The BIG bike ride in France
Wales/England/France/Germany/Czech/Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Norway/England
Mayday. Day 42. A national holiday in mainland Europe and no big protests or anything. Just life floating by for the people of Strasbourg. I'm taking things nice and easy.
30th April. Day 41. More Stasbourg, looking around. Chilling out and getting my plans together for Germany. Met lots of cool and random people at the Youth Hostel, all good fun.
29th April. Day 40. Looking round Strasbourg, saw the European Parliament which is a very impressive piece of architecture. So is the Cathedral come to that. A great place for cycle paths, a very green city, lots of trams.
28th April. Day 39. Rode Saint Dié to Strasbourg via Col de Saales (556M). A nice downhill all the way feeling to Strasbourg. Staying at the Youth Hostel there, met some Hungarian students on an exchange. From what I learnt about Hungary sounds like a country worth a (cycle) visit - but not this trip!
27th April. Day 38. Cycled from Vittel up Col du Poirier (433M) to where there was a observation point. 706KM to Berlin as the crow flies from here! Things started to look a bit 'Alpine' after Epinal, blasted up a 606M climb and then down to Saint Dié with some amazing views. Camping in the rain...
26th April. Day 37. OK having some problems with my bike and MSR stove. Trying to resolve those today and generally spending a bit of time in Vittel. Learning how to stop and start an iMac most important!
25th April. Day 36. Rode to Vittel, the bottled water place, I can see why they bottle it here, it falls out of the sky with a regularity that almost makes me feel at home. Cycled through Damblain, Ouen-lès-Parey to Contrexéville on my way to Vittel. Another day taking it nice and easy.
24th April. Day 35. Taking it easy today, cycled to Clefmont. Camped at the municipal site there.
23rd April. Day 34. A really long and tiring day, too many Kms plus the abandoned kitten of Avallon story. Cycled through Montréal, Montbard, Chatillon Sur Seine to Chaumont. It is about 120Km in a straight line on my big map of Europe from Vézelay...too much. Then the day finished off with confusion over my accomodation and me staying in a Hotel.
22nd April. Day 33. Cycled through Imphy, Saint Saulge, Corbigny and then to Vézelay. First real hills seen since the UK. Stayed at the Youth Hostel in Vézelay and met a fellow long distance cyclist there. Not a man into packing lightly!
21st April. Day 32. Decided it was time to leave the fun of the festival. Cycled through Jussy Champagne, Germigny-l'exempt, Apremont Sur Allier then north up the route of the Loire, past a canal bridge to Challuy and then Chevenon just by the Loire. Camping at another municipal site.
20th April. Day 31. Spent most of the day hanging out in Bourges. One minute it was sunblock weather, the next minute snowing. Strange. Anyways I was waiting around for the big band Fear Factory, supported by a couple of French bands - Tripod and Enhancer plus 28 Days from Australia. Fear Factory played 'Edgecrusher' which was good enough for me.
19th April. Day 30. OK now for a list of cool bands I saw: Fun Lovin' Criminals supported by UK Apache and Spor, after that a load of Punk - Deviates, Vanerea (from Sweden), Powerhouse, SNFU (from Canada) and Ignite. All the rest of those punks from West coast USA I think. Amazing to see the FLC, they were great and it was such an intimate setting in a venue of a 700 capacity. Obviously I was down the front all the time. Met some cool Brits in the crowd, mostly escapies of the UK Rat-Race...
18th April. Day 29. Cycled 100Km to Bourges, kind of forgetting there was a festival on there. Amazingly I was able to get a bed at the Youth Hostel. There I got talking to some members of a death-metal band Morbid Angel, I got a free ticket to the gig they played alongside "Zyklon from Norway". The frontman for Zyklon can strut and stare with the best of them, but I prefered the Angel's sound.
17th April. Day 28.Rode a long way, navigating most of the way with the scale 1cm to 25Km rather than 2.5Km than I'm used to... Well I wasn't going to buy a map and spend less than one day using it, was I? Rode throught Chauvigny and Le Blanc and ending up in Saint Gaultier. Camping at a cheap municipal site there, nice little town.
