France

The scenery riding from Nice, France in the Cote D’azur was such a pleasant surprise. The coastal cliffs are composed of stunning red rock contrasting sharply with the mediterranean sea. Inland, we rode through mountains covered in dense forest. We had no idea the French Riviera had such scenery.

Of course, climbing dirt trails on 90 pound touring bikes not meant for off-roading had its challenges. Virgil fell three times in quick succession on a downhill section of the trail, and the hot temperature and steep, rocky terrain had me constantly stopping to question my life choices.

Despite what everyone may think, the French Riviera isn’t all bad. One of my favorite parts of our days was stopping at random, picturesque beaches to take a dip and cool off. At one of them we swam out to a floating dock in the ocean and dove into the water with children laughing and playing all around us.

Pictured below is me being very happy to be done riding through mountains and dirt trails for the day. We found a campsite next to the sea and took a dip after a long, hot day of riding and ended up camping there for a few nights. This extended stay may or may not have been related to the fact that the campsite included a bar.

We continued to ride north to Toulon through the vineyards and “chateaus”, entering small villages to stop for our favorite bicycling beverage, Blue Powerade! We never had a thing for drinking sugary beverages, but there’s something magical about it in the middle of a long hot day of riding. We also found it funny that many of the “chateaus” weren’t actually castles but small, simple houses near vineyards.

One night we snuck onto an abandoned farm to camp, and we found some discarded chairs on the property. Pictured below, us eating our dinner on chairs for the first time in a while, tres fancy.

That night as we were going to sleep, some dogs discovered our tent and started barking at us for what seemed like an eternity. After they left, I fell asleep but Virgil stayed awake to hear some rustling in the bushes and then the unmistakable sound of a grunting boar getting close. Apparently, a dog noticed the boar too, and they ended up in a quarrel. According to Virgil’s account, it sounded like the dog won as he heard the pig squealing off into the distance.

The next day we made it to Toulon, our longest day of biking so far, over 50 miles. My knee started killing me when we were still about 10 miles away from our destination. I decided to keep pushing, and we arrived late at night and figured we would get a hotel, which we had been doing while in cities.

As we looked for hotels, it quickly became apparent that all the hotels in town were booked solid. After searching for hours, Virgil found only one hotel with a single vacant room, and it was crazy expensive, but it was almost midnight and we had no other option. We were confused by how this random city could be totally booked in the middle of the week. We found out that the French take their holiday during August and that any destination spot would have been booked months in advance. This wasn’t good news for budgeting bicycle travelers.

The next day, my knee was still killing me. We decided I shouldn’t bike, and being unable to stay in Toulon for an extended time with the hotel prices, we decided to take a train to the next spot where we could find affordable accommodation. That ended up being Toulouse, and we went by train. Turns out trains are way faster and more comfortable than bicycles, who knew?

Toulouse had a bunch of vegan restaurants we really wanted to try out which is how we became intimately familiar with the very strict French eating times. Restaurants open only for small windows of a couple of hours, 2-3 times a day, and are closed the rest of the day. We learned this the hard way by repeatedly showing up hungry to closed restaurants. Finally, we got the hang of it and were rewarded by vegan foie gras! Some people say it’s inhumane the way they force feed the vegetables to produce it, but we think the taste is worth it.

We left Toulouse after a few days of rest, hoping that was enough to let my knee heal. About 10 miles into our ride to Bordeaux, our next major destination, the pain came back. Virgil injured his knee on his last two bicycle trips, and we didn’t want me to repeat his mistake of continuing to ride and turning it into a more serious issue. We were left with the decision to either stay in Toulouse for an indefinite period of time, or continue on our trip with the train and hope that over time, with some rest, the knee problems disappear. So, we hopped on a train to Bordeaux.

Bordeaux is a beautiful city and we spent a few days exploring it. We, of course, drank their famous wine, went to a free rock concert, enjoyed flea markets, beautiful little winding streets, and a wonderful LGBTQ-friendly vegan wine and cheese restaurant.

Unfortunately, in Bordeaux I very clumsily fell twice while riding (the wine is so good, what can I say?). The first fall was onto my other knee, and the next day I could barely stand up. The pain, now in both knees, was still unbearable when walking or biking after a few days in Bordeaux, and our budget was getting blown every day we stayed in cities and hotels. We decided we needed to accelerate this trip and get to a place where I could rest for an extended period of time without it breaking the bank. But we couldn’t leave France without seeing Paris! So, we hopped on a TGV!

My mother’s friend Florence graciously offered to host us as she lives just outside of Paris. She made us feel like part of the family and spoiled us daily with home cooked meals, chocolate, wine and champagne! Every day we’d hop on the train into the city, and wander around this beautiful and iconic destination for hours.