Places

07
Oct
2025

Paris à Velo

Cycling the 5km to our Aparthotel Home & Break in the Porte de Choisy, Place d’Italie area south east from our arrival at Notre Dame, was a slightly uphill affair but continued our initial journey on different types of the Paris cycling infrastructure. Our room was on the 6th floor with small kitchenette including sink, fridge, microwave, kettle, very comfy beds, with enough space to take the bikes up to, preferring to do this and seek forgiveness after rather than be reliant on asking for a key from the often busy reception for their official bike store. This cost approx £360 for 4 nights, and absolutely met our needs with the exception of being pretty hot as the windows could only be unlocked by someone from reception on safety grounds, and the cool aircon having been switched off for the whole hotel given the autumn/winter season. Complete luxury nevertheless compared to the toilet requirements during the camping cold nights and deflating (expensive) mat which I forgot to mention previously. The area was a ‘China/East Asia’ town, so we enjoyed some Thai food one evening.

We loved our three days exploring, on now unladen bikes, many of the city’s sights in fantastic weather 🙂 including going into the cathedral, the Jardin des Plantes, the Bastille monument, Place de la Republique, the Bassin de La Villete, the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Bassin de la Villette

Always an enhancement to listen to some quality live music:

 

We even managed to meet up with my brother and cycling buddy who had cycled from Caen to the Mediterranean and training it back to the ferry had a 4 hour transfer time in Paris, so we cycled once again along the Seine and upto the Montmartre area and Sacre Coeur.

So that ticked two off of this trip’s aims – bikepacking with a tent & seeing more of Paris.  Re the latter, we didn’t cycle up the Champs Elysee, or along to the Eiffel Tower, nor the Tuileries or Louvre, and plenty more for next time.

But as for the cycling infrastructure – absolutely amazing.  I think every street or road we needed to use from the outskirts and throughout the centre had some absolutely clear provision or other for bikes. It seemed to me that cars definitely did not have priority, and even though I think their numbers have significantly diminished over the last years since the major push for cycling, walking and public transport, still they were caught in jams and could not compete with the efficiency and effectiveness of travel with 2 wheels. It took us some time to understand what we had to look for when it came to navigating intersections, as there was a variety of different cycle lane approaches, and traffic lights were not as responsive as they could be which imo leads to a significant amount of red-light jumping by cyclists.  One of the principles adopted in the Netherlands for cycling infrastructure design is to keep bikes moving and this was the approach adopted anyway by the majority of cyclists in Paris 🙂

There are loads of bike maps for Paris on the internet and youtube videos of how this really radical, significant change in such a relatively short time has occured, not least https://youtu.be/woFlJx7Rv78?si=JjZF3LBvfMjwcPVO  & Paris en Selle.

After 3 days we were ready for the return journey home getting the bikes on the train and travelling from Gare St Lazare to Rouen, then change to Dieppe. This did involve having to book the bikes onto the Rouen train, then hang them in the allotted place for the journey necessitating the removal of the paniers etc, and then have a somewhat stressful time doing the transfer to the Dieppe train in 10 minutes – the Paris train was thankfully on time. A tick for French trains so far.

We managed it, and arrived to rain in Dieppe and a short ride to the ferry port for the 6pm crossing back to the campervan and the journey to North Yorkshire.

A good ferry crossing again, despite the Storm Amy warnings for the north, and a good non-stop journey in the van. This was despite navigating the one-junction full closure of the M1 around Northampton, but absolutely helped by Greatest Hits 70s radio and additional sing-along by this first mate.

Would I do it again?  Yes for the bikepacking, trains etc, camping with the caveat of being in warmer climes and a mattress that doesn’t deflate in the night.

Last but not least – here’s the star of the show – ie my Brompton. Not particularly liking the field tracks or cobbles but managed the weight of all the stuff and the miles, and responded like a thoroughbred to the city.  The genuine face of delight on the rider trying it out for the first time says it all  🤣 🚴‍.

