I think I can say this without it being a total lie. One stupidly drunken night in Tokyo led to a guy named Nigel to try and cycle (and nearly succeed) from England to Japan. Nigel and I had gone to the Pink Cow to see a slide show of this very trip by a [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Amsterdam to Zurich – 2007, Flashback #5
Posted in Belgium, Cycling, France, Germany, Longer Trips and Flashbacks, Luxembourg, Medieval Stuff, Netherlands, Rest of Europe, Roman Leftovers, Switzerland, tagged amsterdam, belgium, camino de santiago, des bosch, erdinger, germany, luxembourg, moselle river, rhine, speyer, switzerland, trier, windmill, zurich on January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Getting Out of Montpellier on Bike Paths
Posted in Cycling, France, Languedoc, tagged bike path, cycling path, Montpellier on January 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A short entry today for those who might live in Montpellier. I found a way to escape the city without having to hit the streets. Here it is. The route, which follows one of the tram lines, dumps you south of Teyran, which has a bike path up to the center of town. From there [...]
Teyran and Beyond
Posted in Cycling, France, Languedoc, tagged cevennes, montaud, pic st loup, teyran on January 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I almost didn’t take the camera this morning, thinking I’d just go out for a quick spin on familiar roads, but good thing I did (in the sense that I have something for a blog, not that the pictures are any good…) because I found yet another new route north of Montpellier. After riding up [...]
Flashback #4 – Bordeaux to Toulouse 2004
Posted in Cycling, France, Longer Trips and Flashbacks, tagged beauville, bordeaux, carcassonne, dordogne, gare d'austerlitz, lourdes, maruishi, sete, st. emillion, tgv, toulouse on January 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
3 years after our first long trip in Europe (see ‘flashback #2′) I muscled my way back to France for another ride. I can’t say Shoko was against the idea, but it was certainly my trip, and almost the end of my marriage…but we’ll come to that in time.
The plan was a 2-week ride from [...]
Murles and Back
Posted in Cycling, France, Languedoc, Medieval Stuff, tagged Murles on January 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The Spring-like weather is still hanging around here, so I didn’t need much push to get myself in the saddle this morning. It’s incredible, but I found yet another area that is totally new to me, just 15 km or so from home. A region of many small mountains, forests, and little valleys, that make [...]
Pic St. Loup loop
Posted in Cycling, France, Languedoc, Medieval Stuff, tagged les matelles, pic st loup on January 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The bite was off the air a little today and I started feeling (totally unwarranted, as usual) like Spring was here. Anyway, delusional or not, I took the bike out for a long spin in the hills north of the city and re-realized this is by far the best cycling area around here. Endless options [...]
Narbonne to Agde
Posted in Cycling, France, Languedoc, Medieval Stuff, tagged agde, canal du midi, vinassan on January 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that I failed to finish a trip I’d planned over the holidays. Well, today (and the last ride/post) finishes it by linking up Montpellier to Narbonne, where I wimped out in the rain a couple weeks ago.
I took the train to Narbonne on a wonderfully rainless morning and [...]
Agde – how would YOU pronounce it?
Posted in Cycling, France, Languedoc, tagged agde on January 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I had a really great ride today, which unfortunately can’t be seen in the mono-scenery photos I took, but maybe that’s the proof that is was such an excellent ‘ballade’ – too busy riding to snap shots. Anyway, it doesn’t help you much, I admit. I left Montpellier on the D5 bike path and almost [...]
The Best Laid Plans – Day 2
Posted in Cycling, France, Languedoc, Longer Trips and Flashbacks, Medieval Stuff, tagged carcassonne, corbieres, narbonne on January 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I woke up this morning to a howling easterly that was honestly disturbing. I am sure the hotel lady thought I was nuts, just staring out onto the canal, watching the trees bend. It was also freezing cold – 2 or 3 degrees when I started out. But it wasn’t raining, so I didn’t have [...]
2008 Wrap-up
Posted in Yearly Wrap-ups, tagged dragon boat, gaspe, lyon, singapore, villefranche sur mer. institut de francais on January 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »
First off, for those expecting an entry on cycling, many apologies. This will be a once a year deviation, I promise. For the rest of you, here goes! Ah, and another apology now that I’m done this thing. 2008 was pretty dragon boat heavy, so for the few of you aren’t hip to the DB [...]
