We were in our prefectural town of Alençon today and came across this. It’s a Peugeot e-bike, but fitted out with some style. And those are some serious panniers. The bike has a chain around it, but isn’t fixed to anything permanent. Nor, as far as I could see, are the panniers secured in any way. This makes me think… Read more »
The other day I wrote about how we’d spotted a new voie verte (greenway) under construction. It was clear that this was a part of the award-winning Vélo Francette cycle route that runs 617km from the Normandy beaches at Ouistreham (Caen) to La Rochelle. Although we walked only a small section of the new voie verte, I speculated that it might go as… Read more »
Travelling home from the garage the other day (don’t ask – bloody cars) we were passing through Laubrière when something caught my eye. You don’t expect to find anything significant in Laubrière; it’s just a wide spot on the road. You couldn’t even call it a village. But clearly it was once rather more important. I knew immediately what I’d… Read more »
One of the joys of cycling is getting to understand the landscape. You become very aware of geography – you know, stuff like hills and valleys. And you also come to understand towns and villages in a new way – in particular, how they sit in the land. The area of Normandy and the Mayenne where we live is an… Read more »
Cycling gives you a lot of time to think. And given how we often ride around the local countryside almost at random, it also brings you into contact with some unexpected sights. This can be a dangerous mix. Today, riding a road we’d never travelled before, we came face to face with this abandoned mill. It still has its water… Read more »
November is our favourite month for visiting Brittany. The tourists are out of the way, the dogs are allowed on the beaches, and this year there was an added dimension – our bikes. We hadn’t planned to take the bikes. With two dogs, only one dog trailer and (as far as we knew) not much in the way of voies vertes… Read more »
It has occurred to me that we made a rooky error. We ordered French bikes via a French store … in August. For those of you not familiar with French ways, the country pretty much shuts down in August. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but you’ll still find many shops and factories either closed completely or… Read more »
Yes, I confess that, on more than one occasion, I have been guilty of uttering the phrase ‘bloody cyclists’. My excuse is… well, no there really isn’t any excuse. But in mitigation of my offence, let me explain. I live in France, the land where cycling is a religion. It is the only place on Earth where ‘bothering a cyclist’… Read more »