Posted by admin in Cities-Towns, Equipment, France, Musings, Places
06
Oct
2025

Bikepacking – who’d have thought

Almost 2 weeks ago a friend Nicola and I cycled our bikes onto a ferry to the continent for the first time, the actual culmination of July travel musings about bikepacking with my brompton – including camping, wanting to see what Paris had done with its cycling infrastructure, and spend more time in that city than the odd days in the previous decades as a stopover on the way to warmer climes in France.

My research turned up the Avenue Verte route from Dieppe to Paris and the tentative decision was made for a trip in September, weather dependent.  I used the Sustrans guide book and then the France Velotourisme site for this and all the other routes across the country.  Both good resources imo.

Over the next few weeks I assembled equipment, leading to the bike looking like this .

The weather forecast towards the selected time period was looking favourable, so we landed in Dieppe after a night-time drive in the campervan down to Newhaven, leaving it there in the port parking.

After a 4-hour pleasant ferry crossing, which I would recommend, we cycled in the sunshine to our first campsite in Arques-la-bataille a few kms along the route. Nothing had been booked apart from the Paris hotel, so we had ultimate flexibility to change or abandon the route and/or accommodation.

1st morning take down

We counted the first night as a success in that we managed to get some sleep, pack everything away and get it back onto the bikes. The tent, borrowed sleeping bag, thermal inner and ‘Trangia’ cooking set did the job, meaning cups of tea and porridge for breakfast. The campsite was very pleasant, including heated toilet block next to the pitch, as was the 30 miles of former railway line route the next day.

The weather started off bright and we enjoyed the landscapes and quick views of chateaux on route.

The gloom increased though and we stopped for a coffee or two to get out of the cold in Neufchatel-en-Bray, finally arriving in very low dark clouds and mist at the Forges-les-Eaux municipal campsite. These two sites were in their last week of opening, and felt it, and the latter had no heating in the toilet blocks. But of course very cheap. Bedtime was preferable to sitting outside in the cold and dark, so between 8 & 9pm by the time we’d done everything; the availability and usefulness of a picnic table and benches were recognised and used for sitting above the wet grass to cook, have food, and keep things dry from the dew while packing up the next morning.

The lack of rain and wind continued in day 3 thankfully, but we had decided to try and book ourselves into one of the two small hotels in the town of Gisors when we arrived, having cycled 40 miles including some long hill climbing. Beautiful route again.

Another highlight was meeting 4 guys from the UK also cycling to Paris at the almost top of one long climb, providing a lift for our spirits with good fun conversation and the very welcome gift of sweets.  I didn’t get immediately what they meant with their ‘spooning’ 🤣recommendation for keeping warm, but we pointed out that we more than happy to be in our own separate tents despite the cold. They did say that we could join them in their chambre d’hote as Nicola indicated we may have to crash their pad should we not find a hotel room, but it might not be pleasant spooning between the four, and putting up with their snoring. We didn’t need to gatecrash and had a wonderful nights sleep in a 2-star hotel after a lovely meal out in the centre of the small town.

We now had another planned 3 days of cycling and two nights of camping before getting to our booked Paris hotel. The weather forecast was looking good and the day started positively bumping into the 4 guys again who recommended a cafe which could meet one of Nicola’s romantic (not unreasonable altho’ for late September …) expectations of being able to sit in a small town square at a french cafe in the sun:)

So that we would only have to put up and pack up all the kit once more, and then enjoy a non-cycling day, we decided to combine two days cycling into one to reach the last campsite – a 4-star in the town of Maison Lafitte on the Seine, hopefully meaning heated toilet blocks, and a cafe/restaurant for a comfortable meal whiling away some evening time.  This meant 50 miles of cycling and abandoning some of the route’s tracks aross fields in favour of our own satnaving on quiet roads. It was a long day, sunny, no wind, but I at least was knackered and had had enough of being on the bike as the approach to the town seemed by now interminable.

