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2013 French Revolutions Ride

septembre - octobre 2013
Nineteen riders completed an incredible extended ride along the Loire from Orleans to Le Croisic on the Atlantic. The original journal of this ride has been lost, but here are some fragments that have been recovered. This is a work in progress. En savoir plus

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    Azay le Rideau

    12 septembre 2013, France ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    The ride proceeded to Villandry with its famous Gardens, matchless in Europe and composed of 3 superposed terraces, then Saché, the house of the famous novelist Honoré de Balzac. We finally arrived in Azay le Rideau, the home of a beautiful Renaissance chateau, a jewel set over the Indre river.En savoir plus

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    Saumur

    14 septembre 2013, France ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Today's highlight was a visit to the underground homes of the Troglodytes. I was not expecting to find that in France.

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    Angers

    15 septembre 2013, France ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    The most surprising and unexpected feature of today's ride was the crossing of a small river by means of a self propelled floating bac. In order to get across, we had to load about 4 bikes and riders at a time, then pull it across with a chain. We did more laughing than pulling.

    Our home tonight is the impressive large city of Angers.    En savoir plus

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    Montjean Sur Loire

    16 septembre 2013, France ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Today our cycle towards the Atlantic continued through some superb French villages and followed the banks of the Loire for some distance. By this time we have seen the Loire steadily grow to a very impressive and rapidly flowing river.
    Up till now we have only seen small flat bottomed fishing boats but today we began to see the first signs that we are entering the realms of the working Loire. The river is getting deeper and we are starting to see bigger and bigger boats in use.

    The scenery along the way is breathtaking, the houses and villages make us feel that we are part of a story book, the only things missing are people and cars. For kilometre after kilometre we ride along without seeing either cars or people and sometimes we begin to wonder just what has happened to everyone.

    This morning we crossed the prime meridian and thus officially passed from the eastern hemisphere to the western hemisphere. We also had an impressive flyover by a low flying group of fighter aircraft. This was repeated several times during the day suggesting that there must be a air force base somewhere nearby. I suspected that they had heard that the Ghostriders were in the area and wanted to give us an impressive salute.

    The weather has continued to be kind to us. So far we have only had one wet day and the conditions have been great for riding, although we have been regularly visited by a tenacious head wind. By now our riders are all getting stronger and it is easy to see the improvement in everyone's riding. We also had the streepest climb of the ride so far - probably a 10 to 12% gradient at least but most were able to ride up without getting off to walk.

    We are now in a small town called MonJean Sur Loire. Compared to the large city of Angers where we spent last night this town is tiny and loacted right on the river. The hotel was not large enough to accommodate us all so some had to go to a nearby Gite (guesthouse) for the night.

    After tonight we only have another 4 days of riding before we reach our final destination at Le Croisic on the Atlantic Coast. At that point our riders will disperse to continue their own adventures. Maggie and I wil be staying in France for another month to explore as much of the country as we can. If I can sort out some of my pictures I will post them soon.

    One thing is certain and that is that everyone has had an absolute ball on this trip. The group has all got along famously and supported each other the whole way. For the life of me I could not understand why anyone would every consider travelling any other way. I reckon that once you have experienced this you could never face another tourist bus trip ever again. This has been the perfect way to combine travel, adventure, physical activity, good fun, fellowship, fresh air, surprises and breathtaking scenery into one.    En savoir plus

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    Champtoceaux

    17 septembre 2013, France ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Today's ride followed the peaceful riverbank for much of the way. Our arrival at Champtoceaux marked our entry into Brittany. We now only have three days of riding left.

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    Reaching Nantes

    18 septembre 2013, France ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Today we woke to leaden skies and a howling wind. Some of our more fearful souls thought that we were going to be in for a very long, hard day in the saddle. I went outside and did my "cloud whisperer" act and was very relieved (but not surprised) that the wind quickly abated and soon we saw small patches of blue appearing. My late mother used to describe such cloud conditions as "just enough blue to make a sailor suit" so we spent some time discussing just how many sailors could be suited up with the available blue skies. As the morning progressed we soon had enough blue to equip a whole navy of sailors (and probably the admiral as well).

    We rode along on quiet bike paths and back roads for the entire morning until we reached the outskirts of Nance. With almost 1 million inhabitants, Nance is the sixth largest city of France and it took some amount of navigating and a degree of nerve to get through the busy city streets to our hotel. Nantes is also known as being the home of the great writer Jules Verne.

