Concluding Notes

This post is really a note for myself for future tours.

The Inspiration for this tour was the book France En Velo; excellent both for planning and on the road. I wish I had used it more earlier in the tour and visited more sites. To get both the racers and the wandering souls like me down to Nice at their respective paces the authors have chosen key places and linked them by reasonably quiet but fast "D" roads which are the equivalent to main roads in the UK. This is no Greenway route and will suit roadies and tourers alike but you won't see much of the excellent cycle infrastructure you would see on eurovelo or regional cycleways. Like trade routes of old the tour follows river valleys where it can cut out some ascents making for superb scenery such as the gorges which do actually require some climbing. 

The Route is clearly described in the book in words and outline maps and the GPX Tracks files I paid for independently were worth it. They are very reliable and acurate though it is worth checking each day for any off-road segments and making adjustments. The golden rule being don't go off-road.

The Navigation Tool I used was Komoot and though on this journey it had the annoying habit of telling me that I may have missed the turning when I hadn't, all was good. I needed to keep checking the bigger geographical picture so I knew where I was more generally. 

The Bone Conducting Headphones were a bonus as I almist always heard the instructions and people in the bakery didn't. 

Heavy Duty Locks may have been overkill as you are always in safe places. With the bike being vital I am maybe over protective. One quality long chain lock sufficient to cover both wheels and a lamp post would have been fine. In practice the bike is locked to a tree overnight so a long cable is useful and as I travel alone a good lock for town centres is actually quite wise. It sounds like I am talking myself into using the same heavy locks again.

Food is readily available and carrying tins of whatever just in case is being over cautious even taking the Sunday and Monday closures into account. I could manage if I missed an evening meal though a tin of sweetcorn and one of tuna make a good quick lunch.

Food Highlights would have to be the best burger and chips I've ever had and of course the lamb's brain in garlic and herb butter in Sault.

Cooking means more weight in fuel but is a very useful option when you just want simple but hot food or a hot drink on a cold day with no café in sight. Given May was unseasonably cool and damp in France the stove came in useful for midday hot food.

Recipes is overstating my crude approach to camp cooking and I did tire of my limited repertoire. 

1. Pasta with tinned fish in a sauce possibly with added soup powder.

2. Pasta with mushroom soup and dried mushrooms 

3. Couscous with Pistou soup powder 

4. Just tins of tuna and sweetcorn 

Accommodation; four nights camping then a Chambres d'Hotes worked very well as a strategy. I got hit by a 40 euro campsite and should have used that as a hotel night but it is impossible to get it all right. Not booking campsites would have been fine in May. Pre-booking hotels was essential for getting an affordable 60 euro room rather than 120 euro room last minute. I could have hunted out more Gites or Gites d'étape as these are great value but easier to locate on busier walking routes such as GR routes or caminos. Oddly, using booking.com often gave me a slightly better price than the price advertised in hotel receptions.

Required Fitness; of the people I met going down to Nice 3 weeks was normal and only a few like me took 4 weeks. There were plenty of 60 somethings but all clearly keen cyclists with minimal body fat. I felt like Mr Chubby. That said, with training, sensible planning and some grit its a tour most could do if they desired. The key is being able to clock up time in the saddle and having low enough gears. I never felt tired in the morning so perhaps 3 weeks would have worked. 

Future daily mileage for me might be 35 miles with 900m of climbing or 50 miles with just 300m of ascent if travelling with camping equipment. 

The Book and its route and recommendations were all excellent. I met some people who complained gently that the 2014 book needed an update. I know some very popular walking route books get updated annually but you need the volume of sales to justify it. Then again I once toured with a 1910 (yes, nineteen ten) guide and managed OK.

Nice is a fantastic place in its own right with plenty of walks, museums and the pebble beach. It is also a great place to explore the coast by train whether that is busy Monte Carlo or quiet Villefanche-sur-Mer. Staying close to Nice-Ville rail station and finding local restaurants and Socca takeaways would be a good choice.

