Cycling in France and Spain
The idea of a cycling holiday in France generates visions of languid days spent meandering along picturesque country lanes, bucolic picnics, and the ambience of a drawn out evening meal as compensation for a long day in the saddle. The hard part, and the main reason a planned cycling holiday usually fails to become reality, are all the logistical unknowns involved in getting your bicycle from your home airport to Roissy Charles de Gaulle, thence to the hotel and/or the train station, and finally onto the train. In the following presentation I have provided some relevant information that will help prospective ‘cyclotourists’ overcome these problems, using as an illustration a recent cycling trip my wife and I made in the Catalan region of northern Spain. As you will note from some of the photographs, my wife and I are not particularly young, nor - at least in my case - particularly fit looking!, which should provide some reassurance to those who might feel that age is a barrier to a cycling holiday. Where the grade gets too steep, walking can provide a pleasant change of pace, a chance to use other muscles, as well as an opportunity to smell the roadside flowers, examine the geology, or have a chat as best you can with the locals. Also, remember that whatever goes up must eventually go down if your destination is the Meditteranean!