Bike tour Frankfurt-Toulouse in 2024
All times are in CET (UTC +1).
Wed, Aug 14
Frankfurt - Nackenheim
Were starting out from Frankfurt, where we arrived yesterday by bus from Helsinki. The 32-hour bus ride was uneventful and not as bad as I thought, but I probably still wouldn't do it again. There's only so much you can do to pass the time, and any number of movies or books won't do it 😅
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Getting out of the city is nice, we're now cycling south from Mainz by the river Rhein. Looking for a grocery store to get some wildcamping dinner tonight, can't find any proper camping grounds nearby.
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Viticulture is big in this region. Looks like some future Riesling growing here 🤔 Probably the last post tonight, gonna be a bit of a scramble to find a place to sleep.
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Thu, Aug 15
Oppenheim - Heidelberg
Good morning from somewhere in Rheinland-Pfalz! Today the goal is to reach Heidelberg some 70km away.
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The Rhein is highly trafficked on this section, with both cargo ships and tourist cruisers passing up and down the river.
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First look at the river Neckar, that also passes through my brief childhood hometown Horb upstream. Heidelberg is also located by this river, we should get there by nightfall.
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Made it to Heidelberg camping just in time before the shops closed. Today's dinner is Bavarian weisswurst with bag pasta, topped with some herb cream we thought was mustard. Apologies to the whole of Germany for this atrocity.
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Fri, Aug 16
Heidelberg - Bretten
Good morning from Heidelberg castle! Beautiful city between the hills. After some touristing here we're starting the first leg of the Heidelberg-Schwarzwald-Bodensee route today.
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We're now following these red markers all the way to Bodensee on the border of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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Lots of fruit and berries growing on the side of the road. Here's me eating a free apple.
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It hasn't rained recently but for some reason this segment is ankle-deep in water 🤔 It's starting to get a bit late, we still gotta find some food and then head to a quiet spot in the Bretten forest to make camp.
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Sat, Aug 17
Bretten - Horb am Neckar
Good morning from the Bretten forest. Apart from some suspicious animal noises it was a quiet night, and that's good because we have a long day ahead of us. The goal is to reach Horb am Neckar by nightfall through some hilly terrain.
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The houses are starting to look very stereotypically German.
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Waffles for lunch 😅 Looked too good in the picture (and in reality too)
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We're now entering Schwarzwald / the Black Forest. Lots of hills and big trees. Cool to see regular train connections going through the area as well.
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Amazing bike paths here with forest all around
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Had a piece of the famous Schwarzwald cake at the Hirsau monastery 🍒
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Had a couple of these cool wooden bridges crossing the river Nagold that runs through the area.
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Out of the forest and now just cruising downhill to Horb, my brief childhood hometown (more from here tomorrow)
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Sun, Aug 18
Horb am Neckar
Pretzels, local cheese, fresh eggs from the yard, really the perfect breakfast 🥨 We are visiting old family friends here in Horb, and we're just going to do some sightseeing, no cycling today.
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First stop, Tübingen, a notable university city. Lots of beautiful buildings, history and current activity. Apparently it's the city with the lowest median age in Germany, mainly due to its student population.
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Flammkuchen, another south German dish off the bucket list. Not a pizza, not a quiche, but something even better.
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On the way back from Tübingen we stopped in Horb for a brief tour of my old neighborhood. This is from in front of the town hall, by which I used to walk to school some 20+ years ago.
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Finishing off the day with some south German classics, starting off with our old friend weisswurst (this time with actual mustard). We also had maultaschen, and käsespätzle, a sort of cheese pasta.
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Mon, Aug 19
Rottweil - Donqueschingen
We've made great progress out of Horb today towards Rottweil and further. Just out of town we encountered these calm cows enjoying some grass right next to the bike path.
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At the Neckar river's spring! Crazy to think this is the same river that flows through Heidelberg before joining the Rhine in Mannheim.
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Right next to the Neckar spring there is a barefoot park, a great concept that only seems to exist in Germany(?) It's a path you walk barefoot, with varying ground textures. Here's some glass-like stuff that somehow is safe to walk on. The path also had rocks, pinecones and mud, plus a water spring.
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Continuing with today's theme, here's the spring of the great Danube river flowing through a huge swath of Europe all the way to the Black Sea. This one looks deservedly royal.
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Tue, Aug 20
Donaueschingen - Hohentwiel
Good morning! We're descending fast today towards Bodensee, where our current route ends. We're losing roughly 300 m over 60 km of cycling.
