Ten bridges today. Ten. That means that I went from Drôme (to the east of the Rhône) to the Ardèche (to the west of the Rhône) five times in each direction. In the new reality of Brexit, that probably invalidates my stay in the Schengen zone. There were plenty of other bridges that I didn’t cross. If you have a thing for bridges, come to the Rhône Valley!
Today has seen some of the best cycling of the trip so far. I had, in my mind, relegated the Via Rhôna to a fill-the-gap route that I would have to endure in order to get me from the Mediterranean to the Alps. If today’s cycling is anything to go by, it’s no fill-the-gap route. Far from it… There is real geographical drama in the Rhône valley and I can only see that increasing. I (almost) feel sorry for the hoards of touring cyclists passing me heading south to that roundabout in Sète which has about as much geographical drama as your granny’s pond. I’m heading to the Alps and the drama can only intensify the further north and east I travel. After the relative disappointment of the Canal du Midi, I have embraced – and am loving – the Via Rhôna after just two days. Montélimar? Mmm… Keep reading.
Day 39 existed. I didn’t just time-warp myself from day 38 to day 40 but having met up with friends Basil and Liz in Pézenas yesterday lunchtime after having done my pit-stop tasks (washing, post office, podcast editing…) we had a very enjoyable afternoon and early evening of drinking, eating, wandering, drinking, eating and drinking. I took one picture…
The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. He has now arrived in Bordeaux at the start of the ‘Two Seas’ cycle route – La Véloroute Des Deux Mers – that will take him along the Canal de la Garonne to Toulouse and then the famous Canal du Midi to Sète on the Mediterranean coast. As he cycles he takes time to speak to the people he meets and explore the places he visits. And what will he make of the notorious Canal du Midi towpath that he encounters?
I’’m glad to have finished the Canal du Midi section of the Canal des Deux Mers cycle route. Now in Pézenas – I’ll explain in a moment – the highlight of yesterday was cycling along the excellent voies vertes that brought me inland from Sète yesterday evening. Cycling at the end of the day is something that doesn’t often happen (the way I tend to organise my days) but the advantages of cycling at that end of the day are similar to those of early morning cycling; quieter roads, cooler temperatures and the ‘golden hour’ sunlight that washes a beautiful soft tint over the landscape. It’s also worth noting (and remembering) that the winds tend to die down in the evening. Mmm… Perhaps I should do night shifts on the bike.
I’m on one bar of 3G tonight so getting anything uploaded aside from some good old text is very doubtful. No, more than doubtful; it won’t happen as I’m not even going to try. I’ll update this post tomorrow morning with the pictures and the video (which is ready to go!) and for anyone thinking of cycling the Canal du Midi, it really is a video you need to watch…
I’ve seen the Pyrenees for the first time this evening. After so much relatively flat or tame topography over the past five weeks, it’s good to finally have a little drama added to the landscape. They are only in silhouette, shrouded in haze and only just perceptible from the sky but they are definitely there. (Or my glasses need cleaning.) I’m in a place called Alzonne by the way, about 90km along the canal from Toulouse. Carcassonne is a further 20km to the south east.
I’m still suffering g from the mosquito bites inflicted upon me in Marick’s basement on Thursday night. I really wish I had got out of the bed and killed each one of the little f*****s. Not only would I have gained great pleasure from doing so, I would not now be scratching my way through the day. Last night on the campsite near Grisolles was particularly uncomfortable. On the positive side of things, the bites are receding, slowly… I need to buy some Autan. I’m already taking antihistamine tablets but the former was recommended way back in 2010 when I was the victim of a mosquito attack in Italy. I wrote a whole section in ‘Crossing Europe…’ about mosquitoes and their bites; I should go back and re-read it. I seem to remember there being three factors that increased your susceptibility; being pregnant, having blood group O and beer. I need to drink more wine…
I judge my WarmShowers hosts on how I provide for WarmShowers guests when I host back at home. Alas in recent years this has been less frequent. When I lived in that beautiful tourist hotspot that is, err… Reading, I hosted quite regularly in the summer. Since moving back to rural Yorkshire I’ve hosted just three times. In Reading I was half-way between London and Oxford or en route to the West Country. In Yorkshire, despite it being far nicer, I’m not really on anyone’s cycle route (although not very far from the Pennine Cycleway – take note!). Anyway, aside from a warm shower, I provide food, drink, Wi-Fi, clothes washing, advice, deep-tissue massage… Well, most of those.
There were times this morning when I thought this particular day – the whole trip perhaps – were being derailed… It all started by me heading over the bridge back in the direction of La Réole. Oops! Wrong direction. No big problem; I’d only cycled perhaps 50 metres across the bridge and by doing so made a nice video clip (yep, you guessed it – watch the video…).
There’s no mistaking that I have now arrived in the south of France. Not only has it been hot (in fairness, it’s not been in the least but cold since Brittany) but there have been a long list of things that tick the Southern Europe boxes; lavender, a lizard, terracotta roofs, parched fields of crops, hilltop villages, towns that shut down in the heat of the day… No cicadas yet but they will come in the next week I imagine.
The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. After a day off in Morlaix, Brittany, Andrew sets off cycling south along the EuroVelo 1 – known locally as the Vélodyssée – following a disused railway track and then the Nantes-Brest Canal before continuing along the west coast of France to La Rochelle. He takes time to explore the attractions along the way including the historic town of Josselin and, with the help of a shuttle bus for bicycles over the bridge, the World War II submarine pens in Saint-Nazaire. The music is by Rob Ainsley.
