Cycling adventures across Yorkshire, Britain and beyond
Earlier this year I cycled between Britain’s biggest and smallest churches, Liverpool Cathedral and St Trillo’s, Colwyn Bay. (You can probably guess which is which.) So on this sunny day I couldn’t resist doing the Yorkshire equivalent, riding from its largest – York Minster – to the smallest, forty-odd miles to the east: the tiny…
York is not short of images. The Minster, the City Walls, the Shambles, the pubs, the TikTok tourists queueing three hours to buy a ghost-shaped pepperpot. But there are many lesser-celebrated, quirky things to marvel at. I list them on my Bizarre Sights Guide to York on this website. My favourite of the lot is…
Never say Nevers. I’d originally planned to ride all the way to Nevers, sixty-ish k further up the Loire, so had accomm and my transport back home booked there. But with another terrible weather forecast, and the prospect of riding all day into a sleety headwind with no great scenic reward, I decided that a…
Autumn turned up while I was asleep. This morning was misty and cold, and I had to warm my hands around my breakfast tea mug before they worked well enough to take down the tent. There’s an end-of-season feel: several campsites along the way shut early for the year because of rainy weather and dwindling…
Orléans looked splendid in this morning’s sunshine. The city’s most famous son is a daughter: Joan of Arc, defender of the French Nation, who played a big role in the Siege of Orléans in the 1400s. She is commemorated in many ways, such as a cannabis shop called the Marie Jeanne d’Arc CBD. I think…
Another easy-going day of level riverside riding. The Loire route is not for seekers of thrills and spills, though I did almost spill some of my coffee this morning in a Blois cafe. (As for pastries, I’d had those back at the tent, thanks to the morning bakery delivery service that’s common at French campsites.)…
Yesterday was heavy rain all day so I stayed in Tours and just cycled – well, aquaplaned mostly – round town, exploring the very decent bike infrastructure. This morning, with my new-found knowledge of the city’s layout, I splashed my way to the doctor to show off my impressive collection of insect bites, and colourfully…
Today was one long sequence of gentle, quiet paths through woods, farms and river plains. Not much happened, but it happened enjoyably. With heavy rain forecast I booked a hostel in Tours for tonight, a mere 59km away according to the sign outside last night’s campsite. An hour along the path, all delightfully quiet, Tours…
A good full day of easy riverside riding today, involving all the Loire tropes: cathedrals and chateaux, latticework bridges, bike-friendly campsites, wineries, giant wine bottles, tripe sausages, crushed Renaults, and nuclear power stations. My campsite last night was only five miles from Angers, a fine cathedral and castle city, so I nipped up for a…
After two short days I thought I’d better get some miles in, and with half-decent weather forecast, planned a substantial day of sixty-odd miles. It was fairly easy, thanks to the Loire path being well-signed, flat, smooth, and with cars outnumbered by artisan boulangeries. It would have been even better if some of them had…