The decision was a good one, the campsite was lovely but the pitches were without decent grass, having mainly been occupied by motorhomes over the season, so somewhat muddy, and no picnic table set up. Packing up, although in the sun, took quite a long time on the next but one morning, avoiding mud and dealing with the heavy dew and condensation. We enjoyed the restaurant evening meal and cafe the next morning.

Our grand Paris Entree was 30 miles of cycling along initially beautiful parts of the Seine, including through Rueil Malmaison, perhaps similar to places along the Thames, west of London.

The route then morphed into separate cycling provision along busy dual carriagways in very industrial logistics areas.  No cafes, McDs, or similar for a needed stop for quite a way. Thankfully the Komoot app navigation, into which I’d loaded a GPX file of the route performed a treat, and matched the regular Ave Verte signs at the key intersections. Back to tracking the Seine, we now cycled along the Saint Denis canal through the banlieus of the same and then Aubervilliers, both more deprived areas.  My phone having finally given up the ghost re power, we followed cycling signs to Notre Dame, the final destination of the route.

And we did it. 

 

With a celebratory french millefeuille for me.

 

We had reached the reality and luxury of a hotel base for 3 days of cycling exploration of the city and train journey back to Dieppe.  Next post to document this.

 

Posted by admin in Cities-Towns, Equipment, France, Places
01
Jul
2025

Last Stop Cologne

My third stay in Cologne was this time at the Campingplatz Stadt Koln, about 5k from the city centre, in a beautiful setting right on the Rhine river.  The only downside was the constant background noise from the bridge adjacent carrying motorway traffic, but this was a minor niggle compared to everything else. I could cycle upto the bridge and along its pedestrian/cycle ways and then along the river – in fact both banks – and in 15 minutes be at my son and partner’s new apartment. This is in a lovely part of the city called Sudstadt – lots of green space, cafes, restaurants, and 5 minutes to the river bank.

In addition to actually cleaning the windows as my main contribution to their settling in, I enjoyed a bike visit to the ‘Rodenkirchen Riviera’, just 10 minutes away south of the bridge.

The green spaces, trees and waterways of the cities I have visited this time have been really well maintained and used by so many of all ages, presumably given apartment living but also so important for helping with living in the rising heat of climate change. I think 40deg is forecast for Cologne today and many of the apartment buildings are old and not adaptable for this. The parks are full of families late afternoon and into the evenings, and in most cases people are respectful of each other and friendly, and, while not having stayed in deprived areas with the problems potentially arising from poverty, I have felt safe everywhere.

The afternoon/early evening ferry crossing from the Hook of Holland to Harwich with Stena Line was a first, and I really recommend this service as well as hiring a cabin to be able to have a decent rest. The drive back  though was not one of my best due to warning lights and messages from the van, and in the UK A1 closures and diversions. Thankfully back home, before moving to unpack the van, get it and the e-bike to some servicing, tame the garden and start seeing my family and friends again, my roundup of these last 7 weeks can be no other than:

What a fantastic trip
What fantastic health I’ve enjoyed
What a fantastic van
What fantastic companions along the way
What friendly people I’ve spent abit of time with in conversation
What fantastic weather
What fantastic bikes
What fantastic food I’ve eaten
What beautiful land, and cityscapes I’ve had the privilege to see and ‘be in’
And what a fantastic home life of family and friends to leap from and come back to each time.  I think that’s it!

Posted by admin in Germany, Musings, Places
26
Jun
2025

Salzburg & North to Wurzburg in Germany

Salzburg – long on my list and always reinforced in my annual viewing, usually at Christmas, of The Sound of Music.

 

 

 

Another beautiful city where I spent 2 nights at Camping Aigen. Along with almost all the campsites visited this trip, I would stay again. It’s about 5k very pleasant cycle ride along the river Salz to the city centre with lots of space, lovely setting and with a bustling cafe/restaurant which is used by many locals.