A short one today… and no video. It’s often tempting on a non-cycling day to plunge into full tourist mode and spend an exhausting day visiting the sites. Today I haven’t done that. I’ve spent much of the day wandering aimlessly around – flâner in French – and sorted out a few bits and pieces along the way. I’ve had the most expensive haircut of my life (I daren’t admit how much but next time I will check the prices before I sit down…) with my developing beard shaved off (which perhaps doubled the cost), bought some replacement sandals, done my washing, sorted out my car tax and the customs issues with the GoPro (ongoing saga…) and even checked on my plants back home (via a phone call with my mother). But no video. One thing I haven’t yet done is edit the podcast and that is my job for the next couple of hours. It should be available by the end of the day. Still a while for you to catch up on the previous four ‘Grand Tour’ episodes (numbers 052 to 055). Tomorrow: the Canal de la Garonne…
Today was a good day. A very good day. Well, apart from the first 10km, but that aside, I loved today’s cycling. It had everything that you might want from a good cycle touring day; beautiful scenery, variety, a favourable wind, vineyards, good signage, a few nice encounters along the way, quality surfaces, an exciting destination, a laundrette and beer at the end of the day and a day off in your favourite French city to look forward to. My day could only improve if Yorkshire Television* decide to revive 3-2-1 with Ted Rogers* and Dusty Bin. On the subject of which, happy Yorkshire Day!
They certainly packed them in at the municipal campsite in La Rochelle. As predicted, it was a noisy evening, including fireworks at one point. Things did quieten down after midnightish but then at some point in the early hours the couple in the text next to mine decided to have a, err… loud romantic interlude. I’ll leave that there.
Google estimated the distance today at 121km. I wouldn’t normally trust Google distances when it comes to cycling but when I compared the Google route on Google Maps and the EuroVelo 1 / Vélodyssée route on Open Street Map they looked the same so I gave the Google distance a bit more credence than I normally would. How naïve am I? I tell the story in today’s video in which I’ve included some commentary.
I’m getting a little tired and weary. Not of the cycling – that’s fine – but if all the names of places. In Brittany it was a case of not being able to spell the towns and villages properly. Down here on the west coast it’s actually remembering the dam things. Just look at the title today. It’s a miracle it fits on a web page.
Up early again this morning and almost the first off the site. I was beaten to it by a French solo cyclist, about my age who I exchanged a few words with before he set off home at the end of his week long jaunt along the Loire. The Loire à Vélo is, I suspect, what the majority of cyclists on last night’s site are there to ride. Perhaps a few for the Velodyssée but as it’s so close to the mouth of the river – about 25km – it’s a good place to set up camp at the end of day 1 taking into account you will probably have travelled from elsewhere to get to the start of the route. It’s also, of course, the start of the EuroVelo 6. I suspect (there’s a lot of suspecting going on tonight – perhaps someone can confirm) that the EuroVelo 6 is one of the most cycled routes, if not the most cycled, vying for position with the Rhine Cycle Route or EuroVelo 15. I digress…
It’s been a good day on the bike… and as I write this, it’s not quite over. At 5:30pm there remains about 15km (and a train and a ferry) to ride. All will become clear. With no convivial breakfast on offer at last night’s campsite as there had been back in Gouarec courtesy of Geoff and his team, I was the first off the site at around 8am.
I was up early this morning (when am I not up early in a tent? I’ve said this many times before but for me it’s not a case of ‘waking up’ when I’m camping it’s a case of when to stop trying to make an effort to get back to sleep…) and was packed by 8am. My official campsite advisor Tim Sanders (who until only a few minutes ago was my ‘unofficial’ campsite advisor but as nobody else has offered their services, I’ve upgraded him to the honorary post; it’ll give him something to chat to Ed Pratt about the next time they meet at their local Park Run in Somerset. Anyway, back to the point…) …My official campsite advisor Tim Sanders messaged at 8:05 asking “Have you met Geoff?”
Today was planned to be a short cycle of 50km. In ended up being the second longest cycle yet at 98km. If nothing else, it will work wonders on the daily average which had dipped down to 75km. I need to get it back up to 80km+ to be in with a realistic chance of making it back to Rotterdam before the return ferry sets off on September 3rd.
According to the bird’s eye view of Morlaix in the image below, that’s the motto of the town. Original, no? It’s been a hot day so far, despite Brittany being the cold corner of the map of France on last night’s TV forecast. I’ve returned to the hotel for a siesta… I’ll head back out soon for anothercwander. There’s a festival of all things Breton taking place in Place Allende this afternoon so I’ll perhaps update this later. In the meantime, note that episode 055 of The Cycling Europe Podcast was published this morning – part 4 of my ’Grand Tour’ series – so if you have 55 minutes to space… All the links can be found by navigating over to the podcast page of the website.
The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. In this fourth part of the ’Grand Tour’ series, we follow Andrew’s progress as he rejoins the Velomaritime near Mont-Saint-Michel and cycles west along the route as far as Morlaix in Brittany. This section of his cycle sees him encounter hills for the first time since leaving Rotterdam – he even experiences his first ’Mercedes moment’ – but he still has plenty of time and energy remaining to explore the places he visits and chat with the people he meets in one of France’s most popular holiday regions. The music is by Rob Ainsley.
Finally writing this up… Not many will read this (as the post was published last night without any text) but it will, at least, be an aide-memoire when I later use these notes to write a book. In a way the ‘Mercedes afternoon’ I had experienced on the previous day continued until the following morning. Yes, it was a cheap, municipal campsite but it was packed to the rafters with screaming children. One particular specimen gets his / her starring role in episode 055 of The Cycling Europe Podcast which has now been published.
The omens were not good at 8am. The campsite at Saint-Quay certainly lived up to its name by having a ‘belle vue’. Indeed my pitch – as with many others – was facing north-east and if there were no clouds, we were in for a cracking sunrise. I happened to be awake at 5am so I clamped the GoPro to its tripod and set in motion a time lapse video. Alas it was cloudy and the resulting video merely showed black clouds become grey ones. Nothing too spectacular there. However, by 8am the sun had risen and was beginning to poke through the clouds. Perhaps an opportunity to get the drone in action to capture the magic. And it did. You can see that shot at the start of today’s video.