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Fun little single-track road going through a dense forest. Soon there's going to be more downhill.
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The bulk of today's 300 m descent is in front of us. Oskar logged a speed of 59,2 km/h here 😅
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The ruins of a Roman road station next to the current road. According to a signpost this was Roman territory until the 600s when the Germans claimed it.
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Climbing up a hill to visit the castle ruins of Hohentwiel. This was a more direct route, unfortunately for us there were at least 20 fallen trees on the path which made cycling a bit difficult.
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Views down from Hohentwiel towards the lake Bodensee, which is today's destination. It's going to be an evening of fast cycling, since our campsite is still 40 km away and we have to be there before 21:00.
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Wed, Aug 21
Bodensee, Swiss side - Bodensee, Austrian side
Woke up on the Swiss side, but after a visit to the supermarket realized this is the wrong place for us 😅 Two frozen pizzas for ~8,4e, even when discounted 🤯
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Views to Bodensee / lake Constance
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We speeded to the Austrian side to find a bit more affordable lunch
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Some kind of buffalo? Seeing lots of animals, especially farm animals and birds, like storks and hawks.
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Finished the day with a swim in the big lake.
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Thu, Aug 22
Bodensee, Swiss side - Chur
Back on the Swiss side again, can't avoid it any longer 😄 Today we start climbing towards Andermatt in the Alps, where the rivers Rhine and Rhone start. It should take a couple of days to get there. Today we're hoping to reach Chur.
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The Alps are approaching in the distance. Beautiful cycling path along the Rhine.
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Can't believe how high the meadows go! The cows must have great views from up there.
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Third country today, and we haven't even had lunch yet! Liechtenstein is an interesting little enclave between Switzerland and Austria, with lots of cool trivia, like that they participated in the Apollo program and got their flag sent up and brought back from the Moon.
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Reached the capital of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, just in time for lunch. Two pizzas and beers for 57 euros 😬
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Back in Switzerland again. Visiting Liechtenstein was good since now Switzerland doesn't feel as expensive anymore 😄
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Rhine with an alpine backdrop
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Looks like we'll reach Chur this evening. Today we made great progress as the route was mostly flat. Tomorrow we start climbing for real.
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Fri, Aug 23
Chur - Sumvitg
The climb has begun 🚵♂ Today we're hoping to get close to the final climb to Andermatt from the east-side, called the Oberalppass. Then tomorrow we would climb over it. We started today from 700 meters and should get to 900 meters today. The Oberalppass is at 2050 meters, so there's definitely some climbing left to do tomorrow!
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Shikanery
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Can't rely on card payments here in the countryside, so have to carry a bit of cash around. The Swiss bills are pretty
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Cool view from this camping site. The campsites have been great overall thus far, if a bit expensive. Usually costs 30 euros a night with one tent, but at Bodensee it went up to 45 euros. Haven't had many chances for wildcamping as it is clearly prohibited in many of the good places.
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Sat, Aug 24
Cavardiras - Andermatt
Cool marble door on this church. Also it's only 9 in the morning and we've already climbed 200 meters 😅 It's going to be a tough day.
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Here we go, the final climb to Oberalppass. 23 km of uphill, going up 1150 meters 😵
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The language of street signs has flipped back and forth between German and this Italian-looking language. Probably Retoromansch, which according to Wikipedia is somewhat dominant in this canton.
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Breakfast with a view
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Now back to the grind. Good thing it's the only road forward, can't miss it.
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Doesn't look too bad, but 23 km of this kind of 5% uphill really makes the legs go spaghetti
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Getting close to the top of the pass. The landscape reminds me of Abisko in Sweden.
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Milka chocolate in the making
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Made it! Now just gotta do it again tomorrow at the Furka pass 😅
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Ride down to Andermatt is something else
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Sun, Aug 25
Andermatt - Brig
Today we have another formidable climb ahead of us, the Furka pass. Reaching a height of ~2400 m, we have roughly 1 km of elevation to tackle. It's the first rainy morning of the trip, but it's sort of warm so it isn't too bad.
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The rain has subsided but a persistent fog hangs in the air. Shame since we can't see the views down to the valleys around us.
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Made it to the top! It was tough and took a couple of hours, but with enough breaks it wasn't too bad. Less touristy here than in the Oberalppass yesterday (no restaurants or shops on the top).
