As promised, quick trip report (with GPX file) from my last jaunt in France, with a friend in tow.
As me and my friend have considerably different paces, over time we reached the agreement that I am to provide complete routes (and tracks) so I can go on my own if I want and he will follow at his own pace.
We were initially planning to travel through France, all the way to Italy, "camp" in Italy for a week at my place in Tuscany while working from there and then travel back to London the weekend after. Work piling up (and myself feeling very weak the few days before leaving) meant that going all the way to Italy wasn't a safe option, so we decided to only take a week and, possibly, go up the Alps as well.
I planned the first few days to the Vosges before leaving and then considered planning day by day, that ended up being a blessing in disguise, because we had to alter plans both because of crappy weather and me being sick for 1.5 days – spending a full day in a larva-like state in an hotel room
I'm not the best organised person on the planet (I paraphrase here) so the .gpx file is a bit messy. You should find a route per day (starting with 6th of May) + a couple of variations, a track per day with the same naming (I always navigate a route + keep a track underneath to check if the sat nav starts losing the plot) + there is a full track of the entire week, starting and finishing at Folkestone.
The single legs are relatively pretty short (at least for my traveling habits).
I do have the habit of videoing with the GoPro and make small 60 seconds videos of my bike trips, but might probably not do it for this one. I'm adding a few longish – very boring – unedited videos below, as they might give a better idea of the type of roads one might encounter along the route. I'll add them in a following message, as they are still uploading.
Left on Friday evening after work and slept 30km from Calais.
From there we traveled to Nancy, bit of motorway then a bit of French D roads. Not too bad for a starter. We were supposed to do more of the Vosges, but the weather was against us. The original intended routes are still in the file.
First
Second
skipped most of it because of weather
Third
Sample of a couple of the roads is in Video Exhibits #1 #2. Mountain pass in Chartreuse and D431.
The woods in the area:
Fourth
This is the route that goes up the mountains. With me being sick (camped at Aix Le Bains or nearby – don't remember...) and the weather being a bit shit we decided to not ride in the rain with temperatures near zero, so we opted for a western route that includes Mount Ventoux and a very fast flowing D road that I rode with another friend last summer.
Little pause "making Instagram Stories" in the Ecrins Park...
West Alternative we took
Exhibits #3 #4 #5
Route along the Lac De Serre Poncon and flowing D94.
Still near the lake:
Return leg (split in 2 days).
Excited to go back to work
Full route:
GPX file can be downloaded from here.
As me and my friend have considerably different paces, over time we reached the agreement that I am to provide complete routes (and tracks) so I can go on my own if I want and he will follow at his own pace.
We were initially planning to travel through France, all the way to Italy, "camp" in Italy for a week at my place in Tuscany while working from there and then travel back to London the weekend after. Work piling up (and myself feeling very weak the few days before leaving) meant that going all the way to Italy wasn't a safe option, so we decided to only take a week and, possibly, go up the Alps as well.
I planned the first few days to the Vosges before leaving and then considered planning day by day, that ended up being a blessing in disguise, because we had to alter plans both because of crappy weather and me being sick for 1.5 days – spending a full day in a larva-like state in an hotel room
I'm not the best organised person on the planet (I paraphrase here) so the .gpx file is a bit messy. You should find a route per day (starting with 6th of May) + a couple of variations, a track per day with the same naming (I always navigate a route + keep a track underneath to check if the sat nav starts losing the plot) + there is a full track of the entire week, starting and finishing at Folkestone.
The single legs are relatively pretty short (at least for my traveling habits).
I do have the habit of videoing with the GoPro and make small 60 seconds videos of my bike trips, but might probably not do it for this one. I'm adding a few longish – very boring – unedited videos below, as they might give a better idea of the type of roads one might encounter along the route. I'll add them in a following message, as they are still uploading.
Left on Friday evening after work and slept 30km from Calais.
From there we traveled to Nancy, bit of motorway then a bit of French D roads. Not too bad for a starter. We were supposed to do more of the Vosges, but the weather was against us. The original intended routes are still in the file.
First
Second
skipped most of it because of weather
Third
Sample of a couple of the roads is in Video Exhibits #1 #2. Mountain pass in Chartreuse and D431.
The woods in the area:
Fourth
This is the route that goes up the mountains. With me being sick (camped at Aix Le Bains or nearby – don't remember...) and the weather being a bit shit we decided to not ride in the rain with temperatures near zero, so we opted for a western route that includes Mount Ventoux and a very fast flowing D road that I rode with another friend last summer.
Little pause "making Instagram Stories"
in the Ecrins Park...
West Alternative we took
Exhibits #3 #4 #5
Route along the Lac De Serre Poncon and flowing D94.
Still near the lake:
Return leg (split in 2 days).
Excited to go back to work
Full route:
GPX file can be downloaded from here.
