Traveling in France
by bycicle
You probably already expected this country to be in my list of the 3 best countries to visit for a cycling holiday. France is one of the big guys. If you’re on the right time at the right place you even can enjoy the masters of the Tour de France. The country itself already is a great place to go on holiday. That gives more reasons to go have a road bike trip. In this blog you will read everything about why it is such a nice country to go to.
Traveling in France
“Pain is still the friend that always tells me the truth”
Chris Froome
France
The summer holiday destination for millions of Europeans and others. It has Paris, the Côte d’Azur and Monaco. It is a quite big country wit a population of over more than 68.042.591 people. In the summer season an almost tropical climate will attract everyone to the beaches. Anyone who loves sun, sea, nature and charming villages will certainly have a good time.
Common routes
As every other country France has some nice aspects of itself that would like to show it. The uppermost known trail is probably the Alpe d’Huez. It’s a magnificent segment of the Tour de France and goes by the name of ’21 turns’. That’s pretty obvious because the trail up the mountain has 21 turns. In total the trail is 14 kilometres long and has a difference in height of 1.120 metres.
Fun fact!
Everyday in summertime about 400 persons defy the climb of Alpe d’Huez
Bordeaux and Dordogne
Bordeaux and Dordogne are two nice regions to road bike. When going into the city you might bump into ‘Pont de Pierre’. It’s a fine, authentic bridge and it’s one of the famous sights in France. In Dordogne you will find a beautiful route called ‘Vers les Eyzies de Tayac’. You wil ride through forests, little villages and also climb and descent. This is a route for intermediate cyclists who want to enjoy a 2.5 hour ride. It is 53,1 kilometres long. I would recommend this trail, because it is just long enough to not fill your whole day. Also personally I would find it a very astonishing route compared with what I’m used to.
Normandy
The Vélomaritime cycling route is the Franch part from the EuroVelo 4 Central Europe route. That’s a 5.100 kilometres long route and goes from Roscoff in France to Kiev in Ukrain. What’s more beautiful when going on a cycling holiday in France than riding alongside the coastline? Well, with this route you’ll drive across the whole Normandy coastline. There are in fact also a lot of sights and restaurants in little towns. We all know a cycling holiday in France could be a little intensive and warm. Now you could go for a swim every minute, well, thats when driving across beaches.
This route extends for 1.400 kilometres accross this coastline. I hope you’ll enjoy this ride, because it seems magnificent (especially in summertime).
Nature/environment
When cycling in France you’ll encounter many beautiful sights. France’s nature is also armed with a lot of lakes and rivers. The average temperature during summer goes up to 77 fahrenheit and in winter down to 43 fahrenheit. That makes for northern France the summer the best time to road bike and for east-southern France that’s in Autumn. The average yearly rainfall in Paris for the last 30 years was 26 inches.
Despite that France has a beautiful environment, acid rain and forest fires (mostly in southern France) are damaging the forests every year. Besides the fact that parts of forests are burning to the ground, villages near those forests are also struggling with the safety of their homes. Although there have been concerns the France authorities are ensuring that the fires will be extinguished.
Here are a couple of tips and tricks to prevent creating a forest fire yourself:
– Don’t smoke in forests areas, especially in a dry period of the year.
– Obviously, don’t start a fire yourself. A fire could extend itself within
minutes. We have already seen that many times before go wrong.
– Watch out when wearing glasses. When the sun shines even a bit it’s already
possible to cause a fire. The same counts for reflective things like a watch.
The sun will catch a reflection what causes an even warmer ray of sunshine.
Well, we already talked about the cons of Frances environment, it certainly also concerns out of a beautiful natural environment. One of the common highlights will be the lavender fields of Valensole in Provence every summer. These wonderful rows of purple plants will show you the beauty this earth has to give. It flows in an yearly returning cycle with every season an other state of grow. To visit it in the perfect period that it’s growing you’ll need to check each year again, because there is no excact answer you’ll find.
The cliffs of Etretat are one of the most calm places of Normany. Additional it also has pretty nice weather and isn’t as stormy as the cliffs and sandbanks in Denmark. When going to this place I would strongly recommend to go at sunset, because the view will provide a magnificent set of photographic memories. When road biking across this coast you’ll probably notice a couple of people practicing water sports. These cliffs are a nice way to learn more about France’s nature.
Besides lavender fields in the south and cliffs in the west, France also contains the Alps. In winter it’s mostly visited by wintersport enthousiasts, while in summer it’s a common region for cyclists. For us roadbikers it’s a nice way to concuer mountain climbs or just to lose some weight. Every route you’ll follow has its own beauty. And if you possess a much firmer (road) bike, you’ll even be able to challenge the French Alps in its winter season. That imaginably gives a fullfilling feeling.
Roads and safety
When going on a cycling holiday in France there are a couple of things you need to know. That’s because every country has different written and unwritten rules when it comes to road cycling. Some turns in the mountains are a bit scary or even dangerous.
Some of us are a little bit old and stubborn when it comes to wearing a helmet on the bike. Well, when cycling in the mountains I would strongly recommend to get one. That’s mainly because when you fall you could either hit the ground very hard, or you could roll down the hill. I think you wouldn’t want that. Besides that according to a new study on European behavior on the road French people are pretty bad at driving. But that doesn’t mean they can’t. One out of 10 people in France claims to become another person when getting behind the wheel. Last thing to know about the safety of cycling in France is whenever you turn you could crash into a car, especially in mountain areas. So don’t cycle to fast!
The French roads mainly consist out of asphalt, but erosion creates many cracks in the road plane. Besides that many common roads are maintained what means it’s truly possible to road bike in France.
My tip for you is that you must carry a tool kit every time going on the roads. Besides a little tool kit it could be helpful having a bit larger bike kit in your hotel room. You can find the best ones on the website of Thomann. For Americans you can find them at thevisorshop.com.
Bike shops
Like most European countries France has several Decathlon branches where you can buy your own road bike and extra’s, like an emergency kit. Besides that France offers a large set of bike shops. Cycling tourism is quite a big thing in summer so with that France needs bike shops. But, when visiting this country you will notice the most people don’t speak English. It has always been a question why they don’t learn the language. So if you’re going to bike shops it may be useful if you know a couple of bike parts in French.
This was the last country in my collection of 3 best countries to visit when going on a road cycling holiday. I hope you enjoyed it!
