This is a post with nothing to do about cycling. Well, other than the fact that I’ll have burnt about 6000 calories yesterday on my six-col ride (should I count ‘colories’?) and I need to eat plenty of food, and Die market is a good place to start.

The market takes place twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, all year round. I suppose that I’d categorise the stalls into three types: those selling overpriced tat to visitors; those selling speciality foods; those selling staple foodstuffs.

Through the winter months there are fewer tat-sellers, though there are still a few doing the rounds of all the outdoor markets in the area. But the heart of the market comprises the food sellers, ranging from speciality meats (including pork and beef produced on the Vercors plateau, trout from local rivers and duck from local farms) to the several stalls of fruit and veg. The Drôme Valley is quite a centre for organic (‘biologique’ or ‘bio’)  food production, and though the produce does usually come at some premium, it’s certainly not a niche market: you will have plenty of choice.

At this time of year, you might get confused and think that you are in Holland: the population of Die increases three- or four-fold, and the vast majority of these tourists are Dutch. They seem to come en masse for the five weeks of their school summer holidays, but, though their custom must be central to the economy of Die, there is something nice once the market returns to the locals (and people like me, whose holidays finish right at the end of August). The market remains outdoors for the whole of the year – it can be quite entertaining watching the stallholders’ resilience in the midst of a winter storm.

If you go often you are bound to find your favourite stalls, whether that’s because of price, quality of product, or friendliness of the sellers. I certainly try to get down there at least once a week, if for no other reason that the seasonal food is plentiful and therefore cheap. And, in comparison with supermarkets, the fruit is often ripe enough to eat on the day, which means it needs to be sold.

My pleasures at this time of year: local peaches, nectarines, apricots, tomatoes and melons. If they don’t have a many calories in as some foods, it just means that I have to eat even more of them. In fact, it would be rude not to anyway.

For the record, today’s food purchases: peaches (white/yellow), nectarines, grapes, onions, garlic, apricots, melon, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, chicken breast, and cheese. All local produce. And it all fitted in my rucksack for the ride home.

Today was the day to say “Au revoir” to my Exeter Wheelers friends who have been staying here for the week: though I’ve had just three full riding days with them (because of my delayed arrival), I think that Andy, Shane, James and Tom have had a good taste of the riding down here. They have done routes to all points of the compass, have gone over about a dozen cols over 800m, and done around 22,000ft of climbing.

We mixed and matched somewhat, as the heat has been a significant factor: yesterday it went up to 53C in direct sun, and 38C in the shade, and 700m ascents in such temperatures aren’t to everyone’s taste. Quite often when I have groups of riders with me, they end up finding different solutions for getting the most out of their stay: some focus on getting miles and metres in, and others prefer to take a bit more time for the sights and flavours. Chacun à son goût, as the cliché has it. Anyway, I think that each of them now knows why I keep on coming back.

Just a few of photos for this one; at Col de Rousset, on my first ride here with them (on the lovely little loop to La Chapelle-en-Vercors), an evening visitor to the house, and just as the Exeter péloton prepared to brave the holiday traffic back to Calais in James’ spacious car.

And a footnote on that subject: it pays to time your travel down here in the summer holidays. Let’s just say that their journey down here in James’ car was a bit of an epic; I hope that the return is a little quicker.

I’m back in Die, though with bad planning on my part (work in Truro) I arrived the day after the Tour de France passed through town. In my absence I’m glad to say that four Exeter Wheelers (James, Tom, Andy and Shane) did get down here before me, and had the pleasure of watching the intermediate sprint in Die, and the whole festival spirit of the event.

They had also done a couple of my suggested rides on their first couple of days, but I lined up three good ones to take them on: up Col de Rousset and a loop to La-Chapelle-en-Vercors; the round trip to Mens via the Col de Menée and back via the Col de Grimone and the Gorges des Gâts; and today a 95-miler to Combe Laval via Vassieux and back via Col de Bacchus.

It was only once we were riding up it that I realised that we were ascending the 1215m Col de Carri (which I hadn’t ridden since June 2012), and that I ought to document it.

So, a brief description: the way Tom, James and I rode it was from the eastern side,  with just a 300m ascent from the road between Vassieux and La-Chapelle (of course we had already had to get up Col de Rousset to get to that road). Once over the col there is an undulating descent to the junction with the road between Lente and Col de la Machine and Combe Laval. If you approached Col de Carri from St-Jean-en-Royans you would make a near continual ascent of about 950m. It’s an extremely quiet road, and it has a few lovely views, especially on the eastern side of the col.