The London to Paris Avenue Verte which I used to get from Paris to Dieppe was for me a bit disappointing as the route getting out of Paris was neither scenic nor pleasant cycling and beyond that it felt as though the route was just trying to get to the coast by whatever traffic-free segments could be used. Just my feeling which may be influenced by 28 days of "D" roads across France. In fairness, once past Cergy le Haut life became much better and Maison-Laffitte is a great stopover and the closer to Dieppe I got the better the route. So I have talked myself into praising the route.

Fashion plays a part in cycle touring and perhaps the image of retirees with their solid touring bikes and hefty panniers is not attractive to the young crowd. No wonder then that gravel bikes kitted out with bikepacking bags are de riguour for the more youthful in society. And so it is that my final word goes to the group of six young women I saw at my departure point in Waterloo Station. They all turned up with whatever bike they happened to own with whatever tent they could lay their hands on stored in whatever pannier, rucksack or bag they could fasten to the bike or themselves. It felt refreshing to see that people had a sense of adventure and were happy to use whatever was available. 

Day 30; Nice

With approximately 250m uphill and 1,000m downhill today is, theoretically, a good day to be on a bike. I wake up feeling tired and weak, pack the tent and the dry laundry and try to head off but the bike has a flat tire that needs a patch. I always try and repair punctures so I know I have the two useable spares if I puncture in the rain. The thunder due later has started rumbling already so my descent is in the cold and rain. The descent is through a final gorge with the usual tunnels. Even in fine weather there aren't that many places to stop safely. It is a great road just not how I has hoped my final day would feel. 

As I get down to around 200m things warm up and then I am back into built-up areas for the final 10 miles.

A first sight of the Mediterranean.

Today is another Bank Holiday so people are out on the promenade walking, jogging, skating or cycling.

After passing the airport which sits on the coast I get to the Promenade des Anglais which takes me the official tour end; as much as there is an official end.

I started this hopeful 1,000-mile journey with a question about why "hope" was in Pandora's box. You remember, the box from Greek Mythology that was gifted to Pandora and that contained many of the evils of the world including - confusingly - hope. Though we have discussed the nature of hope I have held off providing my answer which is avoidance in the extreme so here goes. Greek Mythology has been handed down to us through translation and re-telling so the original meaning of the word hope from Pandora's box may have been quite different to today's meaning. If the meaning of hope is the same then we should remember that the Greek Gods, and Zeus especially, were a sadistic bunch. They created mankind from clay as their play things, a sort of experiment, and in the early days there were no evils to blight mankind's life. When death, disease and other nasties were put in the box and subsequently released into the world the inclusion of hope ensured that mankind endured and did not roll over and die thereby ending the experiment. It also provided what Zeus would have seen as a delicious sting in the tail; no matter how hard things got or how futile the future looks mankind will keep persevering. The Greek Gods probably coined the phrase "hopeless hope".

Back in a world without vengeful overlords I feel hope is an entity we carry inside us and that we can choose to nurture and use to our advantage. I have used my hope on this journey to drive me forward to all my daily destinations whether that is the first easy ride starting at the Channel from Saint Malo to Pontorson, the relentless ascent to the summit of Mont Ventoux, or the final weary descent into Nice on the Mediterranean. 

Day 29; Greolieres

I quite enjoy the climbs now I know how to tackle them and have built some stamina, low gear, steady away and take it as a good workout. There is technique to it, from childhood we learn to push from 1 o'clock to 5 o'clock then the same with the other foot giving 8 'hours' worth of force. If we can manage to continue that push to 5 o'clock into a pawing, scrapping, flicking of the foot from 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock then that is 6 'hours' per foot or a full 12 'hours'. Life gets smoother and easier and that's before we start using clipless pedals, you know, the ones with clips. 

Today is the penultimate day and I have the last of the climbs, first up to the Col de Luens which is actually a false summit on my route; I am guessing these sub-summit passes were named in a time when the pass was a regular way through by foot or horse and though the new roads go to higher points no one thought to name them; its just another stretch of D4085 if you are in a motorised vehicle where you don't experience the gradients so physically. 

Then a bit more climbing to the second and higher pass with no name where I rest and enjoy the view. I take time to check on food stocks as I am in the Sunday-Monday fragile food security window. I also start communications with the French government over the naming of Cols with no name as there is money to be made by selling the right to chose the name of a Col. You may remember that I have dodged paying the nightly tourist tax on a few occasions and I give this Col naming initiative to the government as a salve for my concience.  Provided there is a Col du Anthony over 1,000m somewhere I'm happy. 