A shorter day – just 50km – but it helps me out when it comes to getting to Morlaix by the end of Saturday. Where I am now – a place called Saint-Quay – is about half way between Mont-Saint-Michel and Morlaix and this makes the two planned long days of cycling to Morlaix a bit shorter and hence more manageable. My average has now dipped below 80km per day but I’m sure that will be rectified as I speed along the flat(ish) lands of the Velodyssée next week.
You are not reading this on Wednesday 20th as, yesterday evening, my 25GB of data ran out. I was expecting this to happen at some point and also expected to be able to easily purchase more data. But that’s when it got problematic. A phone call to Vodafone is on the cards when their call centre opens on Thursday morning. I suppose if all else fails I can buy a French SIM card. There’s also the matter of me having had to change my mobile number (could that be complicating things?) but that sorry tale is for another day (and probably another website…)
If I wanted variety after having cycled along the seemingly endless disused railway tracks of the Veloscenie, I certainly got variety today after my day of rest / escape from the heat. The cycling was varied, the landscape was varied, the weather was varied…
Last night on the campsite there were at least seven cyclists and another four walkers in the cycling-walking section. All except me have now left and I have been joined, so far, by just two cyclists. It will be interesting to see if people are, like me, staying put for the day and not travelling in light of the extreme temperature. That said, it clearly didn’t dissuade any of my fellow campers last night. Perhaps it was something I said…
The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. In this third part of the ’Grand Tour’ series, Andrew sets off along the Veloscenie cycle route from the historic city of Chartres to its fellow UNESCO World Heritage site at Mont-Saint-Michel. It’s a journey of four days with overnight stops at a dystopian municipal campsite at Nogent-le-Rotrou, Alençon and Domfront-en-Poiraie before his arrival on the north coast. He also takes time to pay a visit to the Musée du Vélo at Villeneuve-en-Perseigne. The music is by Rob Ainsley.
If cycling along disused railways for fun (and why else would you do it?), then the Veloscenie is for you. Prior to embarking upon my Chartres to Mont-Saint -Michel section of the route (which is about 80%) I’d read that the Veloscenie connected the capital with the north coast by linking up defunct railway lines but I wasn’t expecting them to be such a dominant part of the route. It must be at least two-thirds of the total length and, in temperatures such as those provoked by this current heatwave, you couldn’t wish for a better place to cycle, the sun been screened for much of the time by the surrounding vegetation.
If yesterday was a spinning class of a ride, today was a spinning class with that knob below the handlebars cranked up several notches. If your route passes the ‘highest point in north-west France’ you can probably guess you’re in for an up and down day and, at gradients that a train could cope with when they plodded up and down these valleys many decades ago, that’s what happened. More disused railways – the area must once have been a maze of lines – with a handful of pencil-straight-Roman roads. More satisfying that yesterday and a much more welcoming end at a municipal campsite that breaks records. Keep reading…
Today was the equivalent of a cycle touring spinning class. Well, mostly. Almost the entire route from Nogent-le-Rotrou to Alençon was off road and along a very long disused railway line. I almost felt guilty for having made all of those men work so hard 100? 200? years ago in building the railway line in the first. Now it’s ‘just’ being used by cyclists and walkers. But hey! At least it’s still in use…
To answer Joe Stafford’s question (that he posted to YouTube a few moments ago) immediately; yes, it’s hot but if you take the necessary measures to protect yourself then I think you’ll be fine. Joe is coming to France soon but as long as he does what we are told to do; cover up (I’m on my second hat of the trip…), plaster yourself in factor 50 (I’m still looking very pale compared to the French), drink lots of water (my two Cycle Touring Festival bottles are drained at least three times a day) and keep eating (no problem there if you are burning lots of calories), you’ll be fine.
The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. In the previous episode, he had travelled through his first country, The Netherlands. In this episode he continues his journey south along the coasts of Belgium and France following the […]
Back to the writing. I’m currently on a busy train that’s about to set off for Le Mans. I’ll be getting off at Chartres, one step along the Veloscenie cycle route from Paris. Busy in terms of people, busy in terms of bicycles; the current count is six of which three are laden touring bikes. It’s a sight that would leave your average Trans Pennine Express train guard seeking counselling. There are people clambering over the bikes as they make their way down the carriages to find their seat. Now far be for me to say but if people actually worked out which carriage to get on when they are on the platform, like would be somewhat easier. Anyway, I digress… and we are off. Six bicycles it is.
CURRENT LOCATION: La Tartine, Rue de Rivoli, Paris Today the words are in the video… LATEST CYCLING EUROPE POSTS: Subscribe to the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now even a podcast, The Cycling Europe Podcast. […]
If yesterday was tick, tick, tick, today was hot, hot, hot. Yet with factor 50, a hat and plenty of fluids, I’m surviving. It’s not quite as hot as it was back in 2013 as I cycled along the Mediterranean – that will takes some beating – but it can be energy-sapping and I’m glad that, for the moment at least, the terrain is forgiving.
Tick, tick, tick… Basically that’s what I’ve spent today doing. Ticking off all the things that you might, in an ideal world, want a disused railway line, converted into a walking-cycling greenway – voie verte here in France – to have. If the département of Seine-Maritime set out to build what I consider to be an unbeatable bit of cycle-touring infrastructure, they succeeded.
CURRENT LOCATION: Dieppe If you missed anything, here’s the first week in video. Enjoy! LATEST CYCLING EUROPE POSTS: Subscribe to the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now even a podcast, The Cycling Europe Podcast. If […]
Let’s start with some good news. Upon arrival in Dieppe yesterday after a long cycle in the heat, I sat down for a beer by the harbour and was, imho… fleeced €9 for a 50cl Leffe Blond on draft. (That’s a price Copenhagen’s harbour cafés would be proud of.) The evidence in my favour was a menu that said the price was €4.50 and that the drinks were served as 50cl or 75cl, giving the impression that it wasn’t an option for the premium Leffe to be a modest ‘demie pression’ (25cl). The drink was delivered and €9 demanded. I immediately complained and walked out in digust. Well, OK, being British, I smiled and tossed a cherry ‘merci’ in the waiter’s direction handing over my cash while seething internally. So where’s the good news? Well, having visited the local tabac-café this morning and paid the princely sum of €1.50 for a coffee (all in the name of price research), I’m back here now enjoying a 25cl draft Kronenbourg for €2.80. Success!
