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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

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

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

When it comes to trying to protect the environment, France seems to be leading the way. In supermarkets all the bags provided for loose fruit are biodegradable, there are sections in most supermarkets to buy nuts and cereals etc by the weight in non plastic bags, there is a chain Read more

Le Trefle (The Clover) is a three day motorbike enduro event with 700 competitors and many thousands of spectators – it is huge! We went along to support The Sheepskull Enduro Riders team with a couple of guys from the Isle of Man and a few guys from the UK. Read more

With no exact plan as to where we will go in France on our way to Mende (we need to be there in 6 days’ time) we stumbled upon Arras. After a self-guided walk around the town the next morning we climbed the belfry overlooking the main marketplace which, with Read more

Today we arrived in France after a couple of days with friends and family in the UK. The UK weather wasn’t quite up to the Manx summer so we decided not to do more mountain biking and instead spent the time catching up and taking my cousin’s boys to the Read more

We had allowed two weeks on the Isle of Man to unpack and get ready for the next leg of our adventure. We arrived with a beautiful sunny scenic flight, although of course we were greeted by the familiar cold Manx breeze. The preparations included finding accommodation in France, buying Read more

People keep saying to us “Wow, have you really been gone three and a half months!” – see time flies. That is why we have to make the most of every day and every opportunity. We took the opportunity to fly back from SE Asia in time for my cousin’s Read more