Malta/France - Le Tour de France Part 2

From South to North and from East to West, after 3000+ kilometres on the bike, we can now confidently say, Tour de France on the bikes - tick!

Taking in the phenomenal chateaux and sights of Beziers

The last three week have included Aurelie's sisters 30^th birthday, a trip to Malta, some more time lapping up the joys of Provence, and part 2 of the ‘Tour de France’. This time it was a trip to the West Coast to the globally renowned wine regions of Bordeaux.

Claire (Aurelie’s sister) 30^th birthday landed conveniently a couple of days after we returned from Part 1 of our tour de France. It was a dress up which made for a very entertaining night with some very creative costumes on display. 

Aurelie’s Cleopatra ensemble was definitely a highlight. Shane’s attempts at re-creating the original Karate Kid probably didn’t quite hit the spot, as the majority thought he looked more like a cross between a Chinese samurai and an English convict. In any case, it was certainly an entertaining night, with Claire’s better half, Fabrice, who turned himself into a Bob Marley replica, taking the votes for best dressed on the night.

Some interesting characters preparing to kickstart the festivities

The following day, we set off for the best part of a week in Malta, a beautiful little Mediterranean island off the Southern tip of Italy. The combination of Roman, English and local historical influence made for some very impressive scenery and architecture.

 Shane checking out some of the historical highlights of Malta

However, in all honesty, what we were really there for was for some R&R and indulgence. Profiting from the freshly cooked seafood, cheap local beverages and time on the beach or in the pool, was definitely at the very top of our itinerary. This, with the helped of Shane’s friend from Australia David (Kenno), we definitely achieved. Beautiful and relaxing location that we’d definitely go back to given the opportunity.

 Arriving at the island of Comino, an island just off the mainland of Malta

Returning to France, summer appeared to be finally on its way. The tourists are starting to arrive as Provence starts to flourish due to the warmer weather, long days, incredible landscapes and super fresh local produce such as cherries, melon, lavender and vino.

With part 2 of our tour de France only a couple of days away, Shane got a good warm-up cycling with Aurelie’s father Jean-Paul. 80kms on the Saturday, followed up with 105km on the Sunday morning with the cycle club, that included a trek up the Mt Ventoux. Aurelie joined in for this one to the dismay of the egos of the majority of the cycling club, as she quickly showed them up pedalling away from them as soon as the mountains arrived.

 Cruising past France's equivalent to the Collosseum, the main arena in Nimes

Part 2 of the Tour de France started with us setting off from Mazan on an afternoon that peaked at 37 degrees. Fortunately we had a pool waiting for us at the end of day 1, to help refresh and recover. Day 2 we arrived on the South Coast, halted for a moment by a snake that crossed our path that Aurelie was only moments away from running over, then arrived at our beachside destination with another 100+ kms under our belt.

Aurelie stopped in her tracks by a snake...this is France, not Australia isn't it!! 

Unfortunately this was when the weather, just like on Part 1 of our tour, took a turn for the worse! Coincidentally, it was the South West coast (which was exactly where we were) which was the worst affected, with rain, hail and flooding causing significant destruction around the area. Temperatures also plummeted and we awoke to rain, with a forecast of a maximum of 15 degrees, unheard in the South of France at this time of year!

Fortunately we avoided the worst of the conditions and soldiered on, still taking great pleasure in the history, beauty and diversity of this region. After another 3 consecutive 100+ km days as we traversed the base of the Pyrenees, we made it to visit the home of friends, who are living in what can only be described as a mini chateaux. The sprawling gardens, mountain top views. And extremely generous hosts, Diane and Tom and their two girls Lucy and Coco, made for a great couple of days and a great way to break up our tour.

 Aurelie, Diane and Tom are greeted by blue skies at the base of the Pyrenees

We then made our way up the West Coast to a very popular tourist destination on the West Coast called Arcachon, famous for its incredibly fresh Oysters, which we duly sampled. Only downside again was the weather, we certainly didn’t get the relaxing afternoon on the beach that we envisaged. It was then across to Bordeaux, our final destination of the tour to visit and sample some of the locally produced wine.