Phew! What a scorcher… And it’s apparently going to get hotter. I daubed myself three times today with factor 50 but I’ll be investing in a cap of some description tomorrow (as well of more supplies of the sun cream). Yet I’m staying well hydrated and fed by the French. Today’s food has all come courtesy of the toil of French labour; pastries from the boulangerie in Le Crotoy, fruit from a market in the same town and now a three-course meal in Dieppe at a restaurant called Le Sully. So far – a starter of smoked salmon and herring on a bed of new potatoes – so good, but I’ll update you as the meal progresses… I feel like Rick Stein without a film crew (and a bicycle).
A day to remember… Some of you may think that politics has no place on a website such as this. Yet I disagree. A head of government represents the country. He or she is not seen by those in other countries as a Tory or a socialist or a liberal or whatever. They are simply an embodiment of what the ‘majority’ are thinking. (Majority! Well, not in our archaic first-past-the-post system but that’s another argument.) So when I meet people and ask them what they think of our prime minister, it’s embarrassing to be told that he is thought of as an ‘idiot’ or ‘joker’ because in a small way they are saying that about me and you. We, collectively, gave him the power. I never voted for him but I am part of the system that did. I am glad that he will soon be gone. I watched him speak live on my phone this lunchtime. Just as he finished, I passed in front of a magnificent hotel in Le Touquet called… Le Westminster. Everyone, irrespective of the politics, should be glad that he will soon be replaced.
Is he still there? By the time you read this (posting is going to be delayed until Thursday morning due to the lack of a good mobile signal) he may well have been dragged out of Downing Street, kicking and screaming. Last night I had the pleasure of staying with a WarmShowers host in the outskirts of Ostend. He has lead the development of a co-housing project and he now lives on a large plot of land not far from the airport along with 17 other families – around 70 people in total – with separate homes but shared facilities. It’s a real village and it was wonderful to spend a few hours last night in their company talking about the development, the motivation for creating such a place and the practical advantages of doing so. (There are many – I’ll list them in the book!) I spent much of the evening chatting to a retired firefighter called Michel and the subject moved on to politics. I asked him what people in general thought of Boris Johnson in Belgium. “A joke” was his response…
This trip is turning out to have more ferries than a cycle up the west coast of Norway. Another two today; at the start from Vlissingen to Breskens and a short one at the end across the harbour in Ostend. I think, however, that may be it for the time being. Sandwiched between the two boats was a 69km cycle along the coast to Ostend and it was somewhat different to what I had expected…
The Cycling Europe Podcast enters a new era with this episode. Not only recorded on tour, this episode has also been edited on tour! Throughout July and August, new episodes of the podcast will be published telling the story of Andrew P. Sykes’ ‘Grand Tour’ through The Netherlands, […]
I’m coming to the conclusion that The Netherland is one big engineering project. Today was dominated by the dams and dykes of the west coast. I was told yesterday- I think it was Professor Matthias – that a dam is a barrier between water and water and a dyke is a barrier between water and land. I couldn’t quite work out if the barriers upon which I cycled were dams or dykes as although most separated the sea from the land, the land itself was fully of large lakes. Answers on a postcard. (Or in a comment…)
Today could have just the 41km, or thereabouts, and it nearly was. My journey will, hopefully, end at The Hook of Holland, which is just opposite where the P&O ferry berthed this morning. A circular journey should really start and finish at the same iconic spot. The P&O ferry terminal probably isn’t that place so I decided to head to the Hook of Holland. Easier said than done as, although very close to ferry terminal as the crow flies, no where near if you need to cycle there. Hence the extra 32km, but I’m glad I did it.
Welcome to Le Grand Tour! I can’t decide whether the cycle officially started in Halifax when I shut my front door behind me or whether it will start when I get to the Hook of Holland tomorrow. I’ve compromised and called this ‘first’ day, ‘Day 0’. Now I think about it, that’s not a compromise is it? Oh well…
I am packed! I can thoroughly recommend gradually gathering your kit together in your living room in the weeks before the off. The packing process is much easier and all those ‘have I remembered…?’ questions have (hopefully) been answered well before the off. As for the clichéd ‘kit pic’ I’ve taken a slightly different approach, as you can see below. I set off tomorrow lunchtime; train from Halifax to Hull and then the overnight ferry to Rotterdam…
Just a couple of days to go to the off. I’m almost there, I think, with the preparation. The bike has been returned from its service, the kit assembled (if not packed), the last-minute purchases (nuts…) made, the train ticket to Hull booked, accommodation for the first three nights (four including the overnight ferry) sorted… All that remains is two days of procrastination (and a bit mor Wimbledon and wine). I finish work for the summer later today.
