What a trip. Ending rather hilariously when, for an entire day last Friday, we were following what I thought was the correct Ride-With-GPS routing, only to discover after 135km (!) that we were heading for Amsterdam instead of the ferry in Hoek of Holland. A rapid shift of planning ensued, with an unscheduled overnight in … Read more …
Another long gap between posts, and this will probably be the last one from the road, from the delightful little canal-river-and-hills town of Epinal in French Lorraine. Close by Alsace, home to Jutta’s paternal grandmother in those border regions that have so often switched ownership over the centuries in the wars between France and Germany. … Read more …
Goodness me, we’re heavy. First blogpost in nearly a week, reflecting our gentle, slow progress from Saintes Maries de la Mer in the Camargue to Marseille (just to have been there, really), then up – in every sense of the word – north into Provence. Where we’ve been staying with cousin Lal (her Rodier grandparents … Read more …
1500 kilometres in three weeks, and we’re taking a two-day pause at the bottom of France in the completely delightful St Maries de le Mer, the capital of the Camargue (remember those stories about wild horses and gypsies at school – this is where they came from.) Riding the Voies Vertes along repurposed railway lines … Read more …
Two and a half weeks into our 10week (planned) odyssee around France, the Med looms ever closer, with two-days-and-a-bit to go before we should reach Montpellier, as we find ourselves seriously enjoying the unpredictability of Booking.com. I (Mark) love camping, ever so slightly more than Jutta does. But I have to say that the quality … Read more …
These ones in a bit of a jumbled order to catch up with the last few days through Bordeaux, where we collected a third Pendix battery. Discovering that its range is the same as our two older ones, which can only mean (given nothing else has changed, e.g. bike weight or configuration) that it’s our … Read more …
With thanks to Priscilla and Rupert for a warm welcome on Ile de Re, where they’re burning their 90-day Brexit you-can-stay-in-the-EU-per-half-year allowance in one go, we’ve trundled 320km+ gently south beyond La Rochelle heading towards Bordeaux. The French remain delightfully welcoming, the weather is behaving itself as are our ancient legs and Daisy2 too, so … Read more …
It was very close to here, near St Nazaire’s Old Mole, that my great uncle Mark Rodier was killed in the early morning of March 3 1942, in what became known as The Greatest Raid of All. The raid did what it was designed to do, disabling the dry dock at St Nazaire, and at … Read more …
Four days in, we’re getting pleasingly back into gear, including already a very wet (dew and fog) night’s camping alongside the canal in Evran. And finding ourselves today barrelling 120km across the base of Brittany mostly on the old railway tracks of the Voie Verte 3, repurposed as one of France’s most beautiful long distance … Read more …
In a slightly jumbled order, some images from days 1 & 2 of our ride now starting through France, most importantly of the German war cemetery near Marigny, where Jutta’s uncle Hans is buried. Hans died on day 11 of Operation Overlord, just a month short of his 18th birthday, his gravestone in the beautiful, … Read more …