old new (s)

This morning we woke in septemes on the outskirts of marseilles. we left the camp at 745 to head into the city. cycling down through the sprawl we coast past cafes and shopfronts coming to life.
the city. big. fast.
there is no good way to cycle into a big city - once you're in you can cycle around fine, but to get from the outside in, there aren't small little roads going into big cities. big roads go into big cities. I think 'they' should make bike highways linking towns and cities. not just cycle lanes pushed to the edge of the cars road, but whole roads just for the bikes.
as we get closer to the heart of marseilles the local shopfront bustle gives way to more busses and cars, massive highrises, and swarms of tourists. with my touring bike i cant help but feel like an outsider, somewhat detatched from the city, yet observing from within. for the past month as we've cycled across france, our existence has been closer to rocks and trees than concrete and glass.
so there we are in the concrete jungle with all our wordly possessions strapped to push bikes, surounded by suits with breif cases, beggars with mcdonalds cups, tourists viewing the world through digital camera screens, and everyone in between, all playing to the orchestra of engines and horns and sirens and I stand there with my bike like a statue of a man with a bike soaking it all up thinking: 'how did i get here?'

...well

this trip began with an idea over a year ago to travel from madrid to croatia in a vw van. the idea grandually and continually changed forms and took shape until we decided to cycle from dieppe in the north of france to dubrovnik in croatia.

after all the planning and gear getting we began our trip in peacehaven england on the morning of may 31st. after taking the ferry across to france we spent the night close to dieppe and began cycling on the 1st of june.

our time in the north of france seems so far away now, and our experiences there so different it almost seems like a different country. from dieppe we travelled west along the siene river to the sea at hornfleur and along the normandy coast for a few days. From here we began the long journey south. It took 4 or 5 days to reach the loire valley. After following the loire river for a short stint we continued south, changing our original plan to go to bordeaux instead to head straight towards agen over the hill country of the southwest. from agen we unfortunately had to take a train to carcasonne, as we were running out of time to meet up with frineds there.

some breif info on these sections... the sienne river as it winds to the coast made for atractive easy biking. we saw a few french cyclists here, indicating its worthiness as a cycle spot. we crossed the river a few times on free car ferrys. had a conversation with an old french woman leaning out her front door in a really cool looking old street. us not understanding her and her not us. On the coast of normandy we camp by juno beach, where the canadian troops landed on d-day. we were there on the 6th and attended a few memorial ceremonies. It was emotional and surreal visiting this historic war zone. on the beach and inland, where the allied progression took place had a strange feeling for me. After having a heat spell on the coast the rain began. It was cold and felt like it rained all the way to the loire. Morale got a little low here as our will to cycle was continually beaten down by the rain and the cold. however, we did enjoy the frequent friendly small towns of the north and seeing ruins and castles seemingly everywhere. The loire was excellent. We had a day off in the town of Blois. Here we saw and met many other cycle tourists on various journeys at various speeds. it was inspiring to meet other like us. The chateux of this region are sweet. We visited several and went in two in think. just west of the town of tours we began to head south again. this section - between tours and agen - was unplanned and we were surprised by the history and interesting towns we found. The cycling here was a bit more chalenging with many ups and downs. On the way to agen we were cycling about 90 ks a day and it was good when we finally arrived. altough i had wanted to cycle all the way, the train journey was a nice change of pace taking us to a much anticipated break in carcasonne.

and thats where we began blogging...