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Just as we were starting to descend, the fog started to clear up
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Got to see the views after all! What perfect timing
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The famous hotel Belvedere near the pass and next to the now-shrunken Rhone glacier. It featured in the Bond movie Goldfinger and was a really popular place last century. Unfortunately the hotel has been closed since 2015. You can't see the glacier anymore from the hotel.
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Views down to the valley with the Rhone flowing there from what is left from the glacier.
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Really fun descent down from the pass, with not much traffic.
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Some residual fog is slowly flowing down the mountainside, looks unbelievable
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With the Furka pass behind us, it's time for some regular cycling again. It's still going to be hilly today, but already tomorrow it should be quite flat most of the time.
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The Rhone has already calmed down enough for rafting
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The route crosses this ancient bridge on the bottom of a ravine. The info sign says it's at least 500 years old, but that some believe it's even older and was built by the Romans. Anyway a really cool old bridge in the middle of nowhere. Today we're finishing in the small city of Brig. We totaled 1400 m of ascent and over 2000 m of descent. Tomorrow is hopefully going to be a bit less hilly.
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Mon, Aug 26
Brig - Martigny
Good morning from the Lidl parking lot! Didn't have any breakfast supplies since yesterday was Sunday and all the shops were closed. Today we're trying to reach Martigny some 90km down the valley. Should be flat and straightforward.
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A really nice thing here in Switzerland is the availability of free drinkable water. There have been these fountains in most of the town squares we've gone through.
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The Rhone has gotten wide in just a few tens of kilometers
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And now suddenly everything is in French 🤔 I guess it's time to forget German and start adjusting to a new language.
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Some nice views today as well, even though nothing compares to the mountain passes of the last few days. Looks like we will reach Martigny soon. Tomorrow it's off then towards Lake Geneva.
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Tue, Aug 27
Saint-Maurice - Saint-Gingolph
After waking up in Martigny, we turned north towards Lake Geneva. Our goal is to visit Montreux on the east side and finish the day on the southern French side, where camping and groceries are hopefully cheaper. This is the Abbey of Saint Maurice, an impressive old church on the way towards the lake.
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Made it to Montreux in time for lunch. The town has a very Mediterranean vibe, and some call it the northern Riviera (or something like that). It's also famous for being Freddy Mercury's hometown for a long time.
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And now we're already on the southern coast of Lake Geneva, or I guess Lac Léman now that we're in France 🇫🇷 Good to finally be in my (brief) new home country 😁
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Wed, Aug 28
Lugrin - Geneva
Budget French breakfast: Baguette, Brie and ham 👌
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Some metal shrapnel caught Oskar's rear tire. First flat tire on this trip. Amazing it took so long 🤔
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Made it to Geneva for the evening. Sadly we don't have much time to spend here as we have to hurry to our camping site before it closes. Checked out the main tourist attractions, like the Jet d'Eau fountain which shoots water 140 meters high in the air. Creates a cool rainbow in the evening sun 🌈
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Thu, Aug 29
CERN - Lac du Bourget
Our campsite was close to CERN so we decided to check out the general exhibitions here. Cool intro to their history and current activities. The exhibition focus was very much on the Large Hadron Collider, the largest particle collider in the world. Here's Oskar operating it 👀
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After our brief excursion back to Switzerland in Geneva, it's time to return to France once and for all! Interesting border this time, as it's just a forest path in the middle of nowhere. Goodbye 🇨🇭, hello 🇫🇷
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We're once again cycling next to the Rhone river. It has gotten really large since we last saw it, and we're also traveling a bit higher from it's shores right now. It still has the azure colour from before. You can see a glimpse of it below this bridge.
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Some storks nesting in a tree close to our campsite of the day. We're deviating now from the cycle path that follows the Rhone river through Lyon, we're going through Grenoble instead. This saves a couple of days since we need to finish the trip by the end of next week.
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Fri, Aug 30
Lac du Bourget - Grenoble
Had a bit of trouble finding a campsite that was still open and had room yesterday, in the end we decided to camp next to a closed campsite without permission, used their facilities and just paid in the morning. All was fine in the end. Today it's another busy day of cycling, we should reach Grenoble some 100 km southwest!
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Is this a thing at French campsites that there's no toilet paper and no toilet seat? Or is it just this one 🤔
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The lake gets some of its water from the Rhone, maybe the azure color is also from there. Really beautiful morning
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We forgot (again) that there's an afternoon siesta and most restaurants close until they reopen in the evening. Good excuse to try French McDonald's 😅 Interesting that there was hardly any trash, all the cups were reusable.