16th April. Day 27. This is a city of taggers, spent some time looking at the art, taking photos and cycling around the area. Watched Jurassic Park 2 in French at the Hostel, a very easy film to understand!
15th April. Day 26. Spent the day looking round (the very quiet) Poitiers. Saw the church with lots of carvings on it.
14th April. Day 25. France was everything I dreamed it could be today, rode to Poitiers through La Mothe St Héray, the Hermitain national forest and Sanxay. The weather was perfect, warm but not too warm, the country looks like Wales does (on a good year) in late May. Smashing. Staying in the Youth Hostel in Poitiers. As it's the Easter weekend had to dash to the shops before they closed for a long while...
13th April. Day 24. Friday the thirteenth! Cycled to Noirt along lots of little roads, found myself in Bourgneuf a person not knowing where my towel was! Camped at the (very noisy) municipal site in the city and did some bike maintenence.
12th April. Day 23. A day spent soaking up the atmosphere La Rochelle, taking photos and going to Kareoke in the evening.
11th April. Day 22. Cycled around Ill De Ré with some of the people I met at the hostel, saw a very good Tandem riding performance from 2 of the others. Does anyone want to go Tandeming with me? Also went to a great live Jazz performance followed by freestyle walking.
10th April. Day 21. Cycled through Luçon to La Rochelle, tried to come through a very low lying bit with water channels everywhere, lots of the roads were flooded so diversion city plus lots of wind makes for one tired Little Welsh boy! At the hostel in La Rochelle met up with lots of cool English speaking people, even someone else from Wales!
9th April. Day 20. Cycled to La Roche Sur Yon through lots of pretty small places, camping on a farm.
8th April. Day 19. Decided to see a bit of Nantes, saw the Chateau and a lovely botanic garden.
7th April. Cycled to Nantes and randomly found myself going to a carnival with lots of floats processing through the city. Confetti everywhere a steel band and great fireworks to music. These peple really know how to party!
6th April. Biked via Parc Naturel Régional de Briere and over an amazing bridge to the hostel at St Brevin Les pins. A hostel where you get sand with everything! The bridge was over the Loire river, the best/worst cycle ride of my life going over it!
5th April. Cycled back to the mainland via the Atlantic coast and went to Carnac again to have a good look at the standing stones. Then via Auray to Vannes. Stayed at a hostel in a little place called Moustérian. Also found out my degree result via e-mail, got a 2-1 am am v. happy!
4th April. From Lorient went via 'Batubus' to Port Loui then from there down the cost toward Carnac. I stopped and looked at some of the anchient history but after seeing the place (a bit of a tourist trap) and considering the weather I decided to stay at the youth hostel at Quiberon. There are an amazing number of Scots Pines planted around here.
3rd April. Got my spoke problem sorted and rode to Lorient via the scenic costal route. "If you dream of sand dunes & salty air" go to Le Fort Bloqué... so much surf. After getting lost in Lorient I eventually found the Youth Hostel and stayed there the night. Met some cool people and again spent a long time chatting into the wee hours.
2nd April. In for a bit of a shock as the only bike shop in Quimper is closed, that repair will have to be done tomorrow. Stayed in the Youth Hostel and sat up most of the night chatting with a new made friend.
1st April. Rode three hours to Pnte de Raz (the french version of Lands End) and three hours back again. I discovered on my return to Quimper that I have big problems with my bike - a broken spoke!
31st March. Decided it would be a good idea to stay a while longer in Quimper, visited the Musée des Beaux-arts and the Cathedral after been woken up early by the dawn chorus.
30th Spent four hours in the saddle today, decided it would be a good idea to go to Quimper. Went along a D grade road via Douglas and Chateaulin. Camped at the municipal campsite in the town.
29th March. After losing my UK dried milk at French customs and riding through a disinfectant bath (FMD) I spent the day riding slowly from Roscoff toward Brest, I camped in a lovely spot in St-Jean by the estuary of the river Elorn
Wales/England/France/Germany/Czech/Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Norway/England