(South)westward ho!

The autumn trip for 2022 was destined to be a ride across France: My parents had rented a house in the south west of France for their 50th wedding anniversary and we had to get there somehow. So why not ride?

The route plan

I didn't realise it at first, but the GR65 "Chemin du Compostelle" practically goes door to door (and in the case of the destination, literally to the end of the driveway). This one of the long distance paths that take pilgrims from across Europe to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle in northern Spain via Le Puy-en-Velay. It meant that once we were past Puy, we'd be passing pilgrims on the trail every few hundred meters or so.

Since we only had around 10 or 11 days to get there, some shortcuts and road sections were necessary to mean we weren't having to race the whole way. It also meant we would have the non-GR65 sections of trail to ourselves.

We also had company for the first few days in the form of our good friends Sian, Carl and Glen. They joined us until we headed west from the Rhone and into the Massif Central.

Eating and sleeping

There was no wild-camping this trip. There were camp sites all along the route with nice showers and convenient supermarkets for (much needed) cold beer and crisps—so many new flavours of Brets were discovered, butter flavour "Bretonne" is a new fave.

The Aubrac Plateau

One of the highlights of the trip was exploring the Aubrac Regional Natural Park. The high plateau, characterized by its gravel tracks, empty roads, and tranquil villages, is an ideal landscape for bike touring. I imagine that in less good weather it would all be a bit bleak.

Hot in the Lot

The last few days of the trip were down in the Lot. After a big descent from the plateau the temperature went up a few degrees and the wind increased. A lovely looking 20km 1-2% grade descent was particularly frustrating as we battled the warm headwind.

We had evidently just passed peak sunflower season, which left us with fields of sad looking sunflower soldiers, some bigger than our heads.

The stats

We ended up covering 850km with 11,000m of climbing across 10 days. Despite encountering some intense overnight storms, we only experienced rain while on the bike once. The remainder of the trip was characterized by scorching sun and heat, plus what felt like a constant headwind.

Epilogue: The long way home

After a few days at the house with the family, we had to make our way home. It took a lot of planning—more than the ride out I think.

The French railways are great, until you need to take a bike: The SNCF app simply gives up if you need to make a few changes and only take trains where bikes are allowed - the main sticking point being that TGVs in the east of France generally don't accept bikes, not even in regular sized bike boxes. We had to piece  the route together on the TER (regional) trains. After a lot of trial and error, we ended up with this mega 6 train trip:

1. We got a lift from my Dad to Agen station
2. Agen > Toulouse
3. Toulouse > Nimes
4. Nimes > Avignon
5. Avignon > Valence
6. Valence > Bellegarde
7. Bellegarde > Thonon-les-bains
8. A lift up to Morzine from a friend

The first train was 25 minutes late, which would have scuppered our whole plan, luckily they held the connecting train in Nimes for us (and a few other passengers). The next bit of worry was arriving at Avignon to find about 15-20 other cycle tourists waiting for trains north. With only a set number of places per train we only just made it on. The whole trip took about 13 hours—I'm amazed we made it back.