This, the second posting of my 2023 European cycling tour, takes me across the Aisne and Oise regions of north-eastern France along their excellent network of bicycle paths and then along the Normandy coast to catch a ferry to England at Cherbourg.
#107 The Eifel and the Ardenne
The start of a new cycling season in Europe: I collect my bike from my friend’s house near Wesel in the German Ruhr and head south to Aachen where I pick up the Vennbahnweg rail trail and then carry on through the Belgian and French Ardennes to the champagne capital of Reims.
#106 Austria and Bavaria |335 km|
The last 30-odd kilometres of the Alpe Adria Cycleway going into Salzburg are fairly ordinary, as are the next 30-kilometres heading out of Salzburg towards Munich, but the rest of this ride was great as usual. First, the Salzach gorge and river path, and then the magnificent cycleways of Bavaria centred around the town of…
#105 Ciclovia Alpe Adria Radweg
Attention touring cyclists! You should all try to do the FVG1, The Ciclovia Alpe Adria Cycle Path, that goes 400 km from Salzburg, Austria, to Grado on the Adriatic coast, at least once in your life. It’s fantastic! I went the other way, up from Italy, and this post is about the uphill section.
#104 Venice
Venice was so wonderful it deserves a blog post all of its own. No cycling involved; just a short bus trip over the causeway onto Venice Island, then a whole day spent trooping around gawping at the wonder of the whole place, and not forgetting it is actually a living city-within-a-city too, and the locals…
#103 Crossing the Apennines
Considering Rome is hemmed-in by the unbroken mountain chains that make up the Apeninne Range, it’s remarkable how the ancient Romans were able to conquer and then hold on to all their various dominions throughout Europe. Communications must have been difficult. It was hard enough for me, 2,000 years later, to get across the range…
#102 Cinque Terre and the Riviera di Levante
I thought the last couple of days riding through the Riviera di Ponente would take some beating, and then straightaway came something even more awesome. The coastline to the east of Genoa is just as rugged as to the west, and then there’s the Cinque Terre, in a class of its own.
#101 The French Riviera and the Italian Riviera Ponente
I meet the Mediterranean coast at Saint Raphaël and head east, cycling the remaining ¾ of the Côte d’Azure (aka The French Riviera) to the Italian border at Ventimiglia. Then, in Italy, I cycle the Italian Riviera di Ponente, (or the ‘Western Riviera’) to Vesima, just before Genoa. This, guys, was a superb cycling experience,…
#100 The Rhône and the Luberon Trail
Cycling along the Rhône to Valence is something I did 5 months ago in the opposite direction, and it was just as good the second time around. And the bits I hadn’t done before, along the Luberon Trail in Haut Provence, were even better.
#99 The Jura and the Ain River
I cycle through the Jura Region of Eastern France. The main centres were Arbois, Lons-Le-Saunier and Poligny, with mountains, forests, and the Ain river gorge in between. I continue on down the River Ain to its confluence with the Rhône and then on to the city of Lyon. In Lyon I wait 6 days for…