The French and Italian Riviera (9th Sep - 21st Sep 07)

We decided to catch a French train (which we know we can take our bikes on) from Biaritz to Nice. We rode from east to west, now we are training back to the east.

We decided to stay in a ......... hostel in nice (I can hear the gasps) for the first time this trip!!! Partly due to their being no campsite near Nice. But we were very happy with our choice. It was in an old monastary and was great. Free breakfast, free internet, but unfortunately full of NZ and aussie rugby heads here for the world cup. But we had 2 nights in beds for the first time in 6 weeks. We explored Nice for a day then headed to the east along the French then Italian Riviera (coastline). We were wowed by the ride, a busy road, but packed with recreational cyclists, that wound its way along the coast passing through bays with mega boats parked up. We rode the 5km length of Monaco and managed to navigate in between the 500 million tourist buses battling for parking spaces on the harbour edge.

Nick in Nice


The French Riviera



We stayed in San Remo in Italy for Nats birthday on the 17th (quick send her an email if you forgot!!) and had a great resort style campsite. Our site was right on the cliff front and strangely all the sites were paved with brick, so we had some trouble pitching the tent.

Scrambled Eggs and coffee on Nats Birthday


We then rode on to Genova, a city we visited with Nicks mum and dad but loved its dark and winding alleys full of great food shops we came back. Staying down the coast in a small village but commuting in for a few days.

We are now heading further along the Italian coast, through the Cinque Terra (five earths or villages) and then to Pisa.

Tapas and Beaches in San Sebastian (1st Sep - 8th Sep 07)

We had a nice easy 50km ride from Biaritz in France to San Sebastian in Spain. The route took us along the coast and through some lovely coastal towns, most with large medieval forts protecting the old town. As usual the border was just a normal road, and we are yet to stop at any border crossing in Europe. One thing about borders as you can always tell which side has the cheapest petrol as there are usually a swarm of petrol stations on that side of the border. While stopping at one such station to fill our camping stove bottle with petrol (our stove runs on any flammable liquid....cool) nat suddenly got really excited and next thing a guy was riding past the petrol station in full Nude.....must have just come from one of the many spainish nudist beaches.

We arrived in San Sebastian and were blown away by the beauty of the city. It is very small but is always buzzing apart from Siesta time. There is a busy beach and a cute old quarter with narrow alleys packed with Tapas Bars. Tapas here are small and delicious nibbles served on bits of bread. Some examples are

Anchovies, egg and mayonaisse.
Jalepeno pepper stuffed with tuna.
Smoked ham and blue cheese

The whole concept is you go to a bar, have a small (200ml) beer then 1-2 tapas, pay when you leave and repeat the process at the next bar. Each tapa is usually €1.50 but they can easy fill you up.

We ended up staying here for one week as we had a great campsite, which was on top of a 500m high hill!! and we both loved the town.

The San Sebastian Waterfront and Harbour




We did a day trip to Bilbao where the Guggenheim Museum is located. The museum was one of the best art museums we have been too. There were some great modern art exhibitions and our favourite was Richard Seers who makes huge steel spiral shaped walkable shapes.

The Guggneheim Museum in Bilbao



We decided to catch train from San Sebastian to Barcelona and so had to spend a day with the bikes in town while we waited for the night train. It was a saturday and there was a huge dragon boat regatta in the harbour so the town was packed. We were sitting in a large square about to have some gelato when a large crowd of people started running in our direction. Meanwhile large groups of riot police closed in on the sides. As the crowd started chanting (i think the winning boat supporters) the riot police started shooting bean bags in the air. We were caught in the middle and had to make a quick escape running away with our bikes fully loaded. Nat was slowly pushing her bike not thinking that the police would get her!! It was like a football riot. Obviously they take their boating seriously here.

Our adventure for the day didnt stop here. We turned up to the train station with our bikes at 10pm ready for our train. We had checked with the station the day before and they said it was ok to take them as they were. But when the train turned up the conductor refused us, he said NO, NO, while waggling his finger, and cherading that we needed them in bags. He pointed to 2 words that will forever be engrained in our memory....Bicicletta embalada....(packed bicycle). We then realised we didnt have accomodation and our campsite closed at 11pm. We had 30mins to ride 5km across town and up a 5km hill......we set off and got there just in time and were let in by the security guard closing the gates. All accomodation in town was booked so we were very lucky.

Nat managed to argue (as she is so good at...) with the train company to give us 50% of our ticket back. But disheartened we rode back to France and started our 2nd tour de france after filling our selves with Pan au chocolates.

La Petite Tour de la France (21st Aug - 1st Sept 07)

Our first stop in France was the city of Lyon. We spent a day exploring some of the old town and sampling the local mustard and mayonaisse (Dijon is close by).

After following the Rhine from Zurich to Freiburg in Germany we thought we would continue our river tour by heading south to follow the Rhone Valley. France is very bike friendly but there are not many cycle paths. So our tactic was to buy a detailed map then take the smallest possible roads (thin white) and avoid the big red roads on our Michellin Map. This proved a success and we had a few days of fantastic cycling through some pre-alp hills and flat vineyard covered plateaus.

Cycle break in some Roman ruins


As we moved further south the temperature rose and the landscape dried out into a vast brown.

We stopped off at some great towns such as Avignon which is famed for its historic walled city situated on the Rhone River.

Picnic dinner looking over Avignon´s citadel


Then it was a days ride to Nimes, the home of de nimes, or denim as we like to call it, and more importantly aioli sauce, which with some local smoked ham and a baguette makes an excellent picnic lunch. The town also has a excellent Roman Colloseum and just out of town is the tallest Roman Aqueduct around (and a UNESCO site). An aqueduct is essentially a pipeline to transport water from a source to a city. In the case of the one we saw, it was 50km long and built during the Roman period around 50AD. It was very impressive to see how they built it and managed to map out the 50km long aqueduct which only drops an average of 25cm per km over its length!!!!

A spectacular bridge of the Roman Aqueduct


After Nimes we headed west to Montpellier a lively university town where we then caught a train to Bayonne on the SW coast of France. This is Pays Basque, or Basque Country, who are famed for leading europe in fishing, boat building, and therefore were some of the first capitalists. But they are very passionate and have a intriguing culture.

We stayed at a beach camp ground halfway between Bayonne and Biaritz. Biaritz is a glamourous beachside town where Napolean used to come to R&R. There were lots of lovely beaches to enjoy along the way to enjoy despite the multitudes of topless french woman.

The Plethora of People at Biaritz


We had a great time in France, and enjoyed our two week journey. The highlights would have to be fresh baguettes and Pan au Raisans for breakfast, the Aqueduct at Nimes, and our cheapest campsites so far (7 euros).

But Spain awaits, and we are cycling from Bayonne down the coast to San Sebastian, a mere 60km away......