Le Grand Tour: Day 11 – Paris To Chartres

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Back to the writing. Iโ€™m currently on a busy train thatโ€™s about to set off for Le Mans. Iโ€™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. Itโ€™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 digressโ€ฆ and we are off. Six bicycles it is.

Le Grand Tour: Day 10 – Dangu To Paris (101km)

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CURRENT LOCATION: La Tartine, Rue de Rivoli, Paris Today the words are in the videoโ€ฆ 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. […]

Le Grand Tour: Day 9 – Forges-Les-Eaux To Dangu (77km)

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If yesterday was tick, tick, tick, today was hot, hot, hot. Yet with factor 50, a hat and plenty of fluids, Iโ€™m surviving. Itโ€™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 Iโ€™m glad that, for the moment at least, the terrain is forgiving.

Le Grand Tour: Day 8 – Dieppe To Forges-Les-Eaux (57km)

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Tick, tick, tickโ€ฆ Basically thatโ€™s what Iโ€™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 dรฉpartement of Seine-Maritime set out to build what I consider to be an unbeatable bit of cycle-touring infrastructure, they succeeded.

Le Grand Tour: Week 1

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CURRENT LOCATION: Dieppe If you missed anything, hereโ€™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 […]

Le Grand Tour: Day 7 – Dieppe

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Letโ€™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, imhoโ€ฆ fleeced โ‚ฌ9 for a 50cl Leffe Blond on draft. (Thatโ€™s a price Copenhagenโ€™s harbour cafรฉs would be proud of.) The evidence in my favour was a menu that said the price was โ‚ฌ4.50 and that the drinks were served as 50cl or 75cl, giving the impression that it wasnโ€™t an option for the premium Leffe to be a modest โ€˜demie pressionโ€™ (25cl). The drink was delivered and โ‚ฌ9 demanded. I immediately complained and walked out in digust. Well, OK, being British, I smiled and tossed a cherry โ€˜merciโ€™ in the waiterโ€™s direction handing over my cash while seething internally. So whereโ€™s the good news? Well, having visited the local tabac-cafรฉ this morning and paid the princely sum of โ‚ฌ1.50 for a coffee (all in the name of price research), Iโ€™m back here now enjoying a 25cl draft Kronenbourg for โ‚ฌ2.80. Success!

Le Grand Tour: Day 6 – Saint-Quentin-En-Tourmon To Dieppe (96km)

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Phew! What a scorcherโ€ฆ And itโ€™s apparently going to get hotter. I daubed myself three times today with factor 50 but Iโ€™ll be investing in a cap of some description tomorrow (as well of more supplies of the sun cream). Yet Iโ€™m staying well hydrated and fed by the French. Todayโ€™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 Iโ€™ll update you as the meal progressesโ€ฆ I feel like Rick Stein without a film crew (and a bicycle).

Le Grand Tour: Day 5 – Oye-Plage To Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont (91km)

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A day to rememberโ€ฆ 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 โ€˜majorityโ€™ are thinking. (Majority! Well, not in our archaic first-past-the-post system but thatโ€™s another argument.) So when I meet people and ask them what they think of our prime minister, itโ€™s embarrassing to be told that he is thought of as an โ€˜idiotโ€™ or โ€˜jokerโ€™ 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 calledโ€ฆ Le Westminster. Everyone, irrespective of the politics, should be glad that he will soon be replaced.