Everything from the big stuff (bringing a bike from the U.S. and finding a route) to the little stuff (laundry sheets!).
I love our bicycle adventures in Europe. All DIY, all different.
And we’ve learned from each one.
Continue reading “9 important lessons I’ve learned about biking in Europe”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”
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”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”Just how bike-friendly is Strasbourg? And what about the food?
Strasbourg calls itself the most bike-friendly city in France (and fourth in Europe). So of course I had to check it out.
Continue reading “On and off the bike in and around Strasbourg”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”For me, the highlight of this route is Claude Monet’s gorgeous garden at Giverny. Rouen was a lovely surprise.
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”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.
So cheap to do. But would the U.S. deem these infrastructure ideas hostile to cars?
Part of what made the Loire bike ride so enjoyable was the bike-friendliness of everything beyond the marked route.
Continue reading “Biking the Loire: A peek at seemingly simple French bike-friendliness”Just getting a reservation on a local train was cumbersome.
When we planned our bike vacation along France’s Loire River, part of Eurovelo 6, I hadn’t expected that the train would be the hardest part.
Continue reading “Biking the Loire: The hardest part was the train”
Exploring by bicycle 