Friday, 14 June 2013

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
53
1953
Iconic & magical location
26
Le Mont St Michel
Rennes
138
2091
27
Rennes
Mazan
61
2152
Train Rennes to Avignon. Finished back where we started..wow wee!


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