Today was a short riding day, thankfully, as the run of record breaking hot weather continues! After selecting our bread from the offerings of the Lidl shop just down the road from our accommodation, it was a steady run along the secondary, but still busy, road to Pernes-les-Fontaines. We had passed through the town on an earlier trip, and was one of the many places that we would have liked to have spent more time in. Now was the time to do just that. A walk through the medieval core of the town saw us doing another climb of the Tour d’Horlage, the last vestige of the chateau built by the Count of Toulouse in the 1200’s, which gives a great view over the town and Mont Ventoux, although today the heat haze made the mountain barely visible. The town is famous for its fountains - over 40 public ones, and another 60 private, all fed by a spring found in the 1600’s and still going. Not all the fountains we saw were flowing - whether because of water restrictions or because the water table is lower at this time of year (it has also been a dry year here). There are a number of free museums - we went to a couple of them - the bicycle museum honouring the early journalist Paul de Vivie, who wrote as Vélocio, was publisher of Le Cycliste, a developer and early champion of derailleur gears, and father of French bicycle touring and randonneuring - he was born in Pernes in 1853. There was an extensive collection of early touring bicycles, tandems and proving that there is nothing new under the sun, a version of the BOB trailer from 1937. A museum on daily life in Pernes in the 1800’s and 1900’s had a bit on the silk industry here, as well as a display of the work of a ‘santonnier’ or clay figurine maker of ‘santons’, a provencal traditional trade. The town has some remaining walls and parts of what was a large Augustinian monastery or convent, founded when Pernes was part of the Comtat. The Comtat Venaissin, often called the Comtat for short, was a part of the Papal States in what is now the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. The entire region was an enclave within the Kingdom of France, comprising the area around the city of Avignon (itself always a separate comtat) roughly between the Rhône, the Durance and Mont Ventoux, and a small exclave located to the north around the town of Valréas bought by Pope John XXII. The Comtat also bordered (and mostly surrounded) the Principality of Orange. The Comtat became a Papal territory in 1274. The region was named after its former capital, Venasque, which was replaced as capital by Carpentras in 1320. Avignon was sold to the papacy by Joanna I, Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence, in 1348, whereupon the two comtats were joined together to form a unified papal enclave geographically, though retaining their separate political identities. The enclave's inhabitants did not pay taxes and were not subject to military service, making life in the Comtat considerably more attractive than under the French Crown. It became a haven for French Jews, who received better treatment under papal rule than in the rest of France. The Carpentras synagogue, built in the 14th century, is the oldest in France, and until the French Revolution preserved a distinctive Provençal Jewish tradition. Successive French rulers sought to annex the region to France. It was invaded by French troops in 1663, 1668 and 1768–74 during disputes between the Crown and the Church. It was also subjected to trade and customs restrictions during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV. Papal control continued until 1791, when an unauthorized plebiscite, under pressure from French revolutionaries, was held and the inhabitants voted for annexation by France. Arriving in Carpentras in the mid afternoon gave us time to look at the little display at the Tourist Office on the heritage of Carpentras, as well as look at the beautiful library/museum - both housed in old religious buildings from the Comtat era. Also the library was air conditioned! And it was very hot, the thermometer on the bike read 58 degrees after being in the sun while we were in the tourist office seeing their historical display! The library had integrated paintings, sculptures and displays of old musical instruments (Penny loved the dragon wind instrument and serpent) in a very attractive way. A little walk around the centre of town completed our day before retiring to our air conditioned accommodation! ( The first air conditioned accommodation for a while)