As I read back through the blog posts for the 2022 tour, and through the wrapup posts of previous tours, I’m struck by several things. First, with each tour, we gain confidence in our ability to navigate the vagaries of tour life, from the logistics of flying with a bike, to finding suitable accommodations, to finding places to do groceries and eat. We are also more confident in our ability to ride on busier roads when necessary, and to ride longer distances or tackle terrain with more relief (though, as I have mentioned in the past, we’re not about to ride through the alps any time soon). On this trip, I think we had at least five days over 65 kilometres, including a couple of days of 70 kilometres or more. And it was much less of a problem than before. Sonia, especially, is starting to trust that her body can do the hard days when it becomes necessary. So with each trip, we feel more like “real” cycle tourers.
Logistically, the 2022 tour was amazing. All of our travel, without exception, was trouble free. There were no issues getting the bikes on the planes; the flights were all smooth, more-or-less on time, and we had a seat between us both ways; all of our train travel was right on time, and, except for the very last trip, which involved a bit of a scramble, we had no trouble getting the bikes on the trains.
The weather was perhaps the best of any tour we’ve ever done. We only felt literally several drops of rain—there was never any question of us breaking out the rain gear, some of which has never been worn, such is our luck on these tours (touch wood). We had a few warm days on the bike, but nothing we couldn’t handle. And even the few days we pedalled against headwinds, they were pretty light for the most part.
Almost all of our accommodations were very good to excellent. We were only truly dissatisfied with two places. Getting good wifi connectivity was occasionally in issue, but it was a minor frustration in the grand scheme of things. Outside of the larger centres, there tended to be a lack of variety in terms of finding groceries. The stores we found most often were a chain called Carrefour Cité, and while there was nothing wrong with it per se, we began to tire of the lack of choice in certain foodstuffs, especially meat. Sonia was the one doing most of the shopping (her dietary restrictions make this a practical matter), so by the end of the tour, she was pretty sick of Carrefour Cité.
With so many positives to take away from this trip, I am at somewhat of a loss to explain why it does not sit higher in the ranking of our European tours. Don’t get me wrong; we had a fabulous time and made some really wonderful memories. There are parts of this trip that I will never forget. As always, it was a learning experience. And I will say this: as we were riding through the mist to Toulouse airport on our last morning, I would absolutely have just kept riding north if that had been an option. Now that we’re home, we haven’t been mourning this tour as we have others, but I really did feel that sense of wanting to keep going when it was time to come home, something that we’ve have felt on just about every tour we’ve ever done.
I think there are at least two reasons for my bemusement about this tour. First, we were both anticipating it so greatly that it would have been almost impossible for it to live up to expectations. And second, we had underestimated both how much accumulated stress from past 2 1/2 years we were carrying and how long it would take to shed that stress so we could truly appreciate the adventure. Personally, I found myself feeling much more generalized, unexplainable anxiety, and it took me several weeks to settle into the rhythm of the tour. It may also be that as we get older (our last European tour was three years ago, after all), we may have less tolerance for finding and sleeping in a new bed every night. That’s something we’ll need to think about and discuss for future tours.
Another thing was that this trip ended up involving a fair amount of train travel. Granted, it all went great, but I recognize that it’s not my favourite thing. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but I do find it adds a certain layer of stress to the trip.
But all in all, the touring was lovely. The Canal latéral de la Garonne was quite beautiful in places, with the mature plane trees overhanging the canal. Certain stretches of the path were in rough shape, either from general lack of maintenance or from heaves caused by tree roots. It was a nice way to get from Toulouse to Bordeau, but if we could do it again, I think we would try and detour out to Cahors and then ride down the Lot Valley Cycle Route to where the Lot empties into the Garonne. Five days along the Garonne canal was perhaps a little much. The Vélodyssée was nicer and somewhat more varied, and I’m not sure we could have done things much differently. So while it could get a bit monotonous at times, it was generally quite lovely. I wish we could have done it in four days rather than five, though.
The Loire Valley was my favourite part of the trip; it was much more the kind of touring I prefer—rolling through farmland and vineyards, small villages, largish towns, the intoxicating smells of the countryside, riding alongside a beautiful river. The EV6/Loire à vélo route was a mixed bag though, and infuriating at times. It was generally well marked but occasionally took baffling detours rather than more direct routes for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Perhaps in the summer, when this route is very heavily travelled, such roundabout routes are more necessary to avoid congestion on certain roads, but we did find it frustrating at times. And then there were the sketchy sections where Sonia’s 32mm slick road tires were not really the appropriate gear. The EV6 is a well-known cycle touring route, not some off-road bikepacking route; it was unexpected to find it so off-roady in a few places. But the scenery was spectacular. The Loire River is truly lovely, and the region is a delightful blend of small villages, larger towns with chateaux, and farms and vineyards. If we’d had a few more days, we would have taken side loops out to some of the better known chateaux, but we’ve seen Chenonceau and Chambord before, so we didn’t feel too much regret about that. And, as I’ve said before, these trips are more about serendipity than sightseeing. If we tried to see everything there is to see in any given place we cycle through, we’d only cycle 10 kilometres a day.
Now the planning for the next tour begins. We’ve been toying with the idea of doing a longer tour one of these years, and next year may just be it. Stay tuned.
