It's a little bit of an exaggeration: "The South begins in Vienne," proclaims the small Isère town's tourist office on the internet platform for cyclists following the Rhône by way of the ViaRhôna cycle route. In fact, it begins a little upstream, in Lyon, but that conurbation is still the only black spot on the 815-kilometer cycle route leading from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean. For nearly 15 years, the region and the metropole have been trying to design an exit between the freeway and the railroad, between the factories of the "chemical valley" and natural river sites. But the quarrel between the Les Républicains (LR) president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez, and the environmentalist left-wing majority of Greater Lyon has put an end to cooperation. So those who love the ViaRhôna, but value life, close their eyes and take the train to Vienne.

This town does everything it can to retain the 100,000 or so cyclists who visit every year. Free storage for bikes and luggage at the tourist office while visiting the medieval and Gallo-Roman town; hotels and campsites with the "accueil vélo" label (offering parking, electric recharging, small tools, etc.); water points and lockers along the route; proposed tours to the terraced vineyards of Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu: The idea is to appeal to the electric bike public, perhaps less "cyclo" than "tourist." The Vienne-Condrieu Tourisme Click & Cycle website offers accommodation, electric bike rental and luggage transfer to each stage along the 260-kilometer stretch between Vienne and Avignon (southeastern France).

All that's left to do is pedal, with a light heart and a hopefully light bike. The first pleasure is to (re)discover the Rhône, a river that you might imagine wedged between freeways and TGV lines against a backdrop of nuclear power plants, a waterway that was once wild, then subjected to dams and canals. But the ViaRhôna runs alongside the Île du Beurre, whose name has less to do with dairy products than with the beaver, formerly known as the bièvre. The route runs alongside an alluvial forest teeming with birds, mammals and amphibians, all of which can be watched from observatories.

For the past 20 years, the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône has been "rewilding" stretches of the river left untouched by hydroelectric development. All the way to La Barthelasse (Vaucluse), Europe's longest river island just outside Avignon, the ViaRhôna follows this shrubby river where swans glide, where cormorants and grey herons rest between ash, alder and poplar trees. Otters and beavers lurk in the reclaimed lônes, peaceful river arms that resemble Louisiana bayous.

You have 70% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.