July 3, 2023
Airport and plan
It seems perhaps premature to be writing a bicycle tour journal from an airport, because of course the airport's not the most exciting part of a bike tour. But, it is a necessary part of any tour that doesn't start from home. And there's a great deal to be said for the anticipation part of a trip, as being as much a part of the trip as the trip itself is. For me it is the most anxious part of the trip, the day of flying. Did I actually get my bag under the weight limit? Is TSA going to have any questions about any of the bike gear in my carry-on? Pull it realize that I forgot anything on the way to the airport? So far none of these things have happened. And I am particularly waiting at my gate, my bag is an air France's custody, and so there's nothing else to do other than write an overview of plans.
I have about 3 weeks of bike touring time. After while sitting with maps of voies vertes and EuroVelos, I spliced together a trip. Like the Normandy tour I did almost 5 years ago, it starts and ends in Paris, in order to minimize the amount of time that I need to spend on trains. And then I just chose the places that I haven't been to yet. Normandy was to the west and north, so this time I'm choosing to go to the east and south. As is often the case, it is along rivers that most of the routes go. At the beginning I will be taking EuroVelo 3, which conveniently goes within 20 km of where I'm staying near CDG airport. It mostly follows the Oise River. Then I am briefly on a walonia regional bike route, which connects to eurovelo 19, the Meuse route, recently opened in the last few years. I will climb up the Meuse to near Dijon. From there I am taking the tour de Bourgogne route, which is a loop, but I'm just going to use half of itas a straight route to connect to EV 6 and then EV3 again to get back to Paris.
All of those you're available are longer than the parts that I'm using, in some cases much longer. So I used gopx.studio to spice together all of the relevant GPX routes into one. It looks like this:
I've got two days in Paris, to put my bike together and buy some food and other supplies, and then I should start riding on July 5. As multiple people have pointed out to me, there are both riots and the tour de France going on in France right now but I'm staying in a small village outside of Paris, and I don't think I'm riding anywhere where the tour de France goes, certainly not at the same time. So hopefully I do not encounter either of them. The main things I want to encounter are lots of exercise, nature, and maybe the occasional other bike tourist. Here comes my plane, hopefully they manage to get my bike on it.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 8 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |