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A Feast of French CyclingA Feast of French Cycling
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A Feast of French Cycling

August - October 2017
In August 2017 a group of Australian cyclists travelled to Europe to complete a series of rides in Germany, France and the Channel Islands Read more
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  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 31

    To Vivier Sur Mer

    September 20, 2017 in France ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Yesterday and today have provided the best cycling we have so far experienced in our 4 weeks in Europe. The scenery in this part of Brittany is absolutely captivating, much of the route is via peaceful back roads where the silence is complete, the weather has turned completely and we have been able to enjoy the genuine essence of France.

    Today we started the day with a visit to the nearby discount shoe shop to search for a pair of shoes to replace the ones I had destroyed several weeks ago in Paris. Ever since that time the soles had been progressively falling further and further off, allowing the rain and cold to reach my toes. To my relief we found a pair of the required 46 size (not easy in France where they apparently are not used to anything larger than about size 8). Since I paid the princely sum of 15 Euro for them I can assume that they should be very good quality.

    Later in the morning we all walked to the Wednesday market at Pontorson. The sky was completely blue and the relaxed atmosphere of the market gave a precious insight into life in this part of the country. We all stocked up on baguettes, cheese, ham and strawberries (so much better than the Australian rubbish), stuffing them into our panniers for a waterfront picnic lunch. Much of the ride was along a beautiful cycle path with a very good surface. This meant that the kilometres just sailed by. Along the way we could see the distinctive silhouette of Mont St Michel gradually shrinking into the distance.

    We are now spending the night in St Vivier Sur Mer. We have discovered that it is the town where nothing is open. We waited for over 30 mins outside the Patisserie because it was supposed to reopen at 3 pm after siesta. Apparently the owner must have overslept, because the shop was still closed at 3.20 pm and even the locals gave up waiting. Such is the rhythm of life in France.

    Tomorrow we return to St Malo and a well earned short break before heading across to the Channel Islands for stage 4 of our adventure.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 32

    Back in St Malo

    September 21, 2017 in France ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    This afternoon we successfully completed our cycling circuit around beautiful Brittany. Although a further two punctures delayed our progress, we still successfully dodged the predicted heavy rain and managed to complete most of the day's riding in lovely sunshine.

    We chose the longer route along the coast rather than the alternate "Par Terre" route. It was certainly worth it. The views of the beautiful coastline were breathtaking and reminded me of our favourite Bunurong Coast Road from Inverloch to Cape Paterson, although I have to admit that the French coast is even more amazing.

    Our morning tea stop was at the seaside town of Cancales. This is a very popular holiday location in the European summer, but at this time of the year most of the holiday makers have returned home. The remainder of the ride to St Malo was quite hilly and sent us all looking for the good old granny gears as we worked our way up each successive climb. I kept looking over my shoulder at the growing mass of dark clouds that were starting to populate the sky. The forecast had predicted heavy rain later in the afternoon and we were determined to complete the ride before it arrived.

    We arrived on the outskirts of St Malo just as the first few spots of rain were falling. The last few hundred metres of the ride took the form of a mad sprint along the top of the sea wall to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel entrance just as the rain started to fall steadily. It was then time for heartfelt hugs and congratulations as we shared the achievement together. It really had been a group effort where everyone had contributed their own skills to help ensure a successful outcome. It was a fun way to finish an amazing adventure.

    When we first arrived here a week ago, St Malo was new to most of our riders, however it now seemed like a familiar homecoming. Over the past 4 weeks we have gained an insight into the French way of life that few tourists ever get to experience and we have all had an incredible amount of fun along the way. I really do regard France as my second country.

    We have one more full day in St Malo before we catch the early morning ferry on Saturday and head out to the Channel Islands.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 33

    St Malo Free Day

    September 22, 2017 in France ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    According to John Denver "some days are diamonds and some days are stones". If that is true then there is no doubt that today would be a diamond in anyone's language. It began the previous evening when we joined together for an unforgettable dinner at one of the finest restaurants in St Malo. The Brasserie Du Sillon is situated right on the spectacular waterfront of St Malo, with huge windows that frame an amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean.

    By some fortunate fluke of planning we also managed to coordinate our evening meal with the exact time of high tide. This meant that our meal was punctuated by the regular crashing of the waves against the window panes. Each time this happened it was greeted with a big cheer from our group. With the setting sun highlighting the silhouette of the old citadel it would have been hard to imagine a more impressive setting to celebrate the successful completion of section three of our 2017 rides.

    The restaurant itself specialises in seafood and the food was extraordinarily good. A glance at the wine list showed bottles up to an eye watering 6000 Euros per bottle. Needless to say, I decided to stick to the much more reasonably priced mineral water.

    The following morning dawned completely clear and the early morning waterfront views from the breakfast room were enough to make everyone fall in love with this beautiful city. The wild high tide of the previous evening had now transformed into a low tide which had sent the waterline hundreds of metres from the seawall. Dotted across the shallow water were dozens of small islands which had risen dramatically as the water level had fallen. At such times the broad flat sands become the preferred location for walkers, joggers, lovers. It took me quite some time to cross the wide sand and reach the water's edge. From this point I could view St Malo from a completely different perspective.

    The temperature soon rose with the sun and some of us set off on a short ride for a picnic by the harbour. Equipped with baguettes, ham, cheese, tomatoes, pate and drinks we happily feasted like kings and queens while we basked in the warm sunshine. At that time none of us could have thought of anywhere else on earth where we would rather be. It was a day we will never forget.

    In the late afternoon we returned to our hotel and noticed that dozens of people had taken advantage of the warmth and sunshine to dine outdoors. In the distance I could hear the enchanting strains of someone singing so I decided to investigate. It turned out to be a blind black busker with an incredible voice that I could have listened to for hours. I felt that he thoroughly deserved the small amount of change I had left in my pockets. It was the perfect ending to a magic day.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 34

    Across the Channel to Jersey

    September 23, 2017 in Jersey ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    After our French adventures, it was time to move on to the final leg of our cycling. This morning we all boarded the large ferry for a short voyage to the nearby Channel Islands. Although these islands lie close to the coast of France, they are actually a British dependency.

    During World War II they were captured by the Germans in 1940 and remained occupied till 1945. This was a terrible time of starvation and hardship for the locals and you can still see many signs of this harsh period. The Germans heavily fortified the islands during their occupation in an attempt to create an impregnable fortress. Many of their huge fortifications are still clearly visible.

    We arrived at St Helier, the capital of Jersey and took a taxi to our hotel. The driver was quite difficult to understand as we were unused to his unfamiliar accent. He referred to this as "Jersey French".

    After checking into The Monterey Hotel we made our way to a wartime underground hospital which has now been converted to a museum. On our way back to the hotel we discovered that we had arrived in time to watch the Jersey Marathon race. Judging by the crowds and the media coverage, it must be one of the biggest sporting events on the islands.

    Of course, if we were going to complete a cycling exploration of Jersey, we needed some bikes. We had been given directions as to where to collect them from the supplier. It was only when we found the place that our concern grew. The owner explained that he had been "operating for over 40 years" and it soon became apparent that most of his bikes must have been dated from his first batch. In fact they were absolute shockers - rusty old clunkers. They were certainly nothing like the well prepared machines we had been provided in France.

    After a long time of mucking around at the old bike depot, we finally made our way out on our first ride in the Channel Islands. Judging by the amount of creaks and groans emanating from various places on my bike, I was a little worried that I might not even make it back to the hotel.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 35

    Cycling Jersey

    September 24, 2017 in Jersey ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    Today was our first real chance to cycle on Jersey. We had been told that there were about 7 hills on the island and today we managed to ride up all 12 of them. We started out along the waterfront on a lovely smooth bike path, but soon turned right and began heading up a long and steady climb. Each time I put pressure on my pedals, the bike protested with an assortment of ominous noises - none of them pleasant. I soon started to hate the bike.

    Our ride continued to the far south western point of the island. This spot is called La Corbiere and the furthest tip is occupied by an impressive lighthouse. Unfortunately by the time we reached this spot the weather had turned bleak and the rain was falling steadily. We decided to head back to the hotel.

    Although the first part of the return ride was completed without incident, my ride was soon interrupted by another sudden (and fatal) crack when the rear derailleur fell apart. Obviously the corrosion that had been working away steadily for the past 40 years finally succeeded in making the bike unrideable. That was the end of my ride. While the others rode on ahead of me, I had no alternative other than wheel the bike all the way back to St Helier - a distance of about 6 km. It would not have been so bad if it had not been raining. My mood grew very dark as I began to harbour very unsavory feelings towards the owner of the bike rental company.

    I eventually made it back to the depot, where I told someone there just what I thought about their bikes. Unfortunately the person I spoke to was probably just a 14 year old kid on work experience, not the owner. I did manage to get another bike and I hoped that it would last a little longer than the first one.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 36

    The Jersey Zoo

    September 25, 2017 in Jersey ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    One of the most famous places on the island is the Jersey Zoo. This was founded back in 1959 by a somewhat eccentric naturalist called Gerald Durrell. Young Gerald had inherited a substantial fortune which allowed him never to have to work for a living. This freed him to follow his passion for caring for endangered species. The Zoo is now a world renowned centre for preservation of endangered animals.

    The ride from St Helier to the zoo took us up another succession of hills and along some fascinating narrow backroads. Although my replacement bike made a new assortment of noises, it did manage to avoid falling apart long enough to get me back to the hotel.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 37

    On to Guernsey

    September 26, 2017 in Jersey ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    The members of the Ghostriders 2017 cycling team transferred from Jersey to Guernsey this morning. Our initial impressions of St Peter Port (the main city of Guernsey) were immediately much more favourable than our impressions of St Helier in Jersey. There are a significant number of serious climbs on this island and I think that we managed to find each and every one of them in today's ride.

    At the start of the ride Dave Yates complained that his rental bike had the brakes jammed on. John, Bob and David then wasted about 20 minutes trying to adjust them before David finally spat the dummy and rode back to get a replacement bike. While he was returning to get the second bike I discovered that my bike had developed the same problem. When I investigated further I found that the cable ties that I had used to attach my GPS had jammed the brake cable. Since David had the same type of GPS mount, I suspected that I now knew what had really happened to his bike.

    When we rejoined David he complained that the replacement bike had the same problem as the first one. I had to break the news about the GPS mount. He was not impressed and ripped the cable ties from the bike. Problem solved.

    We were surprised at the level of traffic on this small island of only 60,000 people. On some of the roads the traffic was continuous and the intersections were in gridlock. This made some sections of the ride quite scary, but we all survived and were able to meander along some quieter side streets wherever possible.

    Lunch was at a lovely tea room at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. On a stormy day this would be a spectacular sight, but today there was barely a ripple to be seen. Tomorrow we will be taking a side trip to the little island of Sark. We will not have to worry about the traffic there as cars and trucks are not allowed on the island.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 38

    A Journey Back in Time

    September 27, 2017 in Guernsey ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    When I prepared the itinerary for this trip over a year ago, there was one place that I was really intrigued by and I had been looking forward to seeing since the ride began 5 weeks ago.

    The tiny feudal island of Sark is part of the bailiwick of Guernsey and it is situated about 1 hour by ferry from St Peter Port. The entire population of the island is under 500 and the way of life here has remained largely unchanged for decades. One of the unique features of life on Sark is that cars and buses (along with most other motorised devices) are banned. The only vehicles you find on the narrow roads are horse drawn carts and tractors. Even the local policeman uses a tractor for his transport. This feature helps makes it a magical place to ride a bike.

    After the somewhat choppy ferry ride across to the island we walked up the steep walking path to the only settlement on the island (known as "The Village"). We had arranged to collect some rental bikes from a local business but we were very apprehensive as to what sort of bikes they would have waiting for us. I thought that we would probably end up with an eclectic mix of penny farthings, tricycles, velocipedes and horse drawn walking frames. The actual bikes turned out to be slightly better than this, but only slightly.

    Our riders spent some time trying to come to grips with the rusty bikes that looked like they probably dated back to the time of the German occupation. After trying to adjust seats, etc we finally just thought "what the heck" and wobbled off down the dirt road, accompanied by a cacophony of rattles, creaks, groans and numerous other noises (some of which were coming from the bikes). It was impossible not to laugh. This will certainly be a day we will remember for a long, long time.

    The next few hours were spent exploring Sark and the even smaller island of Little Sark. The rough rocky coastline is certainly spectacular and the so called "WIndow in the Rock" could have easily ushered the way to a premature death if we had taken just one more step.

    The temperamental weather that these islands is famous for was kind to us for most of the day, and only started to crack up when we returned to the wharf to catch the ferry back to Guernsey. This made for a very choppy voyage, but I did manage to catch sight of a couple of dolphins frolicking in the wake of the boat.

    We arrived safely back at St Peter Port around 6 pm and headed back to our hotel for another hearty meal. It had been a marvellous day and certainly a highlight of our trip.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 39

    St Peter Port Reflections

    September 28, 2017 in Guernsey ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    One of the things that I always like to do in my travels is to take the time to take "mind photos". In the technological age we have never taken so many images, but the sad result is that it is just too easy to press the shutter button and let the camera take the place of using our own senses. While it is great that we have the freedom to take 100s or even 1000s of images, I wonder just how many of these will be remembered and treasured in a few years time ?

