sâmbătă, 9 aprilie 2016

Lille - Brugge - La Cote Belge - Dunkirk

We're in West Flanders

Saturday 09.04.2016
Lille -Brugge (76km)
The ride here

Belgium, a country I have yet to discover.

Passing through West Flanders.
If your a starter in bike trips, Belgium and Holland are the places to do it: cyclists are respected, you'll never get the feeling you'll be squashed every time that a car passes you by.
There is an excellent infrastrucutre, plenty of clean, neat cycling lanes, protected intersections, signposts, maps.

Just go out there and do it :) Belgium cycling planner

A few words about Brugge :) in UNESCO world heritage

We are awful photgraphers so I'll have to do with some other people's photos, so sorry about that.

Brugge, they call it the Venice of the North :)

Brugge is a marvel! You'll find out on your own the places to visit history and all that.
And help me God, I have discovered what real chocolate tastes like, the best I ever melted:D

and sorry again but there is the Brugge Waffle for which I can make another 200km on my hands all for this sweet soft crispiness invention.

and what other place on Earth are you looking for to taste the best beers?

Beer comes in every 'shape and size' and Belgium is the best place if you want to meet some speciales:). Make a beer travel!

lets draw some smiley faces and see who's Ela and Guillaume, while surrounded by the Love Lake (lac d'Amour, it's not a joke:)

Sunday 10.04.2016
Brugge - Dunkirk (80km)
The ride here

Or should I say aaaahham...le contre la montre Brugge-Dunkirk. Almost 80km of nonstop riding to get to the train...just in time..5 minutes before the TGV leaves, just enough to detach and put the bikes in the bags. Unexpected things always come up while travelling, that's for sure.

But that did not stop us to enjoy a gorgeous sunny spring day.
The belgian cost is full of big, enormous buildings that make up the seaside resort. They all look alike and put a wall between the sea and the empty lowland areas behind those buildings. In Belgium all are very respectful towards the nature, but this resorts..I did not really get it.
The town of Ostende stands out of the crowd as being the nearest to Brugge and the favourite for the belgian monarchy. (Have a look see at the Belgian Kings or Queens).

my big black bike that takes me places:), best buy ever

maybe milions of appartements, all resorts look alike, all with those same high appartement views. At this time of the year, even if they were sunny spells almost all of the time the buildings were uninhabited at that makes a strange feeling. A kind of overdimensioned resorts.

I adored Belgium and belgians, so kind hearted.

In the mean time we've made it home sweet home and I'll be looking forward to the next visit to Belgium, whenever that may be.

sâmbătă, 26 martie 2016

Granville - Mont Saint Michel - Saint Malo - Saint Brieuc

25 - 27.04 A seaside high wind bike trip between Lower Normandy and Brittany

I took up from where I left 2 years ago after the weekend in the Cotentin with Raphael.

This should have been a 3 day weekend because of Easter Monday.

It's Spring, and I feel like I've been waiting for this moment for more than a year. This is just beacause it's been a very very long time since the last time I went out for a ride and felt the wind blowing in my curly goldilocks :). Apart that I have had a rather still dull winter in my den, I felt the need to break free and run about. It's really sad to be a town lady nowadays.

To tell you the truth..in my head I've seen myself and said this is no way to spend my day. I did not want to see me anymore in my cocoon, comfort, cuddly bed. I needed to get out and feel the elements: sun, wind whatever, bring them on.

They announced bad weather but I was too eager to go.
Bike trips.
I'm not adressing myself to the chums that are strong men and cyclists. This is for all the girlies (like myself) out there, that still hesitate about getting out and about.During 1 week I've followed the forecast 4 times a day. Make it change Almighty! Strong winds about 60-90 km/h. I'll upload it because for me it must have been the most difficult bike trip ever.