After my arrival I decided to cycle in to get my overview knowing that thunderstorms were in the offing. My tiredness from a bad night’s sleep, the drive, albeit not too long, and a change in the weather affected my enthusiasm, but the Mirabell Gardens, scenes for some of musical, were host to young people from the States in choirs and bands performing a variety of music with great positivity despite the threatening weather.

I love coming across live music unexpectedly and it was just what I needed to sit and listen for a while before deciding to head back to the site and leave the proper visit till the following day. I was disappointed that my chosen bit of culture I wanted to pay for – The Sound of Music performance by the Marionetten Theatre, in preference to a avery close second of a live performance of some of Mozart’s music, Salzburg being his birthplace – was only on the day after my departure. This couldn’t be postponed given that I was now on a timetable for driving a long way to reach my ferry reservation at the Hook of Holland, it would have to wait for another visit in the future. I just about beat the thunderstorm which lasted most of the evening and through the night.

I woke up to a resumption of the beautiful weather, and decided to get on a walking tour, which was fantastic and like the ones in Spain well worth doing. 1.5 hours of potted history from enthusiastic qualified guides. What was interesting to me, was that similar to Verona, the previous day my lack of enthusiasm had not been mitigated as I missed discovering the existence of the stunning old town squares and streets, overlooked by the fortress on the opposite side of the river to the Mirabell Gardens. The walking tour of course focussed on this area. Two visits to a city are always better, particularly when the first is after a taxing drive. I had a coffee afterwards with fellow tour attendee Mia from Glasgow, visiting her partner who had just transferred to the Red Bull headquarters there for work. That was a really nice meet-up. I then spent the next 2-3 hours walking up to the fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg, and then around the green space up there taking in the views over the other side of the city to the mountains, to the Museum of Modern Art, before heading back down and enjoying the river area in the heat.

Once again, a small city for living – well-used cycling provision, lots of green space, open-air swimming pools, and of course with the mountains close by. I was sorry to move on as there’s more to see and do there and I recommend for a city visit. Hopefully I will return sometime.

The journey to Cologne was a minimum of 720km so I decided to have a 2-night stopover to visit the university city of Wurzburg, on the Main river, about 120k southeast of Frankfurt. As I only drive around 60mph I expected this to be about 4 – 5 hours of driving which, as I have learnt, is more than enough for me when I don’t need to push it. It’s certainly great to have air-conditioning as it was in the 30s when I arrived at my selected site.  This was a 17eu a night, including electricity at a village boating centre on the river.  Although tired from the driving, I felt that using the cycle path along the river to the city – some 10km – would be good after sitting for so long and used the Brompton.  The cycle path was great, and it was good to see how the river is used along the way for swimming etc.  But due to the heat and underestimating the distance, I’d had enough just short of the main part of the town, so returned to the site knowing I could try again the next day.

Although the site was a really nice setting and perfect in terms of what it offered for the fee, and I did feel comfortable there, overnight the reviews accorded with my experience in terms of intrusive noise from the nearby rail, river and the main road traffic. So I considered moving on the next morning to Cologne or to an official motorhome car park offered by the city right on the river opposite the centre which had good reviews. The latter was a good decision and is where I am now sitting, along with some 30 or so other vans watching the river traffic, having spent the morning and earlier part of the afternoon exploring this pleasant place, again full of lovely cafes, streets and squares.  Not quite in the league of Verona, Lucca, Salzburg or Maastricht, but worth a stop nontheless. The towns/cities that I have enjoyed on this trip all seem to be around the population size of 125,000 and have a university.

Tomorrow I continue the journey north to spend 3 nights in Cologne. I am seeing my eldest son and partner and their new rented apartment together which they have just moved into this week in a central part of the city, but will be keeping out of their upheaval’s way, staying at the city’s campsite a 3.5km cycle ride along the river.

I will be leaving the continent this time on the ferry from the Hook of Holland to Harwich on Monday.

