Provence - Avignon to Aigues-Mortes

The Camargue and the Pont du Gard

This is a barge-based cycle through lower Provence, Avignon down to Aigues-Mortes, with the Rhône doing most of the work of stitching the route together. The landscape is the familiar Provençal mix — limestone cliffs, olive groves, vineyards, garrigue scrub — but the real signature of this trip is the Camargue: the flat, salt-scoured delta where flamingos wade through lagoons and the famous white horses still roam in semi-wild herds. The other set piece is the Pont du Gard, the tallest surviving Roman aqueduct and a UNESCO site, which you cycle to rather than glimpse from a coach window.

Avignon is a sturdy starting point. The walled old city, the Palais des Papes and the half-bridge of Pont St Bénézet are all within a short walk of the mooring, and the trip ends at Aigues-Mortes, a medieval fortified town built as Louis IX's gateway to the Mediterranean — squared ramparts, salt flats, and a quieter end-of-the-line feel after the busier Rhône towns earlier in the week.

A typical day on the barge

The boat is your hotel for the eight days, moving between moorings while you cycle. A local guide leads the rides, but route notes are provided if you'd rather pedal at your own pace, and the group is international — you join the partner operator's guests on board and eat together in the evenings.

Day two gives a fair sense of the rhythm: a 35-mile / 47km loop out of Avignon, crossing to the far bank of the Rhône via the Île de la Barthelasse, riding through vineyards and orchards to Châteauneuf-du-Pape (with a tasting), then back via Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, the old "town of the cardinals". Subsequent days work south through Arles, past the abbey of Saint Michel de Frigolet, up to the hill-top village of Les Baux-de-Provence, and out across the Camargue itself before reaching Aigues-Mortes.

The cycling and the bikes

Saddle Skedaddle grades the trip 2 out of 5, so this is leisure cycling rather than anything strenuous — the Rhône delta is famously flat, and even the Avignon loop only racks up around 285 metres of climbing across 35 miles. That said, distances are real: expect 30–40 mile days in the saddle on most of the riding days, with the option to shorten where the boat reaches the next mooring on its own.

E-bikes are available alongside standard hybrids and are worth considering if the mistral is blowing, which it can do hard across the Camargue even in summer. The pedal assist also leaves more in the legs for wandering Arles or climbing up to Les Baux on foot in the afternoon.

Bookings and logistics

Prices start from £1,775 per person for the eight days, with dinner on board each night, breakfast and lunch on cycling days, the guided rides and use of a standard bike included. E-bike hire is a paid upgrade booked at the time of reservation. Flights, transfers to Avignon and drinks are not included.

The route can also be run in reverse — Aigues-Mortes up to Avignon — on request, which is worth asking about if specific dates don't suit. It suits couples, solo travellers happy in a mixed group, and anyone who likes the idea of unpacking once and letting the accommodation follow the river.