Mont Saint Michel 60-70km/h

Saint Malo 80km/h Sunday

Saint Brieuc 70km/h and 100km/h on Monday (happily I was home by then)

this web site had 100% good data http://www.meteociel.fr/

So...have you ever been in my position and hesitated in going? I said...that will be ok, I'll manage. But I was so so wrong. Planning a trip? Think again in which direction.
Something I have never thaught about ...the wind regime! From this day on...I have become extra careful with it while planning.
The funny thing about it...is that from Granville to Saint Brieuc these 2 days I was always always facing the wind. Changing my bearing?...he was to, at the same time as me, always facing me hour by hour...13h was I heading south? he was heading North, 16h was I heading west? he was heading est...
So, my advice is...do not do it. Do not go battelling the wind, he will surely win.
The wind gusts practically put you to a stand still...just like on a home trainer.
More than once I had to get down and walk along the bike...it was bloody hard.

25.04.2016
Granville - le Val Saint Père
app. 40km
The trip here

I got to Granville arround 21h just after work. The night is still, clear starry night. I did not think I would cycle much, but I enjoyed it, the weather was good and stopped pedalling only at midnight. I was getting closer to St. Michel, while riding on the seaside I could see it in the night, very well lit by the moonlight also(full moon, no clouds). It was magic. I've done around 40k I was feeling good, I finally meet my freedom!

Saturday 26.03.2016

le Val Saint Père - Mont Saint Michel - Saint Malo

60 -70 km

The trip here

On the Route de la Baie :)

There. A proper photo to get your imagination starting

Le Mont Saint Michel history and so

Almost 5 years since I'm in France. I've never seen Mont Saint Michel and thaught I'm not interessed about highly touristic place such as this. I did not understand why people all over the world make such a fuss about it. Today I got there, this was one of the grand purposes of the trip also. Once there, I've understood that it has something mystical about it, truly felt it!

Some more info in videos with Des racines et des ailes

Before my very eyes, the big cloud and rains that awaits for me to get out of this forteress.

So I have to be strong and face it, not to mention it was getting pretty cold.

I was surprised to find polders (Le polder littoral de la baie de Mont Saint Michel) in this region. But again, it is absolutely normal. There are not only in Holland:). The baie, a good spot to go bird watching too.

Don't hesitate to try the 'Route des moulins' ou 'le sentier des douaniers'.

Pretty little towns along the seaside to: Sainte Benoit des Ondes, Cancale with their oyster farming.

From Point du Grouin towards L'ile de Landes (bird sanctuary)

Anse de la Touesse

But there is also The Atlantic Wall (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mur_de_l%27Atlantique).

The wind started to get tough.in the afternoon and I could barely get to the camping site, the storm followed. I was bushed and wanted to get a train next thing Sunday morning.

Put the tent, water inside, so I had to improvise my bed in foils and plastics, in order not to sleep in a puddle of water that become my tent.

So if you think about buying this Ferrino Lighten 1 ...don't think again, don't do it...it is not waterproof as they say it is, and when you're tired and cold the last thing you would want is to sleep in a water bed in the storm.

Sunday 27.03.2016

Saint Malo - Saint Brieuc

75km

The trip here

The sun is up and I got a nights rest. I have changed my mind and stayed another day.

Saint Malo ‘Cite des corsairs’ (I love this word..corsaire:D), his personalities, explorers (Jaques Cartier), big men (Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, François-René de Chateaubriand), Castel and fortress.

10 May recalls us also about the slave trade period and exploitation. For those interested in the position that France took in the events: "Nantes, premier port négrier atlantique français (1714 expéditions de traite au xviii^e siècle, app 500000 slaves traded), La Rochelle, deuxième port négrier atlantique français (427 expéditions de traite), Bordeaux, troisième port négrier atlantique français (399 expéditions de traite), Le Havre (392 expéditions de traite), Saint-Malo (216 expéditions de traite), Lorient (149 expéditions de traite), Honfleur (125 expéditions de traite), Marseille (116 expéditions de traite), Dunkerque (44 expéditions de traite), Rouen, Vannes (10 expéditions de traite)"

The museum is a must, I loved it.

http://www.saint-malo-tourisme.com/decouvrir/histoire-et-patrimoine/histoire

The Kouign-amann. Traditional pastry from Brittany. More than 150 years ancient recipe (40% de pâte, 30% de beurre et 30% de sucre). I heard plenty of legends about it. They say you put 1 full packet of butter. Delicious? mmmmaybe I did not get the best one, or was it because for breakfast it can be hard to swallow:D, no ofence for the Kouign-amann enthousiasts.