 

Posted by admin in Austria, Germany, Places
22
Jun
2025

Austria – Lienz & Mauterndorf

The journey down to Lienz around the Tre Cime’s mountains via Dobbiaco was straightforward, and stunning scenery all around.  I didn’t stop but the latter town at just over 1200m with its lake looked definitely worth a visit.

And now I entered Austria for a proper stay for the first time, rather than passing through.  The road continued along the beautiful wide valley gradually descending to my destination Camping Falken on the edge of the small town of Lienz (population approx 12000) at about 600m. This campsite had been recommended in a motorhome magazine from several years ago, and I had kept the page in my Austria archive of ripped out articles for places to go. I do get a kick out of actually using this stuff I go to the trouble of keeping, making accessible and choosing to cart with me.

My strong recommendations for the town, the campsite, and the setting confirm what I had read, and I will hopefully also revisit this place for a longer than 2-night stay. Beautiful, bustling historic town centre at a confluence of 2 rivers with fantastic infrastructure including cycling provision to visit further along the river valleys and up into the mountains, and a beautiful indoor/outdoor swimming centre.

The highlight for me here was the Tristacher lake swimming area. It’s my idea of a perfect amenity, admittedly improved by perfect weather!  Just a few kms up from the campsite to 820m, it was so worth the effort to get there despite impaired gearing which I’ve vainly tried to fix on my e-bike, using the top 2 settings of the motor and zigzagging across the road to reduce the steepness.  It was 6.50eu for the day, but that helps presumably go to maintain the fantastic toilets, changing areas, cafe, installations to get into the water etc. Everywhere including the water was so clean, the environment was respected by the visitors of all ages, and what a relaxing holiday way to pass 5-6 hours or so reading, cooling off repeatedly in the water, having a coffee, people watching. I was so happy to be there I decided to blow the budget 😂 and order my first curry wurst and chips for lunch.

So onto Mauterndorf, with the place and campsite recommended by friend Carole and still constant canine companion Ted. At the motorway exit for the town I chose to ignore the google navigation, which wanted to take me to the next junction, in favour of the bigger screen lorry satnav. A mistake, as I started ascending on a definitely minor road with a surface that caused me to wonder whether I had a flat tyre, (not what I expect from you Austria!) with very few possibilities to do any number of points turn. Deciding to plough on, it took me upto the Katschberg ski station and then down on the inevitable braking descent. I now really pump the brakes rather than keep them on, using the gears far more than I would otherwise do. On arriving at the campsite this time there was somewhat of that burning smell from one of the rear tyres, but not enough to cause concern.

The 4-star smallish campsite is by a beautiful little river, at the bottom of the Grosseck-Spiereck cable car to this small ski area starting at 1100m, about 1km by lovely walking/cycling route along the river to the historic very small town. A gorgeous setting for hiking, cycling, and relaxing at the site and in the cafes in the town, with fantastic site facilities and small but very welcome swimming pool. It’s still mid to late 20s during the day, but thankfully significantly cooler for sleeping.

An additional benefit here is the Lungau region guest card which gives free access for the first use to local cable cars, swimming pools, museums, the castle etc in the region.

Yesterday I cycled to the small town of Mariapfarr, claiming to be the sunniest place in Austria, to spend a few hours for free at its outdoor swimming pool. The further pool is the first I’ve ever seen whose sides and bottom appear to be either stainless steel or zinc/aluminium. The cleanest pool in which I’ve ever had the pleasure to swim.

Today I went up the mountain in the cable car, which would otherwise have cost 25eu. I think it’s the first time I’ve spent some hours on the actual slopes in an alpine ski resort in the summer. The photos don’t do it justice.

How fortunate am I to be able to see so many such beautiful places and landscapes. I really do believe campervanning has made all this accessible to me.