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Were now following this marked cycle path called La Belle Via towards Grenoble and beyond to Valence where it merges again with the Rhone cycle path. Really nice countryside roads thus far with hardly any cars and great views to the remaining alpine landscape.
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Phew, made it to Grenoble for the evening! It's a university city, which is also apparent in the quality of its bike path network. Really easy to get around. We're gonna spend a rest day here and continue onwards on Sunday.
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Morning baguette conveniently strapped to the bike 😅 Peak French 🇫🇷
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Sat, Aug 31
Grenoble
Today we've been resting in Grenoble (first rest day since Horb almost two weeks ago 🤯). Also did some sightseeing, visiting the Bastille fortress. A convenient gondola ride goes up there so we don't have to walk 😅
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Raclette for dinner 🧀 Bit different than how I remember it, there's no hot plate for grilling meat or vegetables, just a hot pipe for melting the cheese. Maybe this is the French variant.
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Sun, Sep 1
Grenoble - Saint-Marcellin
Now moving on from Grenoble towards Valence. As we get out of the last remnants of the Alps region, the landscape should turn more and more flat. Expecting to do a 100 km of easy cycling today.
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Good access to drinking water in many places here 🙏
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This region is famous for its walnut groves. There are walnut trees everywhere, sadly the nuts aren't ready yet and don't even really look like walnuts at this point.
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Forgot about the afternoon siesta again 🙄 Good excuse to try the Filet-o-fish burger in McDonald's. Apparently it mostly caters to certain Catholics who don't eat meat on Fridays. Since there are not that many Catholics in Finland, it probably explains why they don't sell it there.
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Mon, Sep 2
Valence - Montelimar
Today we merge back from La Belle Via to Eurovelo 17 / the Rhone route. La Belle Via was really top-notch with calm country roads and new bike paths in many places, really recommended.
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Today we made an effort to avoid McDo and got lunch before the siesta. Valence city center had lots of nice small restaurants, like this poke place.
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Kiwi fruits! Didn't know they grow these here. Sadly they aren't ready to eat yet (we tried)
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Passing by a big nuclear power plant. Some of the cooling towers have murals on them which makes them look less imposing, cool idea
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No campsites nearby, so it's time to try wildcamping again. Making some chicken pesto pasta and trying some French wine, too. It's impressive how many domestic products French supermarkets have. Most fruit are domestic and they show it clearly on the labels. Same for the meat, and of course the wine and the cheese as well.
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Tue, Sep 3
Montelimar - Avignon
The "campsite" was a bit thorny 😅 Oskar got another flat and my sleeping mat is now leaking slowly. Should be fine for the rest of the week.
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A bit groggy from the wildcamping but we soldier on. For lunch we're having sheep liver or something like that 👀 Didn't really understand what it was on the menu, but it was today's special so we figured it has to be something good. Liver's not my favorite but this one was ok.
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Staying in Avignon tonight. You can see the city is old and well-preserved. It used to be the seat of the Pope in the 1300s for some time, and was owned by the Catholic church until the French revolution.
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Wed, Sep 4
Avignon - Vauvert
Going back from the campsite to the city to check out the sights
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Lots of gold and old rock here. This is the Notre Dame church, which we visited. There's also the Pope's palace, but we figured we don't have time for that since it's going to rain later today and we need to set up camp before.
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The landscape is changing rapidly again. Very Mediterranean, with sand, pines, palm trees and cactuses. This one even has some fruit. The taste was good, but probably not worth picking up since it left painful tiny thorns in the fingers.
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The grapevines are ready for harvest. Literally low hanging fruit 😄 And also forbidden fruit since the farmers don't appreciate people taking their crops
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The olives are also ripening but not quite ready yet. Made it to tonight's campsite before most of the rain. There's supposed to be heavy rainfall tonight, hopefully it doesn't flood the tent pitch 🤞Tomorrow we should get to the ocean then. I'm having a bit of a flu, so our pace isn't 100% but we're getting there.
