Exactly five months after arriving in France, this morning we left Paris to get our ferry from Calais. It feels strange to be leaving – just when we were getting the hang of some French! As our boat left, I reflected that I never imagined loving so many parts of Read more
The thing I love about travelling in the van is that you can be flexible and change plans really easily. With the recent rain storms and snow we decided that the best thing to do was head for some city sightseeing. Although from a morning of snow the weather had Read more
Wow! How the weather has changed and this morning we woke up to snow! So rewind to Friday when the weather was beautiful, warm and sunny in Nice. Then we saw that on Saturday heavy rains were forecast, so time to pack up and head off. And boy did it Read more
Whilst Janet was spending a weekend in Edinburgh, Pete settled on a campsite just outside Nice in Villeneuve Loubet Plagne. It is right on the coast and very flat enabling Pete to go on a couple of one-handed cycle rides, safe in the knowledge that he didn’t need his front Read more
A surprise hen weekend was being arranged in Edinburgh to celebrate Lauren’s engagement and imminent wedding in the Isle of Man at Christmas. Janet was upset not to be able to go to the wedding, as we will be in Canada doing our snowboard instructor’s course, so next best thing Read more
Sometimes in travel the biggest thing is to keep an open mind, not planning your route too much and then being open to change to your original plan. During October, this ethos had become really important in trying to find the best weather conditions to spend our last few weeks. Read more
When we were travelling in Laos we met a fun French couple who loved motorbikes and had visited the TT the year before. We bumped into them once more in Laos and spent a surprise afternoon playing pool with them in Hue in Vietnam. Small world! They had plans to Read more
A few years ago when marshalling for the End2End we met a lovely couple who split their annual time between Florida, France and the Isle of Man. Bizarrely the following year we were posted at the same marshal post as them for a road cycle event and we hooked up Read more
So our days on the Mediterranean Coast haven’t quite been what we imagined when we dreamed of turquoise warm waters, sunshine, snorkelling, soaking up the sun. More dashing out between rain showers, moving our table and chairs to anywhere on the campsite with a ray of sun or out of Read more
Wow, the temperatures have suddenly dropped. In mid September we visited Bourges du Lac and at 8pm it was still 27 degrees. Fast forward two weeks and we are back but sat in a lakeside restaurant shivering because a cold breeze was coming under the glass fronted panels. Brrr. We Read more
So our lease on the apartment was up today after 14 weeks – wow, it has been fantastic and simply flown by! So we have packed up and, after one last Pause ride, left our beautiful balcony view. Today our first stop is Bourges le Lac and we have an Read more
Sorry we’ve not done a blog post for ages but we have been busy operating a B&B for friends and family. First to visit for a week was Janet’s friend. She likes to walk so we took her to Les Chapieux to see the glaciers and to the old village Read more
Whilst in Asia I wrote about several random acts of kindness that we encountered. Here in Europe there are just as many people with big hearts and open souls. Yesterday we cycled to La Thuile in Italy and on the way back we stopped close to the top of The Read more
When we arrived in The Alps the first few climbs up the Cols came as a bit of rude awakening. Now we have ridden up quite a few of them, they are no longer such a shock to the system although I do still have a love / hate relationship Read more
So with our birthdays only four days apart, it is tempting to make it into a birthday week of celebrations. This year though we decided to keep things simple. When I asked Pete what he wanted to do for his birthday he said “I just want to go mountain biking”, Read more
We have noticed a weather pattern here that has become more frequent in the last few weeks as daily temperatures in the valley have risen to well over 30 degrees. The pattern is for blue skies in the morning, then hot hot hot as the humidity rises and then in Read more
I’m not sure whose idea it was but we agreed with Matty, whilst on a Pause Cafe social ride (and probably lacking in oxygen) that it would be cool to ride up the Col de Petit St Bernard and over to La Thuile in Italy for lunch and then ride Read more
So back in Bourg and we found everyone starting to get ready for the Tour de France. Stage 11 was going to be passing through Bourg Saint Maurice and on up to the ski resort of La Rosiere whilst Stage 12 started in the town of Bourg and headed to Read more
Upon arrival in the cycling Mecca of Alpe D’Huez we realised that the nuts mountain bike race, the Megavalanche, which starts at the top of Pic Blanc (3330m) on snow and descends to the valley floor, was due to take place at the weekend so after our time trial we Read more
Before we left home we entered a time trial race up the infamous climb of Alpe D’Huez so it was time to pack up our van and drive three hours there. We stayed on a fantastic campsite (with a swimming pool and sauna!) full of French, Dutch, Belgians and British Read more
This weekend was the pre-opening weekend for the Les Arcs bike park. Yesterday the funicular from Bourg Saint Maurice to Les Arcs 1600 opened – yippee!! There was also one chairlift open to take you up to 1950 so we bought our season passes and headed up there with our Read more
So this time we thought we would head to the Italian border to the Col de Petit St Bernard. This is 8km past the ski resort of La Rosiere (at 1800m) at an altitude of 2188m. Most of the climb from Bourg St Maurice averages 6% climb but we decided Read more
We had been told that it was a difficult climb to The Cormet de Roselend but that it would be worth it for the views. And, they weren’t wrong. The route is 19km of climbing from Bourg St Maurice at an average of 8%, but on the way you pass Read more
When we first arrived in Bourg-st-Maurice we were amazed that on the hillside behind our apartment a chapel had been built so far up the on what looked like a precarious piece of land about to slide down the mountainside. It proved to be pretty useful for navigation as, no Read more
So our first Col climb turned out to be up the highest paved road in Europe, up to 2770m. Not the gentlest of introductions! It was just too good an opportunity to miss as the pass had been closed due to remaining snow levels and a recent avalanche. Sunday was Read more