France (all)

We are performing a 2 years (theoretically) trip around Eurasia. During the trip, we are performing a photo documentation for ICOMOS, an expert organization of UNESCO about cultural heritage. The database created will be available on the website.

We wish with this project to perform some challenging cycling, linking with useful actions.

Our website relates our diary and we are putting plenty of photos and comments (and lots of other fields are going to come, such as advices, technical data...).

This is my first bike journey. I visited many places, and saw many things. I hope it inspires you to get on two wheels, instead of doing the usual airline-backpacker thing.

Welcome to the Wish Tour!

Below you will find the photos and journal from a two-year, 20,000-mile bicycle journey around the world.

Starting in July 2005, this journal will take readers across the United States, Europe, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

The journey began more than 20 years ago, as the seeds of a dream to circumnavigate the globe were cultivated from a deeply personal and painful experience.

[Absolutely stunning pictures.]

The clock was ticking, I was one hour off C-Day with everything packed. I had gone through my checklist time & time again fully knowing that as always with my memory I was bound to have forgotten something.

[...]

3 days in, the sun had come out and I was settling down into my monotonous click, click of turning peddles, I was just dwelling on trying to figure out how many revolutions I'll need to turn these things to get me to my final destination, when In front of me not 30m away was a police car blocking the tow-path. On closer inspection its inhabitants were, as I first thought just having a crafty fag break down on the River embankment. But what was he trying to cover up with that white blanket? Like a puzzle it all clicked in, he was covering up a dead body & as it looked (why did I look) a pretty decomposed one at that!

Retching was not a clever idea when you're in a strong head wind & speeding at 25km. But the sight of that body will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Was this the way it was supposed to be? I was planning a pleasant cycle trip along the Rhine to chill out and clear my muddled head of all my earthly problems! But this was turning into a Hollywood horror movie & I was the sucker, who you always knew, was first up to get mutilated.

Well did I survive to tell the tale, did I find the inner me that I was looking for? Read on & find out!

Il s'agit de l'aventure unique d'un étudiant parti à la conquête de l'Europe. Vous pourrez suivre son parcours, ses aventures et anecdotes au quotidien...

Il est actuellement en Croatie et parcours près de 80km/J.

journal + a lot pictures

A short tour of some of Europe's flat bits...
1,029 km (639 miles) over 9 days from April 6, 2007 to April 14, 2007.

A one month cycle tour from Lund Sweden, to Switzerland via the Rhine and Moselle Rivers during the summer of 2005. Total distance 1600km together, plus 1000km solo back to Sweden. We left with a road map book of Europe, a guide book of the Rhine, but without a German phrasebook (we speak English and French). Some hiking in the Alps as a side trip.

Pictures of my bicycle tours through the Alps.

Eine abwechslungsreiche Radtour durch das zentrale Südfrankreich über insgesamt 630 km, 7 Tagesetappen zwischen 64 und 120 Kilometer.

Eine reizvolle Radtour in 7 Etappen über insgesamt 829 km durch hügeliges Gelände, Tagesetappen zwischen 90 und 145 km. Die Etappenziele wurden nach Sehenswürdigkeiten und dem Angebot der örtlichen Gastronomie ausgewählt.

During the summer of 2006, I traveled with only a bicycle from Lviv, Ukraine down to Napoli, Italy, then north to Calais, France. From Calais I ferried to Dover, then rode to London to complete the voyage. I visited eleven countries and saw a variety of landscapes and weather. I had encounters with many people and most of these were positive. I also used this experience to draw attention to a little orphanage in eastern Ukraine, the Makiivka HIV / AIDS orphanage.

Eine Radtour durch die französischen Pyrenäen in 8 Tagesetappen über 760 km. Das Gebirge, wo Majestix der Himmel auf den Kopf gefallen wäre. Die Wolkendecke hängt vor allem im westlichen Teil der Pyrenäen so tief, daß man Mühe hat die Straße zu sehen. Obwohl nicht so hoch wie die bekannten Alpenpässe, haben es die hiesigen ``Giftzwerge'' in sich.

A bike circle within 8 stages over 760 km through the French Pyrenees. The mountain range where the sky would have been fallen on Majestix' head. Expecially in the western part of the Pyrenees, the cloud cover is so low that it is difficult to see the road. Although not as high as the well known passes in the Alpes, the local ``spiteful little devils'' are tough ones.

We're Andrew & Friedel Grant - two Canadians who, after living in the UK for 6 years, have set off to travel the world by bicycle. We had no previous bike touring experience when we began, having really only gotten into cycling at the start of 2006, and when we say we ``got into cycling'' that means short commutes to work along flat cycle paths and the odd day trip, that usually ended up at the pub. We're still not quite certain how that translated into the situation where Friedel said ``hey, let's bike around the world'' and Andrew said ``sure, why not''. The first leg of our tour was in Canada, then through Europe to Morocco. We will keep cycling around the world; hopefully next towards eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Another tour of the mighty Alps, which lasted 25 days. I cycled only 3615 km this time (around the same distance as the Tour de France) and climbed merely 150 different passes (some more than once) of which 103 were new to me. It added up to 79544m height metres.