    I have made a practice of taking time to store a few special "mind images" on every trip. These images cannot be stored by the press of a button, but I try to use all my senses to build a complete image in my mind. This can sometimes take up to 30 minutes while I sit, sometimes with my eyes open and sometimes with them shut. I try to store a record of each tiny sound and sensation, along with the visual image of the place I am in. Using this method I find that I can recall to mind places that I have visited many years ago.

    Our hotel in St Peter Port was originally two stately homes that have been combined and extended to form the Pandora Hotel. Behind the hotel is a series of delightful walled gardens and stone staircases than descend down the hillside. Each successive walled garden is a confusion of colour that reminded me of the famous Monet's Garden in France. The lower levels of these gardens offer beautiful views down to the harbour and out to the nearby islands of Jethu and Herm. It was on the lowest of these levels that I chose to store my latest mind image.

    With the late summer sunshine warming my face and the distant sounds of the seagulls mixing with the gentle murmur of the leaves on the trees it really seemed like the perfect way to remember this amazing adventure.Over the past five weeks we have cycled over a thousand kilometres in Germany, France, Switzerland and the Channel Islands and shared a never ending series of incredible experiences together.

    It already seems such a long time ago that we arrived in Mainz to begin our ride along the Rhine. Tomorrow we will be returning to St Malo on one of the huge Condor ferries and the following day our team will begin to disperse, with some coming back to Australia while others will be continuing their travels in Europe.

    Once again this trip has served to reinforce my opinion that there is simply no better way to explore Europe than by bicycle. Our aim has never been to set huge daily distances or get our names in the Guinness Book of Records. We came to see the real Europe that the mainstream tourists simply never get to see and I think that we have achieved this in spades.

    We will never forget those quiet backroads of France and yesterday's ride on Sark was really something unlike anything else we have ever done. Along the way we have lived together, we have sometimes cried together (more about that later) and we have often laughed ourselves senseless. I am so glad that I have had the privilege of sharing this ride with such inspiring and supportive friends. I really do love you all.

    As well as the experiences we have shared on two wheels, this trip has also been something of a culinary adventure as well. Since beginning our French ride in Rambouillet about 4 weeks ago we have been able to dine in some amazing restaurants each evening. I think that everyone was staggered at how we were able to include so many fine dining experiences in the limited budget. Some even commented that the dining each evening was as great a challenge as the cycling. We certainly never went hungry.

    In a couple of weeks I will be back in Australia and turning my attention to our next adventure. In just a few months we will be heading off to South America to trek and cycle in some of the most spectacular places on earth. It will be vastly different to Europe, but that is what life should be all about.

    Three day's ago we got our first glimpse of Guernsey and I was very interested to hear what people's first impressions were. I think I can now honestly say that we have fallen in love with this little island.

    When we left Jersey our impressions were not so positive. Much of St Helier is dirty and dilapidated, the confusing tangle of one way streets made the city feel claustrophobic and we could not help but feel that its best years were behind it. It seemed that it could not progress beyond its war time years and was happy living in the past.

    St Peter Port, on the other hand, has a much more exciting feel about it. There is a healthy buzz of activity in the city, most of the buildings are in good condition, the streets are clean, we never saw any graffiti anywhere, the people are friendly and the public transport is so very cheap. The slope of the hillsides near the harbour mean that you can get wonderful sea views from most parts of the town. In the competition between Jersey and Guernsey I would declare Guernsey the winner by a country mile. We will all fondly remember you for a long time.    Read more

  • The World on Two WheelsA Feast of French Cycling
    Day 39

    Farewell to Guernsey

    September 28, 2017 in Guernsey ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Today was not only our last day in Guernsey, but the final cycling day of our entire trip. For some unknown reason Maggie thought that it would be worthwhile using the time to ride to a most unusual chapel she had read about somewhere. It was apparently the work of a local eccentric monk who had spent his lifetime constructing the chapel and then completely covering it in bits of broken glass and china. That seemed like a most creative way to waste a life to me, however somehow Maggie convinced us all to go in search of it.

    If we thought that there was no traffic on Guernsey, we would have been sorely mistaken. During the ride we must have encountered every vehicle on the island at least two or three times. It was not a very relaxing ride, and it also contained a never ending sequence of hills. When we eventually discovered the chapel, it turned out to be very underwhelming. The whole thing was not much bigger than a toilet.

    Although the rest of us were left scratching our heads as to why we had undertaken such a monumental waste of time and energy, Maggie actually said she liked the place. There is no accounting for poor taste.    Read more

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