Sometime later I stop for a coffee and biscuit break at a picnic spot and wonder where the downhills are as it has been flat or sneakily uphill despite the fact that I am rolling through soft pastures with cattle and pine forests hugging the mountain slopes. The highest altitude provided by the road signs was up to 1188m.

The last of the climbs doesn't mean the last of the descents and I have been rehearsing my downhill and am putting that into practice now that the roads are dry. On today's first downhill I was overtaken by a VW Transporter at the top and I kept up through the bends and clocked 52 km/hour on the final short flat. It is now downhill to Greolieres, then downhill to Nice. Funny how we suddenly become attached to the things (such as the climbs) that are taken away from us.

France has plenty of national parks and I am currently in the Parc naturel régional des Préalpes d'Azur. The 'Pre-Alps' bit is a clue that I am close to Nice which is close to the border with Italy and therefore the Alps proper. Talking of Italy the Giro d'Italia finished today. Primoz Roglic took the pink jersey (the maglia rosa) yesterday from Geraint Thomas who had held it for 8 days. Mark Cavendish won the final stage which is big news in itself and Primoz Roglic wins the 2023 Giro d'Italia. 

When it finally came I enjoyed a fantastic final sweeping decent into Greolieres which included some real car advert scenery. 

My destination of Greolieres is tucked into the hillside. I didn't take the most efficient route to my accommodation and so I know that some streets are only just wide enough for my bike. It is a maze. Though not planned my accommodation is a studio which has a washing machine so everything can get a nice clean for Nice.

In other news when the bicycle was introduced it empowered women by providing them with mobility and this quote from Ann Strong in 1895 has been turned into a top tube sticker which is the bike equivalent of a car bumper sticker.

Travelling 1,000 miles through France by bicycle has allowed me to see and feel the landscape from the relaxed and gentle Loire valley to the dramatic Gorges du Verdon. Tomorrow I descend down to the Mediterranean and complete the journey so I think I have earned the right to use that Earnest Hemmingway quote which goes "It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them."

Yes, simplest is best. 

Day 28; Castellane

If like me you thought Provence was a soft flat landscape populated with fields of yellow sunflowers and blooming rows of purple lavender then think again as it is mountainous. Many villages are situated on a steep hillside like Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and although it is an awkward place to build it does free up the limited valley land for cultivation and is also easier to defend. The Gorges du Verdon for example is 700m deep in places which compares to the Grand Canyon in the USA which is admittedly over double that. 

Though too far to photo this gallery cuts through a vertical cliff face.

It was a terrifying prospect as I surveyed it last night from 2 km away and I am still not comfortable when I look down. 

In anticipation of the dark tunnel you are advised to 'light your fire' or put your lights on.

I have made a big deal of Ventoux as it is the Col you will have heard of and its the one cycle enthusiasts flock to. However, I had the pleasure of climbing that without baggage. The other Cols and the Gorges I have had to climb fully kitted out.

Another village perché and this one's medieval castle highlights its defensive position. 

Yesterday there were about a dozen Ferraris driving up and down the gorge. I mention it as they had a van with its rear hatchback door open and someone taking photos out of the back. Today it is another group of cars which must have come up from Monaco and other glamorous resorts on the Mediterranean. It is the Monaco Grand Prix tomorrow and one car has an especially bright paint job with the words "SAFETY CAR" written on it.

I am leaving the Var department and entering a new one.

'High Provence' is appropriate as I reached 1,000 meters today which is admittedly in the Var and the elevation gain was admittedly due to yesterday's hard work.

Yesterday I saw plenty of small butterfly as I descended from the gite. Today a large white butterfly came to my handlebars and stayed with me for at least 5 seconds as I cycled along. I haven't said much about the wildlife on this trip yet but with France and the regions I have been travelling through being sparsely populated the birdsong has been impressive. Less of the night time owls I heard so much of last year in Brittany but a noticeable amount of cuckoo calls during the day. There have been many frog chorus' and three deer sightings; larger than the muntjac we see in the UK so maybe roe deer. The hedgehog population is healthy; at least those that haven't tried to cross the road. One snake on the road sunning itself, an eagle and a hare.