L'Ile de Bey ('grave' in P Celtic), where Chateaubriand rests his bones. "Vingt ans avant sa mort l’écrivain a manifesté son désir d’être inhumé sur ce lopin de terre, face au large, pour poursuivre sa conversation avec la mer."

Left Saint Malo at almost 13h, because the town bewitched me.

Telling myself 70km I should do them in 5h max. But the wind was as always facing me and I was creeping at 10km/h.

Rance tidal power station – 240mW,

that you can also visit during the visiting hours of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=546O24OalOw

Another superstrucutre:D I always heard about and now I'm making my way on top of it.
***
Wind, on top the rain and I had almost missed the train home (got there 30minutes before his departure). Drenched, sticky, smelly and dirty I did not bother about undressing rapidly in the train station and behold myself in my panties while onlookers did not know what was going on. Aboslutely the most difficult day on the bike I had so far. I was really in mode machine in the last 2h, trying to reach Saint Brieuc, drained of energy, fighting the wind. I thought I'll be getting home on my all fours. Luckily for me Monday I was home, I cannot imagine 100km/h gusts, maybe that could have just flown me away back to Paris.

Train problems and only 2 a.m. do I push silently the door of the appartement. Strangely I felt a boost of energy and spent another hour or so in chewing cashew nuts...and feeling happy with myself. It was a hell of a ride but I searched for it, needed it, and enjoyed it in every bit and piece, even when I couldn't keep my eyes opened because of the pourring rain.
And I was wondering, which will my next escape route be?

vineri, 11 septembrie 2015

Canal du Midi Toulouse: Carcassonne - Narbonne - Port la Nouvelle

The map here

Its history here
and me in the story:)

I heartily recommend this web site for all bike fanatics:p!

! the road was tarmac in the Midi Pyrenée region (50km) and earth track/path until the seaside (150km)

10.09 - Thursday

Toulouse (Portet-sur-Garonne) - Carcassonne 100km

plenty of locks

feeling hungry? I do

Carcassonne

Carcassonne. Did you ever imagine medieval castles and fortresses? I didJ. But in my imagination they were all in miniature size, tiny castles to fit in your bubble dream. But Carcasonne was like seeing the small grow enormous! Now I have to look upwards, my castle is just hugeJ.

11.09 Carcassonne – Narbonne – Port la Nouvelle (101km)

les vignes de Languedoc Rousillon

Sur ces 4 départements, le vignoble compte 228 000 ha de vignes de cuve

Because the sycamores bording the water have been ill for a while now, massive tree cutting needs to be done in order to extiguish the evil (chancre coloré that is a menace for the 42000 canal's plane trees)

lucky for us, the crocodile bit his fingers

from sycamore trees to pine trees, with their freshness

Écluse de Gailhousty

no, I have not cycled on the railway bridge like the tourism office agent told me

All the way all was good, calm (nooooo caaarsJ)! but I’ve just adored the km between Narbonne and Port la Nouvelle, that crosses the Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Natural Regional Park. So wild and in the heart of the nature.

The GPS track and extra explanations here

12.09 Port la Nouvelle - Narbone

It’s about being free! Sooooo good!

there we are, always at work..11266A, du réseau de base

canal de la Robine, Narbonne

Narbonne was better than I expected with its narrow streets, bishop’s castle, and the old market (with pubs where people get together), but what I’ve loved most was Via Dolomitia…