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......