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 …
With panniers and bags piled up ready to go tomorrow Wednesday, Jutta and I are heading out again for a couple of months, taking our trusty tandem Daisy2, now nearly 20 years old, first to Portsmouth and then all the way round France+N Spain for 4500 km. Or thereabouts. We’ll blog a bit as we … Read more …
We promised in an earlier blog post to wrap up our tandem tour of Germany with musings from Jutta, so here, a month on from our last-day 100-mile dash to home in Sheringham, is Daisy’s final wrap.. Well, we returned a week earlier than initially booked (12 weeks rather than the full three months) and … Read more …