A few weeks ago I chatted to Julian Ralph for The Cycling Europe Podcast. He had plans to cycle in the footsteps of his grandfather who, in 1940, had been evacuated from northern France at the start of the Second World War. This was planned as a ‘before’ and ‘after’ conversation. The ‘after’ conversation will be published as part of episode 052 of The Cycling Europe Podcast that will be recorded and edited on the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam next weekend. But in anticipation of that podcast – which will include my pre-trip thoughts about cycling around France, Switzerland and Germany during July and August – here is Julian talking about his plans for his four-day trip around northern trip…
Now getting to the pointy end of the planning. Just a week to go before I set off on the ferry from Hull, destination Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany and a return to The Netherlands and Rotterdam in early September. My mind has been on other things in recent days as I’ve been away for a few days, not on the bike, but with 120 12-year-old pupils on a school trip to the YHA hostel near Ambleside on the shores of Lake Windermere. An idyllic location. Well, it was before we arrived in our two coaches. The peace was somewhat disturbed by the inevitable noise but everything went to plan, including the weather which was sublime (until Thursday evening when it decided to chuck it down…)
Here’s a post that some will love but others with loathe… I’ve been gathering together my kit for Le Grand Tour for a few days now and there will, inevitably, be a rather clichéd picture of it all laid out on the floor (see previous big trip kit posts ad nausea…). Look out for that perhaps the day before I set off on July 2nd. It will be the usual standard stuff; tent, sleeping bag, packet of spaghetti (“You do know they have dried spaghetti in France don’t you…” some wag will quip)… But what usually gets lost in those photos is the electronic kit that, increasingly, seems to be standard. Although many will disagree…
France is a top destination for cycle tourists and, with its great diversity of landscapes – from windswept cliffs in the north to vast swathes of forest in the west to sun-drenched villages in the south to vertiginous climbs in the east – it has (almost) everything that a traveller on a bicycle might want to discover. Lyn Eyb from FreeWheelingFrance.com has been exploring and writing about France ever since she arrived in the country over a decade ago. She shares her thoughts with The Cycling Europe Podcast and takes time to answer listeners’ questions about the practical aspects of being a cyclist in France.
France is a top destination for cycle tourists and, with its great diversity of landscapes – from windswept cliffs in the north to vast swathes of forest in the west to sun-drenched villages in the south to vertiginous climbs in the east – it has (almost) everything that a traveller on a bicycle might want to discover. Lyn Eyb from FreeWheelingFrance.com has been exploring and writing about France ever since she arrived in the country over a decade ago. She shares her thoughts with The Cycling Europe Podcast and takes time to answer listeners’ questions about the practical aspects of being a cyclist in France.
After a spell of poor weather, summer seems to have finally arrived in the UK. A sign of things to come on the continent in July and August? The blast of warm air has come from the south – it always does I suppose – and I am hopeful of decent weather as I head off along Le Grand Tour. But I’m not counting my poulets just yet. The last time I mentioned Le Grand Tour back on June 5th, I was still somewhat uncertain as to when I would be catching the ferry but as of a few days ago, the date has been confirmed as July 2nd. With a return scheduled for the night of September 3rd, I will have nine weeks to achieve my objective of cycling around France, then to Andermatt in Switzerland and finally north along the Rhine back to where I started at the Hook of Holland. And I’m finally getting excited about the prospect of doing so…
At 9am this morning – Sunday 12th – I’m going to record a chat with Lyn Eyb of FreewheelingFrance.com. It’s the second attempt to do this this week as on Thursday evening the Internet connection was so poor that we abandoned it as a bad job. Hopefully by choosing 9am on a Sunday morning, the Internet will be a little less clogged up with people watching Netflix, downloading games etc… Anyway, my discussion with Lyn will form the basis of the next episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast – episode 051 – and I’ve been doing a bit of preparation…
Having a presence online, as I do, can create a rather skewed image of the person writing this. The books, podcasts, films, social media etc… don’t help in this regard. I dare say some of you think I lead a rather different life to the one that I actually experience myself. Yesterday, a colleague in the school where I toil asked if my work as a teacher subsidised the ‘cycling stuff’ or the other way around. I broke the news gently that, without my income from cajoling the 11 to 18-year-olds of my small town in West Yorkshire into engaging with the educational process, I would be living on the streets. Perhaps one day the ‘cycling stuff’ will be the bread winner and the teaching a nice add-on. For the time being however…
So, with The Way of the Roses trip over, the podcast published and the film released, and the Platinum Jubilee events nearly finished, my mind is turning to this summer’s trip to the continent; a ferry to The Netherlands, turn right at the Hook of Holland, along the coast of The Netherlands and Belgium, around France, into Switzerland and back to Rotterdam via the Rhine.
If you are reading this before 7pm on Thursday 2nd June 2022 you are invited to a film premiere tonight at 7pm! That doesn’t happen every day, does it? It’s the film that I’ve made about my recent cycle along the Way of the Roses from Morecambe to York. If you are reading this after 7pm tonight well, your invite to the premiere is no longer valid, sorry. But you can, of course, still watch the film in all its 4K glory below. Don’t forget that you can get the full story of the three days of cycling across the Pennines by listening to episode 50 of The Cycling Europe Podcast. Full details below.
To celebrate its 50th episode, Andrew P. Sykes takes The Cycling Europe Podcast out on the cycle path and travels from Morecambe on Lancashire’s west coast to the county’s historical capital at Lancaster, across the Pennines and through Yorkshire via Settle and Ripon, completing his trip in that county’s historical capital at York. The Way of the Roses is a route of contrasting landscapes and, at times, challenging terrain; join Andrew (and his bicycle Wanda) as they spend three days following one of northern England’s most popular cycle routes.
To celebrate its 50th episode, Andrew P. Sykes takes The Cycling Europe Podcast out on the cycle path and travels from Morecambe on Lancashire’s west coast to the county’s historical capital at Lancaster, across the Pennines and through Yorkshire via Settle and Ripon, completing his trip in that county’s historical capital at York. The Way of the Roses is a route of contrasting landscapes and, at times, challenging terrain; join Andrew (and his bicycle Wanda) as they spend three days following one of northern England’s most popular cycle routes. The music is composed and played by Rob Ainsley. More of Rob’s music can be found on his website e2e.bike.