    Orleans now seems a long way away, both in time and distance. The Loire River now has a real seaside feel to it and tomorrow we will finally see it emptying into the Ocean. We then follow the wild Atlantic Coastline for another day until our ride terminates at Le Croisic.

     It has been another wonderful adventure that I am sure that none of our riders will ever forget.    En savoir plus

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    The End of the Loire

    19 septembre 2013, France ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    We woke this morning to a cloudless blue sky - probably one of the best days we have had since arriving three weeks ago. What a perfect way to finish our ride along the Loire. Some time this afternoon we will reach the estuary of the Loire and the HUGE bridge that connects the north and south banks of the river.
    Tomorrow we will make our way across the bridge and complete our ride to Le Croisic.

    Nantes is quite a modern city with wide bike paths and not very much traffic on the roads. I have been somewhat surprised at the cleanliness of the streets and lack of graffiti as I imagined it would have been much worse. I am now sitting in my tiny hotel room packing the panniers for the day's ride. So far all the bikes have performed well and we have not had a single puncture. Let's hope that will continue until the end.

    For anyone with a love of cycling and travel this has proven to be one of the best ways you could ever spend a couple of weeks. I am already making plans to do this ride again in a couple of year's time but, based on what I learnt this time, I would make a couple of minor modifications to the plans.    En savoir plus

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    The End of the Ride

    20 septembre 2013, France ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Although we reached the mouth of the Loire yesterday, our ride was not quite over. We still had one more solid day of riding to reach our final destination of Le Croisic. The final day of any extended ride is always filled with mixed emotions. Although it is something of sense of relief to complete the challenge that we set ourselves that is always tinged with the sad realisation that our wonderful adventure will soon be ending.

    One of the final highlights of the ride was reaching the amazing medieval, walled city of Guerande. Not only is the city surrounded by huge walls, but it is also surrounded by a fully functioning moat. It was the perfect place to stop for our final afternoon tea of the ride.

    All too soon we were back on the bikes and riding through the expansive salt flats that mark the outskirts of Le Croisic. We rode through the town and on to our hotel, where we dismounted the last time.

    As is usual there were lots of hugs and kisses to mark the end of the ride. That evening we celebrated the completion of another successful trip by having a meal at the large seafood restaurant, situated right on the beachfront. The memories of that evening will last a lifetime.

    Throughout our ride, Maggie had been staying in a B&B on the Isle St Louis, one of the two famous islands in the centre of Paris. While we were cycling, she was having a great time exploring the city that she had waited her whole life to experience. On the final day of our ride, she caught the train from Paris to Le Croisic and joined the rest of the group.

    Tomorrow morning the group will break up to make their own ways back to Australia. Maggie and I will now begin our own adventure - exploring France for the next month.    En savoir plus

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  • The World on Two Wheels2013 French Revolutions Ride

    Vannes

    21 septembre 2013, France ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    Although our cycling adventure had drawn to a close, Maggie and I still had lots of travel and exploring waiting for us. Today we caught the train to Vannes and went in search of the Europcar depot. We discovered that it was actually about 10 km from the centre of town - a bit far to walk as the helpful guy at the desk had suggested.

    Another short train and we finally found ourselves at the correct location. The creative staff at Europcar had kindly "upgraded" us from the car we had booked to a totally unfamiliar hybrid Toyota. Not only would we have the fun of driving on the wrong side of the road, we would also have the challenge of learning a whole new set of controls. We were not reassured when even the guy at the Europcar depot did not know how to start it.

    After a few false starts we were finally underway and trying to find our way back to Vannes. Somehow a wrong turn found me right in the centre square of a tiny medieval village. It was NOT where we were meant to be. With sweat pouring down my face, I slowly extricated the car, much to the amusement of the locals.

    Sometime later we reached the relative safety of our hotel and I almost collapsed with exhaustion. Was this how the rest of the trip was going to go ? And whose idea was it to hire a car in the first place ?

    We decided to explore the city on foot and leave the car alone. Paul and Jan were also staying in the same hotel and we learnt that they had experienced their own traumas when collecting their hire car. In fact, their situation was a little more serious as Paul had parked the car somewhere in Vannes and could not remember where he had left it. All he could remember was driving through a long tunnel at some time.

    We set off in search of Paul's lost car and eventually found it in a carpark. It was relief all round. We ended the day with a pizza dinner at the lovely cafe on the ramparts, overlooking the gardens.

    It had been a long and stressful day, but we knew that more challenges would lay ahead.    En savoir plus

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