Avenue Verte Day 3: We reach Dieppe and take the ferry to England

The final 55 miles in France, weighed down by a large can of cassoulet.

It’s our last day on the Avenue Verte in France. We have 55 miles to bicycle from Gournay-en-Bray to Dieppe, there’s a climb with a 7% grade, we’re now carrying a heavy can of cassoulet au confit du canard for someone in England, and we need to make the 6 p.m. ferry across the English Channel.

Can we do it without stressing?

Continue reading “Avenue Verte Day 3: We reach Dieppe and take the ferry to England”

Day 2 on the Avenue Verte: 65 hilly miles to Gournay-en-Bray

The Avenue Verte turned decidedly rural on our second day as we continued our bicycle ride from Paris to London.

Continue reading “Day 2 on the Avenue Verte: 65 hilly miles to Gournay-en-Bray”

Avenue Verte: Day 1 of bicycling from Paris to London

A bike route from Note Dame in Paris to the London Eye? Of course I had to ride it.

A bicycle route from Paris to London? From the Seine to the Thames and connecting Notre Dame and the London Eye? That’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull — of course I had to do it.

Continue reading “Avenue Verte: Day 1 of bicycling from Paris to London”

EuroVelo 5 in Alsace: A bike ride through the vineyards

We based ourselves in Strasbourg and bicycled through cute half-timbered towns.

Time to base ourselves in Strasbourg for a few days and do some biking.

Continue reading “EuroVelo 5 in Alsace: A bike ride through the vineyards”

‘Seine a Velo’ cycle route: 3 days between Rouen and Paris

For me, the highlight of this route is Claude Monet’s gorgeous garden at Giverny. Rouen was a lovely surprise.

A sign along the way.

France’s Seine a Velo cycle route stretches more than 400 kilometers between Paris and the English Channel (Le Havre or Deauville, take your pick). We chose to ride between Rouen and Paris, so most of it. Here’s what we found.

Continue reading “‘Seine a Velo’ cycle route: 3 days between Rouen and Paris”

2 emotional days bicycling along the D-Day beaches

Going by bike is the perfect pace for experiencing the D-Day beaches.

I have two three pieces of advice for anyone thinking of going to Normandy and the D-Day beaches.

Continue reading “2 emotional days bicycling along the D-Day beaches”

Cycling in England: A bike ride from a 900-year-old priory to a Victorian seaside town

Mottisfont to Swanage, mostly using the U.K.’s National Cycle Network.

This ride is a shout-out to Britain’s National Cycle Network, which got us so much of the way from a few miles north of Mottisfont to Swanage.

Continue reading “Cycling in England: A bike ride from a 900-year-old priory to a Victorian seaside town”

I finally finished biking the D&L Trail!

A 28-mile ride along the D&L Trail more than closes my remaining gap.

It took a crazy baseball game under black lights to get me back to Allentown, but I finally biked the final miles (for me) of the Delaware & Lehigh Trail.

Continue reading “I finally finished biking the D&L Trail!”

I tested out bikepacking with an overnight trip. It rained. Here’s what I learned

I headed to Green Lane Park at the northern end of the Perkiomen Trail for a bikepacking adventure with the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia.

So you’re dreaming of a bike trip that lasts many days, weeks or even months … perhaps out west, perhaps Europe, or maybe just closer to home. And to keep costs down and flexibility high, you think camping is the way to go.

A word of advice: Test it out with a simple bike overnight.

Continue reading “I tested out bikepacking with an overnight trip. It rained. Here’s what I learned”

A bicycle ride to one of the best restaurants in the U.S. — a casual culinary adventure in the middle of New Jersey

A 28-mile bike ride to Chatpati Delhi in Central Jersey. So much food for $15 per person.

Chatpati Delhi made The New York Times’ list of the country’s 50 best restaurants in 2025. How could this not be worth a bike ride?

Continue reading “A bicycle ride to one of the best restaurants in the U.S. — a casual culinary adventure in the middle of New Jersey”