Maratona-rides: Gran Fondo Marco Pantani & Maratona dles Dolomites.

Places: Aprica, Vivione, San Marco, Garda, Monte Pasubio, Asiago, Misurina, Vallarga, Cuneo, Casterino, Mont Authion, Molini di Triora, Sampeyre, Sestriere, Mont Cenis, l'Iseran, Aréches, Chamonix, Lac d'Emosson, Bretaye, Hahnenmoos, Gemmi, Grosse Scheidegg, Glaspass.

This time we cycle from our front door in Munich, our goal is my sister's house in southern France, near Toulouse. We ride to Lake Constance and on through Switzerland, then in France we follow the Valley of the Rhone to the Mediterranean. From here we can ride on parts of the Canal du Midi to where my sister spends her summers in the little town of Durfort. After our visit we have enough time to continue on to the Atlantic. We started out as so-called credit-card cyclists and ended up buying a tent along the way and camping whenever we got the chance.

A travelogue from an 8 month, 16,000km bike tour from London to Beijing via the ancient silk roads.

We had just finished cycling the South Island of New Zealand and instead of sitting back and relaxing on the flight home, we began planning our next trip, a month long self-supported cycling trip in France.

What better place to begin a trip to France then in Paris. From the 'City of Lights' we would dabble in a little art history by visiting Monet's gardens and then it would be off to the D-day beaches and a WWII history lesson. From 20th century history we would go back in time to the 11th century and visit Bayeaux and its famous tapestry. We would then check out life in a monastery, cycling across Normandy to Mt. St. Michel.

From Mt. St. Michel we would travel along the Brittany coast. At St. Malo we would leave the coast for the medieval city of Dinan and continue to the mouth of the Loire. We would then cycle through the land of chateaux and wineries ending our trip at Fontainebleau.

Our site includes lots of photos along with a daily log and an equipment list.

After the last 2 years of my alpine bicycletours, in 2006 I went back to the Alps with the aim that after my tour maybe I would be the first hungarian people who bicycled up to all (74-75) of the asphalted alpine passes above 2000m. After 6 years of alone bicycling, this year I had two guys with me. In Italy and France we had nice, warm, sunny days with cycling a few hard cols, passes, like the 2612m high Passo Nivolet (I'm sure between the 3 best / most beautiful passes, where I had been), or the almost unknown Passo del Preit (2083 m), onto we bicycled in stormy weather with thunderstorms. The Fort Gondran (2347 m)was also very nice next to Briancon, I can suggest to visit it.

After Col du Lautaret, Alpe d'Huez, Col du Sabot, we arrived to Chamonix on a nice day, when at last we could see the snowfields of the Mont Blanc before sunset. Next day we got rain and cold as we cycled to Switzerland, and the bad weather remained for 3-4 days long. We had to postpone passes onto the next days, or climbed 1-2 of them partly in rain and arrived to the top in 4-8 degrees Celsius. The Sustenpass was the worst and coldest. The Passo Spluga (2117 m) was also a very beautiful pass, with a lot of hairpins, views and superb hairpin-row on a almost vertical wall, with short straight sections. Because the times went by too fast on that evening I decided to climb the famous Mortirolo (and the 2100m high Passo Val Bighera) in dark, in the night. It was wonderful: in a calm, dark forst in a warm air. I enjoyed very much the nature, air, and the views, because it was light, because I had fortune with the full Moon. I enjoyed the feeling so much, that I spent much time above. Our last pass was the Passo Goletto di Crocette (2070 m), onto we had 8-10% steep kilometers in or after raining for 2-3 hours. With a few passes postponed, we remained 4 passes to climb, that I did in September 2006.

Radtour von Rastatt nach Strassburg über die elsässische Weinstrasse weiter nach Colmar und schließlich nach Freiburg

I enjoyed a marvellous bike trip from Alicante (South Spain) back to Switzerland. Three high points I wanted to visit. First; the country of ``Don Quijote'' in Castilla y Mancha. Second; ``El Escorial'' west of Madrid. Third; ``the bridge over the river Tarn'' in South France, build of the English star architect Norman Forster. I avoided busy roads as much as possible and enjoyed the quiet side streets, especial along the Pyrenees.

Vom 20 Juli bis 08 August 2006 fuhren wir den Rhein entlang von der Quelle (Tomasee) bis zur Mündung in Katwijk aan zee. Dort trägt sie noch den Nahme ``Rijn'', im Gegensatz zu Hoek van Holland.

This is a description with lots of pictures of our August 2006 trip on tandem recumbent around Alsace with a few days in Bourgogne. We also did some traveling on the train, even with out very long bike. I also describe some of our planning work and how we built a box to take our 104-inch long bike on the airplanes from New York state to Mulhouse France. We camped part of the time and stayed in a great chambre d'hote (bed and breakfast) for several days.

