May 9, 2024
The Plan
Since our retirement, travelling in Europe on our Bike Fridays has become a regularly scheduled activity. We find the biannual trips a great way to challenge ourselves in so many ways and going to Europe is not a bad excuse either! As the ski season ends and May rolls around, it is time to get serious about organizing our next cycling tour.
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So – “where are you going next?”
We find all our European cycle tours to be incredible experiences and our last ride in the Basque Country was no exception. We also enjoyed using Toulouse as the starting and ending point for the trip because it has an easy to use airport, the city is interesting and very walkable, and it is located far enough south that it is blessed with warm weather in the shoulder seasons.
We really love the cycling in France as the road network offers some of the nicest quiet backroads, there are many interesting small towns along the way and the ability to easily buy quality food is embedded in the French lifestyle. Baguettes, croissants, pain aux raisins, and the cheeses! – yum!
Our rides in the Pyrenees were also highlights of our tour last fall. This is a very beautiful area with challenging but manageable rides. Putting it all together in the route idea blender led Scott to develop a ride from Toulouse that would take us south and east to the Mediterranean and then along the foothills of the Pyrenees to the Atlantic. Our route will be entirely within France and will finish near the border between France and Spain.
The French Pyrenees is well known to cyclists and the Cycleblaze group. It attracts riders from everywhere and the Tour de France regularly uses many of its cols in their annual races. Although we hope to be in position to experience a couple of these epic climbs, our routing is primarily in the lesser hills. There will still be some challenges for sure.
So there you have it. We are packing up now and will be in Toulouse for a few days in the first week of May. From there we will head south along the Canal du Midi. Tune in later for all the details as we start off on another Maggie May adventure.
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