The Ardèche département owes its name to the famous river. But the region has much more to offer than canoe trips and the Pont d’Arc. The choice of routes is so large that motorcyclists are spoilt for choice.
Anyone who wants to escape the holiday crowds has to arrive very early or very late in the year
A motorbike tour needs to be well planned, and the first item on the list is always the safety check of the tyres, for which the tyre specialist Tirendo offers all the information and accessories on its website. Preparation continues with choosing the route. Below we describe a popular tour in the Ardèche.
Deep in the south of France, a little below Lyon, the Ardèche département begins. Of its total area of more than 5,500 square kilometres, around a third is forested. Only 313,000 people live in this vast area, barely 57 inhabitants per square kilometre; by comparison, Hesse has 285 for the same area.
The journey can drag on, though, because the south of France is not quickly reached on two wheels. It therefore makes sense to carry the motorbikes to the destination on a trailer and cover the distance comfortably by car in a single day. The nicer option is of course to ride there and back, but then you should plan two days each way.
The Ardèche is a popular destination, so you will hardly be alone here, unless you are there very early or very late in the year. Usually it is busy, and on the river the canoeists sometimes crowd so close together that you could almost walk across them to the other bank with dry feet.
Route suggestions: the Corniche with grandiose views
Up on the Corniche, a road that winds in tight bends around the rocks and opens up grandiose views of the Ardèche Gorge, you are mostly on your own. Between Pont-Saint-Esprit and the rock arch of the Pont d’Arc, few tourists stray.
All alone, you cruise along tiny roads as far as the picturesque little town of Saint-Ambroix. The roads become narrower and more winding until they climb again beyond Saint-Jean-du-Gard. The old ghost village of Castelbouc clings to the slope like a wasp’s nest, and beyond Sainte-Énimie the road squeezes through a narrow and imposing gorge.
The rock overhangs arch threateningly over the gloomy road, and beyond La Malène, a medieval ford, you change sides of the river. Up to the Causse Méjean plateau and back into the Tarn Gorge, then on through the Gorges de la Jonte, you can take in further impressive natural spectacles.
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