 Chateau du Pape Clement, just on the outskirts of Bordeaux

After the early morning train from Bordeaux to Avignon, we rolled back into Mazan, fighting fit but just a little tender around the ‘derriere’ region! Part 2 of the Tour de France took in exactly 963kms in 9 days and provided us with exactly what we were after in terms of getting a true insight into France, it's history and it's culture.

Part 2 of the Tour de France below:

Day	Depart	Arrive	Distance (km)	Cum. Total (km)	Comments
1	Mazan	Gallargues Le Montueux	110	110	Nimes – very impressive historical city
2	Gallargues Le Montueux	Vias (Agde)	110	220	Coastal village, beautiful area
3	Vias (Agde)	Castelnaudary	129	349	Chateaux des Bezieres & Carcassone were big highlights
4	Castelnaudary	Saint-Gaudens	141	490	Cold, wet & windy. Beautiful landscape
5	Saint-Gaudens	Aubertin	139	629	Base of Pyrenees
6	Aubertin	Mont de Marsan	101	730	Longer day than expected! 1st puncture in over 2,500kms!
7	Mont de Marsan	Arcachon	133	863	Coastal town, very nice.
8	Arcachon	Bordeaux	73	936	Famous for its vino with good reason!
9	Avignon	Mazan	37	973	Train Bordeaux to Avignon

Our schedule continues to move along at a rate of knots. We fly to London, our first time back in London since 2006, then onto Scotland for a wedding and then back to France to see the professional cyclists in the Tour de France as they climb the Mt Ventoux on Bastille Day (Frances national day - 14^th July).

It’s going to be another big couple of weeks….LG!!!

France - 'Le Tour de France'

2152 kilometres in 27 days of cycling our way across France...Simply an incredible adventure!

The tour included a combination of some the most beautiful scenery, varied landscapes, magical french villages steeped with history & tradition, and some extremely harsh unseasonal conditions.

It all seems a bit surreal, having navigated our way across the country in this way, and encountering what we encountered, but to be honest, we would not have wanted to have it any other way!!! We are certainly aware that there is a pretty popular bike race in this country, but for us, this was the real Tour de France!

A glimpse of sunshine peaked through the clouds as we set off. The first week was spent taking in the splendour of the Cote D'Azur.

The city of Nice made for a very impressive backdrop

We caught up with Aurelie's sister Claire and partner Fabrice, in seaside town of Le Seyne Sur Mer, before working our way through the glamorous and affluent villages of St Tropez, Cannes and Monaco.

Overlooking the opulent village of St. Tropez and its famous clock tower

It was then time for what turned out to be both a mental and physical test as we climbed our way up into the grand mountains of the Alpes. The difficulty and steepness of the climbs made things difficult, but we suffered just as much, if not more on the descent due to the unseasonal freezing temperatures!

Covered in snow at the height of our glories!

Our highest point of the tour was the summit of the snow capped Col de Lauteret (2058m). We found the Col de Turini to be the toughest of the Cols, steep, long and straight into the wind. The highlight of our experience in the Alps was the opportunity to climb the famous Alp D'Huez, renowned globally in the cycling world, for its mysticism, its 21 hair pin turns and its ridiculous steepness, it certainly made for a nice little test!

Shane tackling the mecca of cycling, the famous Alp D'Huez

We were also supposed to climb the Col de la Bonnette, the highest bitumen road in France (2715m) but it was closed, as was the case with basically all mountains over 2000m, due to the heavy snow falls that hit us. The road closure of the Col de la Bonnette caused us to have to take 150km detour on one of the days, not ideal! 

In the middle of it all we spent a weekend hibernating in the snow, again with Claire & Fabrice, who made their way up to visit us in the ski resort of Les Orres. We arrived, after a 15km climb, to a panoramic view over the lush green mountains. This however quickly changed, as we awoke the next morning to see it all covered in snow. 60mm of snow fell overnight, fresh powder everywhere, a skiers (certainly not a cyclists) paradise. Unfortunately all ski facilities were already closed for the summer so we made do with having snow fights, making snow angels and profiting from the heated indoor swimming pool!!

View from our chalet... Amazing how quickly things can change overnight!   

After finally making our way out of the mountains, the legs were feeling strong, so we had a couple of long days on the bike as we worked our way up into Switzerland. We had a great night catching up with friends, Will and Ophelie, who are based on the France / Switzerland border, before exploring the beautiful Swiss city of Geneva.