Now back home in West Yorkshire after my-day trip across the Pennines from Morecambe / Lancaster to York. It was a fun weekend with varied terrain; flat by the sea, beautiful gentle-sloping valleys, sharp climbs, even-sharper descents and then the flatlands of the Vale of York. Many of you will have been following the posts that were published here on the website in recent days – you can find them linked to below if you missed them – but there will also be a podcast and a longer film that uses the majority of the video that it wasn’t possible to use in the short films I managed to edit in the tent at the end of each day, including much more footage from the air, in glorious 4K.
It was flat and it was a tale of two cities; Ripon and York. A functional day of cycling but enjoyable nevertheless. The route was a turney-twisty one sending me in most directions; east, south, north… but never west. With a wind from the south-west, I invariably had to fight against it, rewarded at the next turn with the push of the gusts.
Anything that followed yesterday morning’s bucolic ride through the Lune Valley / Forest of Bowland was always going to come second in the rankings, especially when there are so far only two contenders for ‘morning of the trip’ ride. That said, it was still a good one. A short ride from the campsite in Horton-in-Ribblesdale (very highly recommended) to Settle (where the service and food at the Singing Kettle Café and the fact that it was open at 9am on a Sunday morning also deserve placing in Cycling Europe’s ‘highly recommended’ category).
Or, if you a pedant (many are…), the first day of cycling the route. After the short cycle back from Red Bank Farm Campsite to the seafront at Morecambe, I picked up the scent of The away of the Roses and have been following it like a blood hound all day.
So here I am in Morecambe. I’ve pedalled just over 30km but made zero progress along the route of The Way of the Roses. However, this was never part of the plan for day 1 of this trip. Train to Morecambe, explore Morecambe, pitch tent at campsite near Morecambe. In a nutshell, that’s what happened.
I think it’s fair to say that the Northern Trains service from Leeds to Morecambe isn’t one of the operators premium routes. I’m currently standing next to a bin in the area reserved for bicycles. Wanda, my bike is under careful observation as she is jolted from side to side in perfect synchronisation with the movement of the carriage. There is no warning of when a jolt might fling the poor bicycle from its resting place in the direction of the toilet just opposite. I am posed to pounce if needs be…
Electric bikes are the go-to rides of people who roam around cities while minimizing expenses and improving fitness. In many cases, e-bikes are flexible and easy to use. They also come in various types, lengths, and sizes. Today, one of the up-and-coming e-bikes catching the market by storm is the electric off-road bike. Suppose you’re planning to buy an electric off-road bike anytime soon. In that case, you may need to know how to use and set it up to maximize its performance. In addition, you also need to learn what to adjust or replace to make the most of the eco-friendly ride. For that purpose, here’s an article to guide you. So, read on!
Subscribe to the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel Visit the dedicated Grand Tour page of CyclingEurope.org to find out more about the planned 2022 cycle along some of western Europe’s most iconic cycle routes. Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now […]
Writer, cyclist – and now composer – Rob Ainsley is the master of the cycling ‘end-to-end’: Britain, France, Spain, Poland, Cuba… and now Slovakia, west to east. He chats to The Cycling Europe Podcast about his recent journey across the country, its people, its places… and its beer. He also takes time to reflect upon the attractions of the end-to-end cycle and reveals the name of the country that he believes is home to the definitive end-to-end. We also hear two of Rob’s compositions for guitar, inspired by his travels on a bicycle, and zebras…
Writer, cyclist – and now composer – Rob Ainsley is the master of the cycling ‘end-to-end’: Britain, France, Spain, Poland, Cuba… and now Slovakia, west to east. He chats to The Cycling Europe Podcast about his recent journey across the country, its people, its places… and its beer. He also takes time to reflect upon the attractions of the end-to-end cycle and reveals the name of the country that he believes is home to the definitive end-to-end. We also hear two of Rob’s compositions for guitar, inspired by his travels on a bicycle, and zebras… All of Rob’s music can be found on his website e2e.bike.
I think this film may have featured on CyclingEurope.org is the dim, distant past – there are nearly 4,000 posts on the site! – but it’s worth sharing again. A period piece if ever there was one made in 1955, complete with plummy narrator dishing out the British Rail propaganda. Alas the British obsession with hanging bikes in trains is nothing new. At least back in the 50’s they seem to have been allocated plenty of space, in stark contrast to the horror of the modern Azuma trains…
Before heading off to the continent in early July, I’d like to take the bike out for a shortish camping trip over three or four days. So, following on from the discussion I was having with myself a few weeks ago regarding completing one of the coast-to-coast cycling routes here in northern England, I’ve decided to take the train over to Morecambe in Lancashire and cycle east along the Way of the Roses from Lancaster to York. I may continue as far as Flamborough (the end of the route) but we’ll see how that goes at the time. As far as York will be planned, anything after York unplanned.
Off-road cycling, also known to others as ‘bikepacking’, is a thrilling activity for those who enjoy basking in nature’s beauty. Experienced adventurers know this well, but novices may feel nervous about hopping on a bike and going on an adventure somewhere new. If you’re going off-road cycling for the first time, it’s vital to plan beforehand to ensure a safe and fun ride. Even if you’ve done it several times, it’s always good to have a refresher. So, before you go off on a journey on rough terrain, read this list of bikepacking essential tips:
Earlier today some of you must have been scratching your heads just a little upon seeing the Twitter post or the Facebook post or the Instagram post relating to my decision to ‘tweak’ the route of my upcoming cycle around the Baltic Sea. It is, admittedly, one hell of a tweak. So much of a tweak in fact that the only remaining part of that planned Baltic Sea Cycle that remains in the new planned cycle is the rather short journey from the ferry port in Rotterdam to the Hook of Holland. And yes, even that section is nowhere near the Baltic Sea. The new route will see me not turn left upon arrival in The Netherlands but turn right in the direction of Belgium, then France, then (after quite a while) through Switzerland, then Germany before finally returning to the Hook of Holland and my return journey across the North Sea to Hull. Mmm… Perhaps ‘tweak’ might not have been the most appropriate of words. So why the change?
