Introduction

Last September I completed a long-standing ambition to cycle from the Channel to the Mediterannean, mostly using the route described in the book 'France en Velo' which describes a route on minor roads from Saint-Malo to Nice - about 1000 miles.

I mainly followed the book route from Saint-Malo for 11 days as far as Espalion in the Lot valley, before taking a more direct route to the reach the Med at Sète after another three days.  That trip is described in another blog.

The plan for this year was to complete the remaining section of the route to Nice, travelling West to East rather than South to North, starting in Bergerac and joining the France en Vélo route after two days. Last year my mate Les had been intending to join me but had to drop out at the last minute, but this year he was persuaded to come after only a little arm-twisting.