Traveling around France
August 2006 Villefranche-Sur-Mer -At the last moment we were able to take a trip to the French Riviera. With just a few weeks to plan, we decided to take our bicycles but were not positive about the cycling so close to the coast at the height of tourist season in August. Our doubts were quickly erased when we took our first ride heading north into the Alps. We have to admit that on the first ride we did encounter numerous climbs exceeding 22% gradient, some up to 26%! We were very concerned that all of the roads would be like this, but fortunately that was not the case. Indeed, there was climbing, just to ride 3 miles from our place took us up 1000', but the gradients were manageable. This was definitely the best cycling trip we could have ever imagined and are looking forward to returning. Our home for 10 days was a great apartment located in the 13th century village of Villefranche. Check out our cycling maps below of the routes we did during our stay. Be sure and take a look at some of the photos of the area too.
Route 1 - Villefranche-Mt. Vinaigrier-Col de Eze- return via Grand Corniche-15.15 mile loop ride with 2022' of climbing. Check out the photos from that day.
Route 2 - Villefranche-Menton-La Turbie-return via Grand Corniche-40.48 miles with 2879' of climbing
Route 3 - Cagnes-Sur-Mer ride to Gourdon 44.25 miles with 3395' of climbing 
Route 4 - Monaco-Peille-La Turbie-Villefranche, 32.26 miles and 2918' of climbing 
Route 5 - Ventimilgia, Italy north to Dolceaqua, Isolabona, Apricale, Bajardo, San Romolo, Perinaldo, Ventimiligia 42 miles and 4200' of climbing 
Route 6 - St. Laurent-Le Broc-Coursegoules-Col de Vence-St.Paul-Cagnes Sur Mer 47.50 miles and 4000' of climbing
Route7 - Villefranche-to St.Jean-Cap-Ferrat 9.45 miles and 733' of climbing
July 2002 Paris-Lasseube-Paris -What an incredible place for cycling! This was definitely the best cycling trip we could have ever imagined. We were able to cycle part of the routes for one of the stages of the Tour de France, the first mountain stage, and climbed the Col d' Aubisque! We stayed in Paris for two days then took the TGV to Pau and then on to Lasseube and the fantastic Maison Rancesamy which provided a great base location for our cycling adventures. On the first day we were introduced to the cycling club of Lasseube and went on a 100k group ride with them! They were really great hosts and although we did not speak French and they did not speak English, we still had a fantastic ride! They are definitely good cyclists and very serious about the sport. If you are interested in the routes we did each day, check out our cycling map.
| March 2001 Paris We spent 6 days in Paris visiting our niece Miriam, who was attending the University of Sorbonne .....we spent each day walking.......sight-seeing..........walking.....eating...and walking. Fortunately it is a great city to walk in and easy to find your way around. We also attended two yoga classes at the Centre Samasthiti Astanga Vinyasa Yoga Studio , which we found on the Internet before we left. The teachers were very good and it was fun to practice in another language! |  |