France: videos from the road

[Tale]

I made some crazy videos from touring southern France in June 2007 and put them to royalty-free music. Now that I can post links, here they are:

Main video: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=nubUzgY3PJA
Bonus bit: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=eNMnZtoN61Y

Journey was about 1200km from Cap Ferret (near Bordeaux, France) to Geneva, Switzerland. Went along the River Lot, over the southern part of the Massif Central and through the Alps via Grenoble and Annecy. Later I did about 200km around Zurich before the flight home.

About 10 years earlier, I crossed France in the north as part of a longer tour. The route then came in from Belgium, down to Paris, out to Versailles, east-southeast to Dijon and Beaune, then over the Jura (Col de la Faucille) into Geneva.

[familyguy]

Tale

They're great. Nice country...it looks like a real tough place to be.

I'd love to be able to video some of my riding, then fill the rainy hours when I dont ride editing and making stuff like this.

Jim

[senator52]

Cool videos. Nice singing too

[JustinS007]

I made some crazy videos from touring southern France in June 2007 and put them to royalty-free music. Now that I can post links, here they are:

I'd like to get in touch with you at some future time if OK. My wife and I are planning two European cycling trips next year which (hopefully) coincide with her international running events. The first will be from Ciserano (Italy) to Paris (France) via Bordeaux (Torino & Lyon first). I'd love some advice about that area and any helpful tips. Our plan would be to stay in a mix of B&B's and in the tent. We'd be leaving Ciserano on or about 6 May 2009.

Thanks, J.

[ajh_ausnzcf]

From Geneva you can ride around lake Lausanne to Nyon or so, then take the number 5 Mittelland veloroute all the way to Zurich, did you do that?

I got as far a Yverdon Les Bain on lake Neu Chatel and headed direct for the Jura which is Baulmes, then it's up to 1400m into the Jura in one faul stretch. Jura or number 3 goes through to Basel. It's all good riding around the Jura, pretty much anywhere in Switzerland away from the big cities. French in the Jura, and from Biel north it's German on the number3.

[Tale]

I'd like to get in touch with you at some future time if OK. My wife and I are planning two European cycling trips next year which (hopefully) coincide with her international running events. The first will be from Ciserano (Italy) to Paris (France) via Bordeaux (Torino & Lyon first). I'd love some advice about that area and any helpful tips. Our plan would be to stay in a mix of B&B's and in the tent. We'd be leaving Ciserano on or about 6 May 2009.

Thanks, J.

Sorry I missed this until now - feel free to ask in this thread, or send me a private message on this board and I'll answer any questions. You're planning to go the opposite way from me, so my downhills will be your uphills and I might get it wrong I've also never cycled in Italy.

The ride into Bordeaux is the easy part - the wine country is gently undulating, and then if you go further west to the coast it's all flat. Also, I would recommend entering Paris from the west through Versailles - it's a nice scenic ride.

[Tale]

From Geneva you can ride around lake Lausanne to Nyon or so, then take the number 5 Mittelland veloroute all the way to Zurich, did you do that?

I did that in 1997, when I cycle-camped across Europe for 4 months. In 2007 I was on a three-week holiday from work, with a plane to catch at the end, so I just crossed France on the bike, arrived in Geneva - where I have relatives - and caught the train to Zurich then cycled around that region for a few more days.

I got as far a Yverdon Les Bain on lake Neu Chatel and headed direct for the Jura which is Baulmes, then it's up to 1400m into the Jura in one faul stretch. Jura or number 3 goes through to Basel. It's all good riding around the Jura, pretty much anywhere in Switzerland away from the big cities. French in the Jura, and from Biel north it's German on the number3.

In '97 I left the UK by ferry, then cycled from Amsterdam to Paris, then to Geneva via Dijon. I entered Geneva over the Jura by cycling the 1323m Col de la Faucille, visited my relatives, then cycled all the way north along the Swiss lakes and Mittelland to Schaffhausen. I was due in Augsburg, Germany, to visit friends sooner than I could cycle, so I caught the train from Schaffhausen to Augsburg - the only bit I didn't cycle.

From Augsburg I went north to the Danube, and along the river into Austria, into Slovakia (and a big over-handlebars-onto-knees crash in Bratislava that had me lying in my tent for two weeks). Then kept following the Danube to Budapest, crossed the Hungarian plain to Romania, saw the bullet holes in the buildings in Timisoara, went a long way north in Romania, had some bad experiences and crossed back into Hungary.

Headed north through Hungary, crossed eastern Slovakia, over the mountains into Poland, through Krakow and up into Warsaw. Sold the bike there and caught a bus to London to attend a party, a bus back to Warsaw, and caught the train from Warsaw to Moscow, across Siberia on the trans-Mongolian to Beijing, China ... then more trains to southern China, and bus/boat to Hong Kong. Then I cheated and got a plane to Sydney