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Bike Trips in France
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A Certain “Joie de Vivre” |
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 And then there is the food. And the wines! The French table is a deity: the great social organizer, leisure activity, consumer of disposable income. If French gastronomy has such prestige, it is because the French spend their time on it, and inevitably we shall, too. And then cycle through picture-book landscapes to work it off. Well, try to work it off.... HOW TO CHOOSE? We like them all, but for different reasons. The best is to choose to suit your personal tastes. Here are some hints: |
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| FOOD and WINE | Burgundy (both parts) places a strong accent on what foreigners think of as traditional French gastronomy. An inordinate amount of time is spent at the dinner table. Bordeaux & the Dordogne and Alsace both share the enthusiasm, but with marked styles in each case (lots o' duck in the former, lots o' munster cheese in the latter, lots o' foie gras in both). The food in the Cévennes is less fancy but just as yummy: down home country, à la française. Mediterranean Cuisine Provençale needs no introduction. And guess what Champagne features? All of our French routes eat and drink very well, and of dishes that will please adventurous palates: we suggest other options for people on a diet (or not that interested in the topic). |
| SCENERY | Scenery buffs will vote for the Cévennes, for the drama of the extraordinary landscapes. Spring wild flowers and autumn colors are equally beautiful in these mountains. Though no other route is such a constant feast, sections of each rival for natural splendor. Northern routes tend toward the pastoral, southern toward the dramatic (read “hills”). Alsace has plenty of both. |
| WINE COUNTRY CYCLING | Wine Country Cycling offers an ambiance all its own, whether in the vineyards or the villages. Featured in Champagne, Southern Burgundy, Alsace, and (to a lesser extent) in Bordeaux & the Dordogne, the Loire, and Northern Burgundy. |
| “EUROCHARM” | Little villages and family farms are especially typical of Provence, of Bordeaux & the Dordogne, and, surprisingly, of Champagne, though all of France has its share. Architecturally, Alsace looks like what one imagines Germany must have looked like before WW II. |
| INTERESTING CITIES | Interesting cities include Blois and Tours (Loire Valley and, in the case of Blois, Ile-de-France), Burgundy’s Dijon, Alsace’s Strasbourg and Colmar, and Champagne’s Reims. Avignon, Nimes, Arles, and Aix-en-Provence are all accessible to our Provence route, but if you spend all your time in them, you don’t do any biking! There are no cities at all in the Cévennes, but many interesting sheep. |
| THINGS YOU’VE HEARD OF... | Things you’ve heard of are most common in the Ile-de-France (Versailles, Chartres, Proust’s Combray, the château at Blois), the Loire (châteaux, Da Vinci’s villa, the river itself…), and in Provence (Roman arenas, Avignon’s Papal Palace, urban and rural scenes that inspired countless Cézannes and Van Goghs…). Burgundy (either part) is chock-full of things the French think important, and that you would have learned about in school, had you been paying attention (basilicas, ancient hospitals, historic Roman battle sites, important cheese farms...). |
| HISTORY | “Pre-history” is a feature of Cro-Magnon Bordeaux & the Dordogne. The Romans banged around Provence, while Southern Burgundy’s Cluny was a center of medieval spirituality and religious architecture. “Modern” (post 15th century) history comes to life in the Ile-de-France and in the Loire Valley. Religious wars ravaged the Cévennes (and Bordeaux etc. to a lesser extent) even until the 18th century. World War I battle sites of the Marne and their moving memorials dot Champagne. And, regarding war history in general, Alsace is of far too much interest for that to have been good news for the locals of the day. |
| “TRADITIONAL FRENCH CULTURE” | Traditional French culture, defined as “lack of McDonalds,” will stand out in the Cévennes (where you can drink milk out of a cow – or a sheep), or on the Northern Burgundy route. An unusual subset is on display in Alsace. |
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