Tag: Eurovelo 12

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

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)

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

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

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)

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)

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.

Le Grand Tour: Day 4 – Ostend To Oye-Plage (94km)

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. Itโ€™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 – Iโ€™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. โ€œA jokeโ€ was his responseโ€ฆย 

Le Grand Tour: Day 3 – Vlissingen To Ostend (63km)

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 expectedโ€ฆ