 

 

Posted by admin in Austria, Places
21
Jun
2025

Into the Dolomites

I had yet to decide where I would head after Verona for the remainder of the trip making my way back upto Cologne and then to the Hook of Holland to Harwich ferry. The beauty of travelling out of season in a van particularly on the continent is that in most cases booking is not necessary so one can follow the weather, and change plans and directions.

One strong contender for inclusion at the outset were Salzburg and the Dolomites – a national park in the Italian Alps north of Verona and Venice – despite the fact that driving up into the mountains and then coming back down again was ‘not me’. Previous posts have made mention of this. In the end I settled on my initial ideas rather than avoiding mountains and heading even further east as Ljubljana and Vienna vied for contention, or west as I have missed France over the last 2 years.

Given a continuing very hot weather forecast I thought I would regroup and reset the van and equipment for single travel after 2 weeks of company at a campsite with cold water immersion potential. The not too far site Lago di Lago fitted the bill with what looked like a very inviting swimming pool and lake in the foothills of the mountains. Really beautiful area, small towns and villages, good roads, and a happy 2 days stay.

From there I set the satnav for Cortina di Ampezza, a ski resort at 1200m – the roads looked more ‘main’ and not too far. Lovely weather ongoing. Sailing along quite happily, one of those beeps occured with a warning message indicating a problem with the AdBlue system with instruction to consult the manual.  At the start of the trip, I had complied with the usual warning message re needing to top up the levels, so was surprised and abit concerned.  Pulled into a motorway service station, and the manual indicated to consult a main dealer for this!  I decided to add some more AB and was very happy to see the message disappear and remain so. Onwards and upwards.

At a major junction, where I was due to turn onto the main road heading upto Cortina, a roadwork man told me in his patchy English and then Italian that the road ahead was closed and I could reach the town via the Lake Misurina road. It’s unexpected scenarios like this which cause a build up of tiredness even on relatively short journeys, as in this case I’m in the middle of a roundabout holding up traffic from 3 directions trying to process this information taking into account my least comfort zone factors as quickly as possible. My ‘mountains are not quite me’ sensations were growing by the minute. Anyway, I continued according to the advice, the road up to the 1800m pass was very good and traffic trundled along at a ‘safe’ for me pace. So far so good. The descent was slow following a cycling club peloton, necessitating much braking. I did try to use my gears, but the incline was pretty steep. At a certain point I started to smell burning, hoped it wasn’t me, and decided to carry on as it was now only a few kilometres to the end.  Having finished the main descent and reached a junction in the town, the occupants of a car which had been following me all the way down, did seem to give me and/or the van a good stare as they overtook, adding to my concerns.

Camping Rocchetta was a further 2k downhill on the edge of the town, and I was very happy to finally get on my allocated pitch.  The front passenger wheel was indeed the culprit, with a lingering burning smell. All the others were ok. I was there for 2 nights and late afternoon on the 2nd day, following encouragement from some New Zealanders to ask Reception for a garage to get it checked, I drove to the garage who referred me to another. Despite the brakes needing to be applied on some steep but short descents, the smell had dissipated and not returned. Thankfully a mechanic could speak English, had a look at the wheel and the disc through the hub fixings and advised me that in his opinion it would be ok, and next time to really use the gearing. Intending to leave the next morning and come down to the valleys – to a bigger town, and hence more auto garages – via a more main road, I allowed myself to be reassured with what I had wanted to hear. Interesting that my fears had been about the roads, but they were ok and instead this time it was the van brakes.  Life is like a box of chocolates.

I love these upland meadows and wild flowers were still in evidence

I totally enjoyed the stay at the site, cycling and walking in the absolutely beautiful mountain landscape. A younger, fitter vibe was evident once again with walkers, mountain bikers and cycle-tourers in abundance. Cortina was undergoing major road and building works as it is co-hosting the 2025/26 winter olympics. Even though I only stayed in a small area of the Dolomites, I have been finally able to tick this box and see in real life why the images and accounts from other travellers had put them on my list.

 

Posted by admin in Equipment, Italy