About

J&I will fly to Basel, Switzerland in early June [of 2019] with our bicycles, to meet up with A, who will be flying in from Cork. From Basel the three of us will cycle west along a portion of the EuroVelo 6 route, towards Orléans, France. We’re doing this to celebrate: a significant anniversary for J&M; a special birthday for M; and the recent retirement of A.

Join us!

This Wikipedia page gives a good overview of the various EuroVelo routes. EuroVelo 6, the route that we’ll be following, runs from the mouth of the Loire to the Black Sea (or vice versa). It’s also known as “The Rivers Route” (much of the route is alongside canals or rivers)—and as everyone knows: water flows downhill; hence the optimistic title of this blog.

About our route

We’ll start alongside the Canal du Rhône au Rhin, which runs from Basel to Saint Jean de Losne in France (there’s another web page here: http://www.french-waterways.com/waterways/north-east/rhone-rhin/). Then we’ll follow the Canal du Centre (which connects the Saône to the Loire) from Chalon-sur-Saône to Digoin, and the Canal Latéral à la Loire (from Digoin to Briare). The last section we’ll ride (from Briare to Orleans) is alongside the Loire itself.

France Velotourism has two very helpful websites which describe the EuroVelo 6 sections we’ll be riding, with tons of detail (including elevation profiles for each stage).

  1. The first website covers the section from Basel to Nevers: https://en.francevelotourisme.com/cycle-route/eurovelo-6-cycle-route-of-the-rivers
  2. The second covers the section from Nevers to the French coast (following the Loire valley): https://en.francevelotourisme.com/cycle-route/la-loire-a-velo-loire-valley-by-bike

According to France Velotourisme’s figures, the distance from Basel to Nevers along the EuroVelo 6 is 551 km; Nevers to Orleans is a further 200 km, for a total of 751 km. We’ve allocated two weeks for cycling, which works out to 50 km or so per day. To put this in context: the remaining distance of the EuroVelo 6 (from Orleans to the mouth of the Loire) is about 700 km—which means that we’ll be cycling roughly halfway across France.

We want to take our time, and to be flexible, so we’re open to taking a rest day if we find a nice, quiet town with a good café. We’re also willing to take a local train if time runs short, to reach Orléans within our two week window.

Some backstory

Postscript

I’ve edited this About page to add some direct links to specific entries in chronological order (since the blog itself, accessed via the Home link above, displays entries in reverse chronological order). This way interested visitors (are there any?) don’t have to scroll backwards through everything to find specific entries.

Reviewing these entries, it became clear that the dominant theme of this bicycle expedition was French Pastries (and why not?). So I’ve graded the entries to give each an Official Pastry Rating (OPR), with five asterisks (*****) being the highest. Visit those entries first if you’re craving a pastry fix.