The 8th Annual Bike Tour Through a Part of France - Outline of this Year's Adventure

The Tom, Roger, David, and Gérard bike trip for 2019 was going to be different.  The idea was to ride from St-Brevin-les-Pins to La Rochelle in an area just south of Brittany known as the Vendée, with actual riding to start June 2 and ending June 6.  Tom reminded us that this was also the 75^th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy and there were going to be a number of events, including, on June 9, a commemoration parachute jump near the town of St-Mere-Eglise.  After finishing our bike ride, we planned to make a “visual” visit to nearby Le Mont-St-Michel followed by a visit to Ste-Mere-Eglise for the parachute jump and maybe a visit to the renowned D-Day museum in Caen.  

A Signpost Photo from the Web Showing the Trail Logo

The bike route we were to follow is part of the French section of a European bike trail running down the Atlantic coast.  As the website says:La Vélodyssée est un projet porté collectivement par 3 Régions et 9 Départements réunis autour d'une ambition commune : positionner La Vélodyssée comme un itinéraire d'excellence du tourisme à vélo en France et à l'étranger.

We would begin the adventure by driving in Gérard’s car to St-Brevin-les-Pins, a distance of about 700 km, and riding south from there.  Gérard has been prevented from bike riding for a while as he is recovering from a medical procedure, but he volunteered to accompany us in the car, carrying most of our bags, meeting us for lunch, arriving first at our lodging stops, thus ensuring that the team of four stays intact. 

My training this year was more rigorous as I was determined to avoid a repeat of last year when I managed to run myself into the ground.  Additionally, we were for the first time going to all have electric-assist bikes.  Roger had bought himself one a couple of years ago, but I had never even tried one.  Using one is quite the revelation.  I did not know what to expect, but discovered upon trying Roger’s for a short time in Lyon, that the technology is truly amazing.  The bikes have 4-5 levels of power-assist, and in “Eco” mode, the battery will last for 80 or so km.  And, the amount of assist seems to be proportional to how hard one pushes down on the pedal.  There is still effort involved, but it is certainly very satisfying to get more speed for one’s effort, especially on hills!

I did a bit of research on the various towns we were stopping in, Roger and his wife Dominique arranged our nightly accommodations, and we all looked forward to our next adventure.

One negative that began to appear was the weather.  This spring has been cool and wet for most of May and conditions in the Vendée and in Normandy were forecast as rain/clouds every day.  Riding in the rain is definitely not fun, so I packed extra clothes in case I had difficulty drying my clothes.  Having Gérard and his car available to transport our bags at least meant that we did not have to worry about our extra things getting wet while we rode.

All photos, unless otherwise noted, were taken by the four of us.