Well… while you were watching all those videos in the previous post (no?) , I was out on a Bike Called Wanda knocking off nearly 50km on a nice ride with a friend along the valley to Hebden Bridge and then a return home via The Piece Hall […]
The focus in recent weeks and months has been on my new Ribble Bikes hybrid that I purchased earlier in the year so as to make the cycle to work a bit more feasible. The hills of the Yorkshire Pennines can be very unforgiving and for a daily commute that involves several sharp climbs, a simple, light bicycle was needed and the Ribble Hybrid AL Trail Disc Enthusiast 2.0 does a mighty fine job. Read all about it below:
The Cycling Europe Podcast mainly features, well, cyclists. The interviewee in this episode, however, is first and foremost a mountaineer. But he’s not just any mountaineer. His name is Tim Ralph and he’s a seven summiteer; a man who has climbed the seven highest mountains on each of the continents. In the last few years, he’s also taken up cycle touring and has just published a book called ‘A Life Accomplished: From Spain to Norway on a Bike’. So what can mountaineering teach us about cycle touring? What can cycle touring teach mountaineers about climbing mountains? And what happens when an experienced mountaineer sets off to cycle from Europe’s geographical southernmost point at Tarifa in Spain to its northernmost point at Nordkapp in Norway?
The Cycling Europe Podcast mainly features, well, cyclists. The interviewee in this episode, however, is first and foremost a mountaineer. But he’s not just any mountaineer. His name is Tim Ralph and he’s a seven summiteer; a man who has climbed the seven highest mountains on each of the continents. In the last few years, he’s also taken up cycle touring and has just published a book called ‘A Life Accomplished: From Spain to Norway on a Bike’. So what can mountaineering teach us about cycle touring? What can cycle touring teach mountaineers about climbing mountains? And what happens when an experienced mountaineer sets off to cycle from Europe’s geographical southernmost point at Tarifa in Spain to its northernmost point at Nordkapp in Norway?
A few weeks ago I headed off down the Calder Valley where I live in West Yorkshire in the direction of Hebden bridge. The new bike – Ronnie Ribble – needed a shakedown on a route other than on the one he was purchased for, my commute to work. The canal towpath cycle beside the Rochdale Canal is a very familiar one and it’s good, off-road cycling territory; not too rough, not too smooth, just right. Goldilocks cycling. (Ignoring that annoying bit near Copley where the tree roots have made the surface somewhat Alpine… Don’t get me going.)
Remember the ‘lockdown project’? It seemed that most people had one; tiling the bathroom, writing an anthology of poetry, organising a series of parties that you would later deny were actually parties to the UK parliament (and even if they were, you had nothing to do with them…). That kind of thing. My lockdown project was to make an audio documentary about the life and times of Maximilian J. St. George. (I’ll post the link below.) Well, Easter has just finished and I had an ‘Easter Project’ (you heard it here first)…
Episode 027 of The Cycling Europe Podcast was an important one… It featured Dr. Ian Walker, an academic and cyclist who had broken the World Record for cycling from Nordkapp in Norway to Tarifa in Spain. That in itself made it worthy of note and I would encourage you to go back and have a listen. However, I normally ask people who appear on the podcast to provide me with a few images that I can use when publicising their particular episode of the podcast. Episode 027 was the first when I used one of the images as a background to the information slide that is used on YouTube (prior to that it was just a different colour background for each episode).
Just before Christmas 2021, I had a clear out of old electrical items. One of those items was a GoPro Hero 4 camera that I think I bought back in around 2014. I definitely used it – to very good effect – on the cycle from Spain to Norway in the summer of 2015. Athough there was a very small amount of superficial damage to the Hero 4, it still worked fine. The battery life was poor, however, and it was limited to 1080 HD when it came to the picture quality. With cycling the Baltic this coming summer in mind, I have just bought a replacement GoPro – the Hero 10 – and things have moved on somewhat…
Nathan Molyneaux is a planning manager in the food industry. He’s also a great believer in the Chimp Paradox, an understanding of which allows you to take control of your emotions in order to act in your own best interests. This theory, developed by Professor Steve Peters, has been instrumental in the planning of Nathan’s upcoming journey around the world. And it’s a proper round-the-world cycle; no planes, every continent, scores of countries and four (or perhaps even five) years in which to do it. He talks to The Cycling Europe Podcast about his mindset, his route, his bike, his equipment, his finances, his hopes… and his fears.
Nathan Molyneaux is a planning manager in the food industry. He’s also a great believer in the Chimp Paradox, an understanding of which allows you to take control of your emotions in order to act in your own best interests. This theory, developed by Professor Steve Peters, has been instrumental in the planning of Nathan’s upcoming journey around the world. And it’s a proper round-the-world cycle; no planes, every continent, scores of countries and four (or perhaps even five) years in which to do it. He talks to The Cycling Europe Podcast about his mindset, his route, his bike, his equipment, his finances, his hopes… and his fears.
I am in Hebden Bridge, experimenting. If you are reading this, congratulations! You are clearly a fan of the podcast as I’m making no effort to publicise this secret episode of the podcast. It doesn’t even have a number! You may find the audio of interest, you may […]
It would be good to head off somewhere on Wanda – perhaps for a few days to get me back into the swing of cycle touring. But to where? Well, people frequently mention the various ‘coast to coast’ routes that link the east and west coasts of England and perhaps it’s time to attempt one of them. After all, I live not far from most of them and it wouldn’t be much of a logistical issue to join one of them, either at one of their extremities or, indeed at a point in the middle. So what are the routes?
