Author Archives: JMC

When in Seville Spain over Christmas Jon had this amazing experience of being in the same room where Christopher Columbus went before Ferdinand and Isabella to request funds for his expedition to seek a western passage to India. Having lived … Continue reading →

Here we sit … In 2009 we had to cross rivers by ferries numerous times with no problems. I think our longest wait was about 15 minutes. But now we are in France, and the ferry closes for lunch! We … Continue reading →

This is our third European cycling tour and it is interesting to see how each was planned, executed, recorded, and shared with our friends. 2005 Netherlands, Belgium, and France For this trip we did not camp, so we only needed … Continue reading →

Perhaps we are getting what we deserved, since we named the trip, “The Waters of France”. We’ve been slogging it through the wetlands, forests, and dunes of the Atlantic shoreline for the past two cold and rainy days. It reminds … Continue reading →

15 years ago Jon spent 10 weeks bicycling east to the Atlantic Ocean. Now we have just spent 10 days bicycling west to the Atlantic Ocean. We have seen southern France in the springtime from atop a bicycle. It is … Continue reading →

Question of the day: will we be in Bordeaux, or will Bordeaux be in us? If we are lucky, it will be both! Not only a very beautiful city, full of parks and fountains, but we also give Bordeaux a … Continue reading →

Today we said goodbye to the canals that have been our home for the past 9 days. We reached the western end of the canals at Le Reole, headed north through the hills, including a 12% grade we cycled right … Continue reading →

Adventure Cycling has a designation for people who volunteer to help cyclists along their 40k+ miles of bike routes across the US. If we could do it in Europe, we would nominate our friend Lieven as a Trail Angel. Lieven … Continue reading →

Today was the only day of the entire ride when we were going to be staying with a friend of our first hosts in Montauroux, Don and Bob. Little did we know when the day started how important and extremely … Continue reading →

We can characterize this stretch of canal as one long straight section after another, punctuated by small curves every few kilometers. Along this same theme, we also crossed the longest canal/water bridge we’ve ever seen. After the trees, the bridge … Continue reading →