Eine anspruchsvolle Radtour in 8 Tagesetappen über insgesamt 549 km durch das südliche Korsika, Tagesetappen zwischen 40 und 109 Kilometern.

A demanding bicycle tour over 8 days and 450 kilometers through southern Corsica. The daily stages were between 40 and 109 kilometers.

Photos and video of the more scenic and quiet backside ride up to Alpe d'Huez, Col de Sarenne, in the French Alps.

The canyon of the Tarn is one of the obvious highlights of the Cévennes National Park. Another landmark landscape phenomenon are the so called 'Causses'. Causses are the bleak and barren high limestone plateaus of the Cévennes National Park.

This site deals about a short but fascinating cycle trip that Willem Hoffmans and I undertook through the gorges, plateaus and volcano landscapes of the Massif Central. Cycling in the autumn means there are gew facilities but also few tourists, which gave us a whole new perspective of life in the French countryside.

We are now in Cambodia, after 10 months of cycling thru New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand. Our site is bilingual.

Our web site is about the trip that we are now realizing. We have gone across the world to go back to Canada. We already crossed 5 different countries in 10 months. We will keep biking for around 2 more years. The subject treated by the web page is mostly about our trip (story, pictures, organisation) but we added a lot of other stuff like recipes, rock climbing, and small articles. We are French-Canadian, so our web site is belingual.

A historical look at Alpe d'Huez plus written and photo reports from the Marmotte and Etape du Tour events. Both events finished at the top of Alpe d'Huez this past July.

In the summer of 2004 we cycled 2250 kilometer from Holland to Rome. During the trip we passed through 10 countries and cycled through the Ardennes, Vosges, Alps, Apennines and Tuscany. We enjoyed the beautiful italian villages and met a lot of other cyclists. A lot of pictures, tips and travel stories in Dutch (English translations will soon appear).

In 2004 fietsten we van Nederland naar Rome. We fietsten door 10 landen en door/over de Ardennen, Vogezen, Alpen, Appenijnen en Toscane. We genoten volop van de mooie Italiaanse stadjes en ontmoetten heel veel andere fietsers. Veel plezier!

In March of 2006 we set out to cycle from the UK to Tibet. We didn't quite make it but had a great adventure cycling across Europe in one of the wettest winters on record and then through the wilds of Central Asia. The site includes lots of images from Tajikistan one of the really countries for cycling.

Bike Tours: Travelogues, photos, maps and tips about long distance bike traveling in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Slovenia, France, Spain; Mexico, Canada; South America and others.

Reiseberichte und Reisefotografie von Radtouren in Europa (Italien, Griechenland, Spanien, Mallorca, Frankreich, Tschechien, Slovenien etc.), Kanada, Mexiko, Südamerika und viele mehr. Lass dich inspirieren!

Solo biking trip still in progress from a 31 year old woman ex-software engineer. Started April 8th, 2006 in Lisbon, headed East towards Istanbul. Currently in Dresden, Germany, over 5000 kms pedalled so far, across most of continental Europe.

Descriptions of our one to four week tandem tours at a leisurely pace following river valleys where possible and always via the most minor roads.

In France: Provence and the Luberon; Dieppe, Normandy coast and Rouen; Saintes to Perpignan; Saintes to Strasbourg; St. Malo to Montpellier; The Loire Valley and Suisse Normande

In Ireland: Cork to Galway via the West Coast

In Scotland: August 2005: Lairg to Cape Wrath via Polbain and Altnaharra; Glasgow to John O' Groats and the Orkneys

In England: Newcastle to Berwick-upon-Tweed

This bike trip in France, from Metz to Nice in July 2006, was our annual club event.

The Lafayette Riders (Cavaliers) started in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, where a cardiologist noted the poor condition of the miners and determined to do something about it. Bicycles seemed the answer. Eventually, the mining group encountered American riders and it was decided to form a group with the Marquis de Lafayette being the symbol of enduring Franco-American friendship.

The Lafayette Riders alternate between France and the United States each year, and next year (2007) the club will get together in northern California.

Un tour par les petites routes et par des cols ni très hauts ni très connus pour arriver sur une montagne vraiment unique.

Taking small roads and riding over passes neither very high nor well known to climb to a really unique mountain.

Kleine Strassen und wenig bekannte, nicht so hohe Pässe, die zum einem einzigartigen Berg führen.

Cycling from St Jean Pied Du Port to Santiago de Compostella. Slowly.

Freda White in her classic travel book on this region said that a visitor to this region of South West France would cry 'Now I know why they say ``la belle France''!. It is truly one of the best parts of France with beautiful rivers, rugged cliffs and gorges, spectacular cliff top castles and more than its fair share of the ``plus beaux villages'' (prettiest villages). It is a region that has been popular with tourists for years and during the peak holiday season from mid July to mid August, the roads, hotels and campgrounds are packed with holiday makers. Avoid this time of the year and you will have quiet roads to pedal along and a wide choice of accommodation.

This is truly one of Europe's best cycling regions.