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It rained a bit more than expected 😱 The water rose alarmingly high, almost so that it would've flooded into the tent. Good thing that didn't happen in the end. Also a snail found rescue on top of the cooker 😄
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Thu, Sep 5
Rhône canal - Sète
Semi-wild horses (Camargue horses) grazing along the Rhône canal to Sète
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We're getting very close to the sea and you can see it on the restaurant menus. Local fish and mussels for lunch today 😋
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Behold the Mediterranean Sea! The last sea we saw was the Baltic Sea in Tallinn four weeks ago, so this feels like we've crossed the continent (ok, a big part of it was by bus 😄)
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Some trouble finding a campsite tonight, they were all full or closed. The only option is to race 10km to Sète (the hill in the distance) and hope a hotel still has room. Can't really camp here in the open since the area is so urban.
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Found a hotel, now heating up frozen paella in the backyard parking lot 😅 Life of luxury on the Riviera
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Fri, Sep 6
Sète - Béziers
Had a good night's sleep in the hotel, now refreshed for the last leg of the route up to Toulouse. The sea is looking a bit rough this morning, but at least the wind is coming from the back so we should make some good progress today. The bike paths in this region yesterday weren't the best, though. Lots of diversions, bad surfaces and narrow paths. Maybe the Mediterranean region doesn't have a big incentive to invest in bike tourism, since they get so many tourists regardless.
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We are following the Canal du Midi route, which goes from Sète to Toulouse. The canal (built in the 1600s) actually connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean, so it used to be an important shipping route back in the day. It's still in use by yachts and such.
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Oskar used the final opportunity to go for a swim before we leave the seaside. Warm water but strong winds and waves. I'm still struggling with the flu so didn't go myself, it's getting better though.
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The Canal du Midi is roughly 10 m wide and seems to be in active use. Lots of yachts coming through it. There are also some abandoned-looking sunken boats like this.
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Here's the first major set of canal locks. The highest point of the canal is roughly 200 m of elevation from sea level (near Toulouse), so many locks are needed to raise and lower the boats. Seems like a slow process to get through even a single lock, definitely not a fast way to travel. The camping situation is again difficult today, so we decided to make it a shorter day today and start early tomorrow to get back on schedule. Should reach Toulouse on Monday.
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Sat, Sep 7
Capestang - Carcassonne
Good morning! The plan seems to have worked, since I'm feeling much healthier and the wind is again on our side. This should be an easy 100 km day.
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Huge pine trees surrounding the canal. Trying to find some pine seeds to try to grow some seedlings in my Toulouse apartment 😁
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This one had a pinecone with some seeds in it. Good source material!
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The canal route has been really nice thus far, with varying paths and surfaces, interspersed with small towns frequented by boat tourists. There's also no uphills (except next to the locks), since the canal has to be still / flat for the boats to move easily.
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Splurged on a fancy lunch at one of the canalside restaurants. Peach pavlova for dessert.
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Now in the city of Carcassonne, maybe best known for inspiring the board game Carcassonne? Didn't go to see the medieval city center though, just went to Decathlon to buy some gas and pedaled onwards 🤦♂️ But looks like we'll reach 100 km today! Also getting some signage towards Toulouse now, the end is near.
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Sun, Sep 8
Villesèquelande - Villefranche-de-Lauragais
Camped along the canal. Really peaceful with nobody passing by during the night. Seems like the countryside goes to sleep at 20, nobody's outside after sundown.
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Now on the highest point of the canal. This is the first lock flowing towards the Atlantic Ocean. The canal continues like this at least until Toulouse, at some point merging with the Garonne river which flows through Bordeaux to the Atlantic.
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Pizza for lunch and then only 20 km of cycling to a campsite on the outskirts of Toulouse. Tomorrow we'll reach the city and I'll hopefully get the keys to my apartment. Oskar will fly back to Finland on Tuesday once his bike is packed.
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Mon, Sep 9
Toulouse
Last 10 km stretch to Toulouse is now over 🏆 In total we cycled 1980 km from Frankfurt to Toulouse, first following the Heidelberg-Schwarzwald-Bodensee route, then crossing the Alps via the Eurovelo Rhine and Rhône routes, then cutting across eastern France via Grenoble back to the Eurovelo Rhône route, and finally following the Canal du Midi route up here from the Mediterranean. All routes were in excellent condition (apart from some short stretches), and had good variety and sights to keep things interesting. The distance was a bit too long since we had to rush through France, but at least now we've seen a bunch of interesting places worth going back for a proper visit!
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Photo taken at
Photo taken inToulouse
Celebrating with some Korean food (sorry France). Also my classmate Leo joined us, he's been here a week so he already knows his way around town quite well 😄
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Photo taken at
Photo taken inToulouse