Bonjour la France !

Welcome to France, the home of Baguette, Pain au Chocolat, Pernod, green fields, lovely blonde girls, Bordeux, the Loire River, hundreds of Chateuxs, Fromage, Crepes, Mont St Michel, Cidre and a couple of Velos.

Shortly after leaving Irun I finally cross into France with high expectations and looking forward to discover country number three on my way around the world and so I cycle along the coast through the area known as Les Landes de Gascone, unfortunately the school holidays have started recently and the roads and campsites fill with cars and campervans, people eager to reach the pre-booked campsites along the coast.

To my surprise, the roads are not very wide (especially in the villages) and the cars often have to que behind me and wait to overtake.

There is lots of cycling tracks criss-crossing the french south-west but I get soon bored of the straight routes and the pine-tree forests to my left and right - all day long. A couple of times I nearly fall asleep because the ride along this seemingly neverchanging landscape has become quite monotonous.

I stay in a couple of pilgrims hostals and private accomodations (thank you to Famille Lamothe!), do some wild camping and spend the night of the 14th of july (the french national holiday) in a small village campsite, enjoy the fireworks and try to speak french to the locals.

Bordeaux seems to be a nice and rich city with its stone buildings, bars and brasseries and intense student (night)life. A single night in the local youth hostal sets me back 20 € (incl. breakfast) , so I ride on through the winecountry of the Girdonde, along vineyards and past impressive Chateauxs, towards LaRochelle (where I am expected by Warmshowers host ean-Jacques) always tempted by the signs offering winetastings and good food.

Jean-Jaques and his wife welcome me like an old friend, feed me like a king and take me on a ride to La Rochelle harbour on their recumbent bikes. In the beginning I am really tense and can´t find my equilibrium on the strange machine but after 10 minutes I relax my shoulders and roll easily dow the street. It feels like cycling while sitting on a sofa. And you are the centre of attention wherever you go, people turning their heads, making comments, laughing. I am quite sure I will change to a recumbent bicycle soon...

Once in Tours I stay in the pilgrims hostel of St Martins basilica, chat with the nuns, visit the saints tomb and roam the historic city centre with its ancient little houses and small alleys right besides the Loire river. Leaing the city to cycle along the Loire to Nantes I have my first (altough harmless) accident. Somehow I fall sideways off my bike and the plastic hose of my front break rips. For the next 300 kms I cycle with one brake only, fortunately the Loire cycle paths are mostly flat and I do not have to use my break much.

Towards Irun

In Oviedos pilgrims hostel I met several interesting people, one of them Horst, a goodhearted bavarian guy from in his fifties. He traveled all the way from Malaga to Oviedo, mostly walking or hitchhiking (including a solo walk across the Sierra Nevada in early spring!).
Altough he is equipped with good boots, a new backpack and all the other quality gear, he likes to travel the cheap way, sleep in parks (he was attacked three times while in Spain) and saving money where ever he can, but he loves to sit in cafés and spend his money on coffee and the occasional beer.
When he runs out of money, he returns to Germany, gets a job and work for half a year or so before getting fed up with german weather and nine-to-five job and taking off again.
Together we spend the night of San Juan watching the huge bonfire on the cathedral square, having a couple of Sidras and exchanging stories of our travels and our respective plans for the future. For my benefit Horst tells me about a couple of things how to save money on the road, like having lunch for 50 Cents, and so on. Good luck Horst!

After leaving lovely Oviedo I cycle towards Ariondas to rent a Kayak and cruising down the famous river Sella along spectacular scenery towards Ribadesella.

Back on my bike (crossing into Cantabria my cycle computer shows now over the 4.000 kms ) I take the costal route towards Bilbao where I am expected to meet with Leire, an old friend from my times as trainee at BOSCH, and her family and friends. They give me a hearty welcome, take me along to Barbecues and dinner parties and treat me just great.
I feel at home and once again it is hard to leave my friends and head for Irun. Gracias Leire and Jenny ! And I definitely have to come back to northern Spain to explore Galicia and Asturias and cycle the Picos de Europa, which I had seen from far away only.