During this trip we followed a number of well know cycle ways. Here is a little bit about what we thought of them. As far as accommodation is concerned we were sleeping in hotels each night and I was using booking.com each evening to book the next night’s accommodation. I found this great and the couple of times over the years that we have had problems with the hotels booking has very smartly sorted things out. I am guided by the rating previous guests have given the hotel and prefer the rating to be 8 or more. Usually we stay in 3 star hotels close to the centre of the town or village and I always take note of the check in time with a few to not having to wait around for ages. I have always told them we have bikes needing secure storage and that because of my somewhat limited mobility would prefer a room with as few stairs as possible. This has always worked and except for one time have never been higher than the first floor. Little family run hotels are very cute and we love staying in them but sometimes on a long trip the anonymous nature of a chain hotel is just what you need. As far as price is concerned very frequently in France breakfast is not included and you can be charged a lot for a pretty inadequate meal. The opposite happens in Germany and the usually included breakfasts are huge and delicious

VELOSCENIC

This is a cycle route running from Paris to Mont St Michel. We had a bikeline guide to it. Generally it is poorly marked and we had a lot of trouble finding our way out of Paris enough to think we will never ride out of Paris again. The weather was poor and we had really fierce head winds. After Chartres things looked up a lot however at Alecon the next day was rated as being for experts and the wind was blowing a gale so we took a train to Nantes to join the nice easy Loire a Velo. This all could have been largely because we were jet lagged and in poor cycling form

LOIRE A VEL0

This classic route is well signed, it runs from the Atlantic Coast (a day's ride before Nantes ) to Never. It is easy riding with lots of variety and interest along the way and certainly lots of cyclists. Because of this the facilities for touring cyclists are really great. If you were a camper there are plenty of camp grounds and we found good accommodation easy to get. If you are only going to do one short tour in your life consider this. There are plenty of good guides available

EV6

This runs from the Atlantic to Constanta on the Black Sea. This year we did the portion of it between Never and Basel. I love this cycling, I enjoy watching the boats on the canals in Burgandy and some of the towns like Mulhouse and Bescancon are very special. The route is well signed and paved. We found it easy to get good accommodation. Guide books are easy to get

RHINE MARNE CANAL and SAAR RADWEG

We followed this from Strassbourg to Trier. For the first part we were following the canal then from Sarrebourg to Trier we were on the Saar Radweg. We had French Michelin road maps and had looked at others blogs on CGOAB but had no specific information in the form of guide books etc. as it turned out this didn't matter at all. The route was well signed, we had anticipated some problems between Saverne and Sarrebourg but in fact had none. In Sarrebourg we visited the excellent Tourist Information and were given maps and instructions to get on the Saar Radweg From here on it was easy. The track is well surfaced, largely flat and we had no problem finding suitable accommodation. Both of us loved this as although we we following rivers and canals there was lots of variety along the way

MOSEl RADWEG

We joined it at Trier. It is a wonderful cycle route in all ways and very easy particularly suitable for someone doing a first short cycle tour. We had shocking weather but even this didn't take away from a great experience. There are lots and lots of cyclists many of them on organised tours. Accommodation is of course easy to get

MAIN RADWEG

This runs from Mainz to Bayreuth it is nearly all on dedicated cycle trails which are nearly always paved. It was well signed nearly all of the way. We started in Rudesheim which is on the other side of the Rhine from Mainz. Round about Mainz the route had been changed and the signage for the detours really bad with many missing. By the time you get to Frankfurt the signage is fantastic and remains like this all the way. We loved the variety of the route and particularly enjoyed the section between Wurzburg and Bamberg. Up until Bamberg there are lots of cyclists. After Bamberg the nature of the route changes a lot you are well away from the river most of the time and it gets very undulating. There are now fewer cyclists and no longer ant organised groups

The signage and quality of the path continues to be great. Along the way there are railway stations so if you want to just do a little bit this isn't a problem

Cycle Touring is in my view the best way to see the world and if you feel nervous about it there are a huge number of organised tours on these wonderful routes some escorted and some with just your bike supplied, your bookings done and your luggage transferred for you. Why not give it a go you are never too old to ride a bike !