Ultimate cycle tour: France

[smith4188]

Greetings! I've just updated the old UniCycle50 website and relaunched it as the more relevantly named EuropeByBicycle.com. I also had a related idea.

Between us, we hold a vast but scattered wealth of knowledge and experience. I reckon it'd be interesting to gather this information and build an ultimate tour for a particular country, to create suggested but flexible routes of highlights that take in the very best a nation has to offer (rather than a signposted, you-must-go-here, Eurovelo-style thing) . If this idea works, I'll assemble similar information for other countries and ultimately try to create the best, joined-up routes throughout Europe.

To get started (and to give me an idea how much work this will be), would you be willing to tell me your personal highlights of France, as few or as many as you like, with just one or two words why you liked that particular experience so much? It could be a town, region, river ride, road, hill climb, mountain pass, historic building, local dish or drink, whatever.

Thanks in advance if you're willing to help me with this.

 

[Milkfloat]

Steven, is this a new travel story we have to look forward to or a detailed tour itinerary to follow?

 

[smith4188]

Not a story, but I just wanted to assemble a sort of country-by-country Best Of resource that others can use when deciding where to go, as well as a suggested route if I get enough responses to join them all together. I've seen a lot of France, but really I've just scratched the surface. However, collectively, we've probably been nearly everywhere.

 

[Dave Davenport]

I'd chip in.

 

[smith4188]

I'd chip in.

Great stuff, thank you. I love to hear what you think, either on here, or via PM or email (steven@primrose-smith.com).

 

[robgul]

I had a butcher's at the site - or rather tried to - the country links etc don't work - "unable to connect" ? ... and yes I'd be interested to contribute about 8 tours in France that our club has done . . . when it works

Rob

 

[smith4188]

I had a butcher's at the site - or rather tried to - the country links etc don't work - "unable to connect" ? ... and yes I'd be interested to contribute about 8 tours in France that our club has done . . . when it works

That's weird. It works for me. It may have been a temporary problem. Are you selecting the country from the drop down box? Do other links work for you?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

France tries to take you to 127.0.0.1 which is a local network IP address. So if youre running the site locally it could work for you but not the rest of us.

 

[smith4188]

France tries to take you to 127.0.0.1 which is a local network IP address. So if youre running the site locally it could work for you but not the rest of us.

Thanks for spotting that, YB. Yep, it was doing a redirect that worked for my machine but not anyone else. Hopefully the problem is now fixed. You'll probably need to refresh the page if you've still got it open.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Will check sometime later. Beer o'clock has now started!

 

[Brains]

Just a thought, why start with the biggest country in western Europe ?
Would not somewhere a bit smaller, say Belgium, have been a better 'test case' ?

 

[smith4188]

Just a thought, why start with the biggest country in western Europe ?
Would not somewhere a bit smaller, say Belgium, have been a better 'test case' ?

Good point. But I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that if there's one foreign destination most UK cycle tourists head for it's France, and therefore more opinions. But if you're hot on Belgium, lemme have it.

 

[robgul]

Perhaps it's me - is it the intention to create a website resource with rides/travelogues/journals contributed by other people - or just your own rides?

The existing structure seems to be just your own tours and books sales?

Rob

 

[Aravis]

In my formative years as a rather timid cycle-tourist, the book which had the greatest influence was Cycling in Europe, by Nick Crane, more recently the face of the BBC's Coast. My copy is dated 1984; I think there may have been one subsequent revision.

The chapter on France occupies 32 pages, and I think achieved, in its time, something broadly comparable to what you're seeking to do. The style is informative, entertaining and inspiring, but never the slightest bit prescriptive. Much of the advice is now quaintly out-of-date, unsurprisingly.

If you don't already know it, I think it could offer some useful steers. It can be obtained for very little money from a well-known auction site!

 

[smith4188]

Perhaps it's me - is it the intention to create a website resource with rides/travelogues/journals contributed by other people - or just your own rides?

The existing structure seems to be just your own tours and books sales?

Well, I have to start somewhere and so I thought I'd begin with my own experience because that's all any of us have. And I'm looking for the opinions of others because I can't see everywhere, and also I could be wrong about the places that I have seen. Feel free to contribute and please contradict absolutely anything I've written. I'll include it.

I'm not looking for rides, travelogues or journals. The internet is full of them, but the useful information is scattered. I'd like to compile a list of a country's highlights, starting with France, and, if I get enough, try to create a Best Of tour. If people don't want to contribute, then that's their choice, but then I'll have to think of a different way to do this or abandon the idea entirely.

My books are on there because they're relevant to the subject matter, the website doesn't run for free and I'm allergic to starvation.