start