Towards the end of the day I followed the Verdon river which is very popular for rafting as there is just the right amount of gentle white water over a sufficient distance to make it a good commercial activity equivalent to the canoes of the Ardèche. Today's campsite is 15 euros, situated on my road into town, the pitch is good and there is even a washing line to finish drying the tent before it goes up. I had picked up supermarket provisions once the climbing was done and despite the heat some hot, tasty liquidy food was welcome. The Verdon is usually some shade of blue but with all the rain it has been a grubby muddy putty colour.

As I took this photo a minibus disgorged ten men in very becoming - and matching - head to toe neoprene, then the river was engorged by the same quantity of men plus a raft; that's gorge rafting for you.

In position Nice is a mere 90 km east-south-east and I am due north of St Tropez or more precisely Port Grimaud but St Tropez sounds more Mediterranean. 

Castellane is bustling and as a first on this trip I sit in a cafe for cooling ice cream and a beer. 

If you are growing tired of reading then rest assured that day 30 is the last as I will enjoy time in Nice, night train to Paris, cycle to Dieppe then ferry and train home. This story was always about Channel to Mediterranean.

Day 27; Balcons de la Mescla

The sun is shining. Today would have been quite short but having made it to a remote gite I now get a fantastic ride away from the main roads and I have to say that the combination of great food last night and spell binding scenery this morning make the climb last night worth it. I realise that despite my rest day the Ventoux climb had caught up with me. Here is my photo reel from the decent.

It had been a tough ride yesterday and re-reading the given directions it was 17 km from Moustiers-Sainte-Marie comprising 5 km on main road and 10 km on the track, I'm no mathemetician but even I can tell something doesn't add up.

This morning there is local lavender honey on the table so I inhale its menthol lavender fragrance only to met by a flat floral fragrance with a slight rancid note. I am confused until I cycle off and breath in the fragrant but slightly rancid smell of yellow flowering broom which grows in abundance here. 

The 5 km into Moustiers-Sainte-Marie is cycling heaven being a sweeping gradual downhill. Sometimes you get what you hoped for; this is a hopeful journey. This is Moustiers-Sainte-Marie nestled in the hillside. 

Resting in touristy Moustiers-Sainte-Marie I notice a woman walk by with a bike with floral patterned panniers and a matching saddle cover. It reminds me that I find it disappointing that bikes these days are all fairly monochrome and uninspiring as if the manufacturers have reverted to the Henry Ford adage that you can have any colour provided it's black. It is not hard to find an example and with such scruffy packing.

On Ventoux I did notice someone who had customised their bike with pink spokes and pink cable sleeves to match the pink decals on the bike. Yes, you can get powder coated spokes in your choice of colour. 

Contrary to the post title I am actually staying 5 kilometers before Balcons de la Mescla as that is where the accommodation is and otherwise it would have been a long day. It allows me to savour the Gorges du Verdon.

Photos from the Gorges du Verdon.

At this point a young woman pulls up in a car and asks for a photo of her with the view in the background. I try and act all nonchalant as if climbing mountains is something I do every day. She clearly isn't fooled. Luckily she doesn't hang around as I actually feel slightly nauseous from the climb and it takes some time to get my heart rate down.

Naturally the photos don't do the ride justice but take the dramatic nature of the Ardèche Gorge, the sheer beauty of the Gorges de la Nesque and the climbing effort of Ventoux and that is how I felt after the Gorges du Verdon. Never on an adventure have I been so close to tears and so grateful for crisp white sheets. 

I read the guidebook to see what I should have been looking out for today. The most notable point is that today was a category 1 climb, complete with full camping gear. 

I also get to see the actual road ahead with my own eyes. There is a sheer cliff face 3 km further along the gorge. The road could traverse the foot, it could ramp up over the top, but due to the overall geography the road chooses to slice a path through the edge of the cliff itself via short tunnels and pillared galleries. It is, from this angle, quite terrifying. Luckily I will be riding on the right hand side of the road hugging the cliff and not pedalling perilously close to the vertical drop.