Avignon’s ramparts fade quickly as the stage slips onto smaller roads across the Durance plain. Noves, Orgon and Sénas bring Provençal villages, rocky ridges and orchards into the route. Near Orgon, the Alpilles move close to the road, before the landscape opens and warms. Salon-de-Provence adds a clear mid-stage landmark with its old centre and château, then Pélissanne and Éguilles lead the way towards Aix-en-Provence. In the final kilometres, Montagne Sainte-Victoire appears on the horizon.