Tim Moore has been referred to as ‘Bill Bryson on two wheels’. Any reader of his adventures – both on and off a bike – will appreciate why the comparison is justified. In his first cycling travelogue, he set off on the route of that year’s Tour de France just weeks before the professionals. He went on to recreate ‘the most appalling bike race of all time’ – the 1914 Giro d’Italia – on a vintage bike. More recently he embarked upon a brutal cycle following the stages of the 1941 Vuelta a España. Ever the glutton for punishment, he’s also ‘The Cyclist Who Went Out In The Cold’ who set off on an East German shopping bike along the route of EuroVelo 13, the Iron Curtain Trail… The Cycling Europe Podcast chatted to him in a Tube carriage at the London Transport Museum.
Tim Moore has been referred to as ‘Bill Bryson on two wheels’. Any reader of his adventures – both on and off a bike – will appreciate why the comparison is justified. In his first cycling travelogue, he set off on the route of that year’s Tour de France just weeks before the professionals. He went on to recreate ‘the most appalling bike race of all time’ – the 1914 Giro d’Italia – on a vintage bike. More recently he embarked upon a brutal cycle following the stages of the 1941 Vuelta a España. Ever the glutton for punishment, he’s also ‘The Cyclist Who Went Out In The Cold’ who set off on an East German shopping bike along the route of EuroVelo 13, the Iron Curtain Trail… The Cycling Europe Podcast chatted to him in a Tube carriage at the London Transport Museum.
It’s been a great week to be a commuting cyclist. I actually filled the car up with petrol on Wednesday evening, at about 5.45pm. As I drove down to the local Morrison’s I was listening to the radio and to how people were eagerly waiting to do what I was about to do until 6pm when the 5 pence reduction in the price of petrol came into effect. Spotters around the country were keeping their eyes trained upon the electronic boards outside service stations to observe the drop take place as if it were the ball falling in Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Strewth. I couldn’t be bothered to wait, parked up and filled up. £65 if I remember rightly. Perhaps I’m not that fussed. Not that I’m a rich man. Far from it. But having returned to the life of a commuting cyclist recently, it just seems a little less important than it might have done a few months ago…
Visit the dedicated Baltic Sea Cycle Route / EuroVelo 10 page of CyingEurope.org to discover more about the planned cycle around Europe’s other big sea. Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now even a podcast, The Cycling Europe Podcast. If […]
The new Bikepacking Argyll’s Islands route, created by Bikepacking Scotland and commissioned by CalMac Ferries and Wild About Argyll, maps a 496km-journey (308 miles) connecting the Isles of Mull, Jura, Islay and Bute on a mixture of gravel tracks, singletrail, cycle paths and roads. The route also makes great use of ScotRail’s Highland Explorer, which provides space for up to 20 bikes, including tandems. The newly introduced train carriage offers a bike-friendly train connection between Glasgow, host city of the UCI Cycling World Championships in 2023, and Oban, where the new route begins. Bikes travel free on trains and all ferries along the route.
Whilst recovering from cancer treatment, Candy Whittome was given a copy of Anne Mustoe’s book ‘A Bike Ride: 12,000 Miles Around the World’. It inspired her to embark upon a long cycling journey herself, if not quite all the way round the world, then a good portion of it. Her doctors were supportive (although her family needed some convincing) and in 2021 she set off on the first leg of her journey cycling from Britain to southern Greece during the second summer of the COVID pandemic. In this episode of the podcast, Candy looks back upon that ride and forward to the next stages that will take her to Asia and beyond… Plus: Chris Atkin reads an extract from his new book about a journey across southern Spain.
Whilst recovering from cancer treatment, Candy Whittome was given a copy of Anne Mustoe’s book ‘A Bike Ride: 12,000 Miles Around the World’. It inspired her to embark upon a long cycling journey herself, if not quite all the way round the world, then a good portion of it. Her doctors were supportive (although her family needed some convincing) and in 2021 she set off on the first leg of her journey cycling from Britain to southern Greece during the second summer of the COVID pandemic. In this episode of the podcast, Candy looks back upon that ride and forward to the next stages that will take her to Asia and beyond… Plus: Chris Atkin reads an extract from his new book about a journey across southern Spain.
After last week’s trip down to London to meet and interview Tim Moore, another week of travel but this week much more of it on the bike. Ronnie, the Ribble Hybrid has just finished his first complete week carrying me to and from work. It’s the first time since, I think, 2017 that I’ve completed a full week of cycle commuting and long may it continue! It’s the back end of winter so the mornings are rapidly getting lighter and and weather has generally been amenable to cycling; just one of the ten rides last week was in the wet. Some mornings, there was even a distinct hint of spring…
An interesting week both on and off the bike. In recent weeks I’ve mentioned the purchase of a new bike in order to return to the habit of cycling to work. Well, this week, the bike was delivered and the habit re-started… Alas the delivery of the bike – a Ribble Hybrid AL Trail Disc Enthusiast 2.0 – was timed for Monday morning so I resorted to taking the car to school that day, but when I returned home, this was waiting for me…
Declan Lyons trained as a zoologist but after several years working as a journalist and management consultant he started to research and then write two Cicerone guides for people interested in cycling the Canal de la Garonne from Bordeaux to Toulouse and the Canal du Midi from Toulouse to the Mediterranean coast at Sète. Together the canals are known as the Véloroute des Deux Mers – the ‘two seas cycle route’ – and in this episode of the podcast he talks about the history of the canals and how they have been transformed in recent decades into one of France’s most popular cycling routes. Also: we hear from Ian Yarroll, an experienced cycle tourist, who, after developing balance problems, took up a recumbent trike…
Declan Lyons trained as a zoologist but after several years working as a journalist and management consultant he started to research and then write two Cicerone guides for people interested in cycling the Canal de la Garonne from Bordeaux to Toulouse and the Canal du Midi from Toulouse to the Mediterranean coast at Sète. Together the canals are known as the Véloroute des Deux Mers – the ‘two seas cycle route’ – and in this episode of the podcast he talks about the history of the canals and how they have been transformed in recent decades into one of France’s most popular cycling routes. Also: we hear from Ian Yarroll, an experienced cycle tourist, who, after developing balance problems, took up a recumbent trike…