Le jet d'eau (water jet)...Geneva's iconic landmark

With the rain and weather still making things difficult, we headed North West across the country, en route to the iconic French location of Le Mont St Michel.

The countryside in this part of France was beautiful. Rolling hills filled the landscape, and there was no shortage of significant historical sites to give an excuse to take a break and jump off the bike for an hour as we approached the Loire Valley region.

Aurelie taking pride in showing off some of her countries beauty

The only downside from a cycling perspective was that we were heading in a North Westerly direction, and every day for a week, the wind was gusting from the North West, directly into our faces. Once again, not ideal!

We stopped to explore famous bigger cities such as Bourges (the former Capital of France in the 1400s), Tours and Le Mans, and were also captivated by the little French villages such as Bourg En Bresse, Montrichard and Fougeres.

Taking in the enormity of Le Chateau de Chonenceau

We also made time to visit some of the bigger Chateau's including Chonenceau and Ambroise, before finally making it to our ultimate destination of Le Mont St Michel.

Delighted to be greeted by blue sky at the magical Le Mont St Michel 

Shane decided to do the 15th stage of this years tour de france, a 33km time trial from Avranches to Mont St Michel, before working our way down to Rennes to catch the train back to Avignon.

We rolled our way back from Avignon to Mazan with 2152km on the clock. An epic adventure and a phenominal way to explore a big chunk of this beautiful country.

We have arrived back to Mazan just in time for Aurelie's sisters 30th. We are then off to Malta for a week before taking off on part 2 of our Tour de France as we head into the wine regions of Bordeaux.

Exciting times continue...LG!

Full details of the Tour below:

Day	Depart	Arrive		Distance (km)	Cum. Total (km)	Comments
1	Mazan	Aix en Provence		120	120
2	Aix en Provence	Le Seyne Sur Mer		105	225
3	Rest Day - Le Seyne Sur Mer staying with Claire and Fabrice
4	Le Seyne Sur Mer		St Tropez/ St Maxime	110	335	The heart of the Cote D’Azur
5	St Tropez/ St Maxime		Cannes	67	402	1 day b4 start of film festival
6	Cannes		Monaco/ Menton	62	464
7	Monaco/ Menton		St Martin Vesubie	79	543	Toughest day of Tour. Up into the Alps, wind, rain & freezing cold. Incl. Col de Castillion, Turini & St Martin
8	St Martin Vesubie		Chateauredon	151	694	Spectacular gorges, lakes, valleys.
9	Chateauredon		Les Orres	70	764	Train Sisteron – Embrun. 15km climb to Les Orres (1650m)
10	Rest Day – Weekend at Les Orres. Covered in snow, where’s the sunshine!!
11	Les Orres		Briancon	82	846
12	Briancon		Le Bourg D’Oisans	100	946	Col du Lauteret (2046m) & Mystical climb of Alp d’Huez (1850m)
13	Le Bourg D’Oisans		Aix les Bains	140	1086
14	Aix les Bains		Divonne Les Bains	112	1198	Big 4 days of cycling!
15	Divonne Les Bains		Geneva	22	1220
16	Rest Day – Geneva. Train from Geneva to Bourg en Bresse due to rain.
17	Bourg en Bresse		Charolles	95	1315	Tough day , straight into the wind.
18	Charolles		Imphy	122	1437	Little village near Nevers
19	Rest day due to rain. We hear that we are in the middle of the coldest, wettest spring in France since 1949…just what we need!!
20	Imphy		Bourges (capital of France in 1400’s	84	1521	Once again, wet cold and windy.
21	Bourges		Montrichard	106	1627	Super Tough day. Straight into wind. Got soaked by a big Storm..not idéal!
22	Montrichard		Tours	53	1680	Day spent exploring castles of Chonenceau & Ambroise.Magic!
23	Tours		Le Mans	96	1776	Super tough into wind..relentless!
24	Le Mans		Fougeres	124	1900	Finally a cross breeze! Great day traversing across Normandy
25	Fougeres		Le Mont St Michel	53	1953	Iconic & magical location
26	Le Mont St Michel		Rennes	138	2091	Shane did Tour de France time trial circuit (Avranches – Mt St Michel, 33km, 55mins)
27	Rennes		Mazan	61	2152	Train Rennes to Avignon. Finished back where we started..wow wee!