J’ai promis d’ecrire quelques pages en francais…donc excusez mes fautes et le fait que j’utilise un clavier anglais (sans accents…mince!)
On est parti d’Avignon et on a longe le Rhone au sud a Barbentane ou on a trouve un boulangerie magnifique (on a bien travaille de developper ce don de trouver les bons endroits pour manger). (more…)
Horrah! New freewheel in place and we’re off on the train to Avignon!
We arrived in Avignon on Friday 20th and met some really lovely people on the train and off the train. (more…)
Our last few days in the Jura were excellent. The trip down the Gorges de l’Ain was stunning and we were only a whisker away from the Tour de France (which went past Bourg en Bresse).
I think we are blessed because our freewheel only finally gave in one kilometre from the station at Amberieu en Bugey.
Have a look at our photos at: flickr.com/davidheath
Nous sommes gourmands! Et donc je vais vous décrire les choses qu’on aime manger en vélo…
One of the best things about cycling lots is you can eat like a Trojan. Or at least you can claim that you need to eat like a Trojan. So we’ve been doing our best to keep France’s boulangeries in business… (more…)
The first few days in the Jura tested our patience and sense of humour but the last three days were fantastic. The sun came out Thursday and continued to toast us (in a nice way) until Saturday. We binned the Lonely Planet suggested rides and went in hunt of a new freewheel instead. It was more fun being masters of our own destiny and choosing our own routes.
Thursday morning we set off from Nozeroy fairly early. But before we got cycling we made a cycle-changing discovery. My peddles were too far away from me…Uhoh! I had been peddling with all my force but only using my calf muscles…woops! No wonder Dave was absolutely exhausted after the previous rides. (more…)
In case you didn’t know what the Hase Pino looks like, here it is! I don’t remember the name of lake shown in the background. I’ll have a check later.
I weighed all our bags when we got home out of curiosity. This was done using me standing on bathrooms scales and holding each bag in turn. Not very accurate, but gives an order of magnitude. We had the following:
* green pannier 1: 4.5 kg
* green pannier 2: 5 kg
* trailer chassis: 5 kg
* trailer bag and contents: 14 kg
* red pannier: 6 kg
* camelback (without water): 2kg
which makes a total of 36.5 kg of luggage. We plan to see if we can cut down enough to take 4 panniers plus a bag strapped on top of the rear rack and leave the trailer behind. This automatically saves us 5kg which is very welcome. But we’ll probably have to lose around 5kg of real stuff as well.
Well, as Sam said, it wasn’t only our legs complaining yesterday. Halfway up the 2.5km climb out of arbois, the rear free-wheel started sticking. When I stopped pedalling the freewheel and chain continued turning fowards, eventually jumping free. VERY BAD sign considering we had another 55km to go. Somehow we eventually made it to Nozeroy, with the freewheel skipping occasionally and sticking. (more…)
So it’s day 3 and it hasn’t stopped raining since we left Lyon. Quel horreur!
Day one We left Besançon on Monday lunchtime…very glad as no problems taking the bike on the train. We started cycling about 5pm on Monday once the hail storm (!) had stopped.
Monday’s ride was really beautiful. We followed the new cycle route along the river Doubes. In spite of the rain, the river, the birds and the lush green fields were peaceful and relaxing. The final 20kms were hard work and I’m sure Dave was secretly hoping my legs were like Arnold Schwarznegger’s. (more…)
Finally we picked up the bike in Annecy on Thursday afternoon. This is us with Jean-Pierre of M5 after a few final test rides and adjustments.
More photos here.
Just got back home from Annecy. Bike was predictably delayed further, and finally we got the bike on Thursday afternoon. Many thanks to Jean-Pierre at M5 for putting the bike together super-quickly and loaning us the shop Pino while we waited, so we could start getting used to it.
Anyway, more info and some photos to follow soon.