Page 2 of rbcameron Travel Blog Posts


Europe » France » Aquitaine » Brantome September 15th 2021

We entered the Dordogne department today and noticed a change in the terrain to longer - but usually not steeper - ascents and descents. Lots of forested hillsides. We visited the charming town of Brantome. Its old centre is on an island in a curve of the river Dronne. But the big news is that we finally got our pass sanitaire. It turned out that waiting patiently like a good Canuck was not the right tactic. The impatient Gallic tactic of submitting exactly the same information a second time led to us getting the passes in about 10 minutes. So now we feel like full-fledged tourists and will be hanging out in cafes half the day, and poking into every museum the rest of the time, as well as having huge lunches & dinners in bistrots. ... read more
Hautefort Chateau

Europe » France » Aquitaine September 14th 2021

We left our friend Marie-Laure and her family yesterday morning, to return to the route of France en velo. It was a long day through oak-studded farmland. We landed in a quirky chambre d'hotes run by an English couple, Two French cyclists were also staying there, and it was fun to hear about their approach to touring (i.e. much less planned than ours!) Today we followed the Vienne river south, getting closer to the Perigord (aka Dordogne) area. Definitely more English-speakers here. A Brit in a right-hand-drive car stopped by me today and asked hopefully "Bancomat?" (French for ATM). Désolé, monsieur I replied. We stopped along the way to take a look at a ruined castle that once dominated a slow-flowing stretch of the Vienne. Tonight we're staying in a family-run hotel in Rochechouart. The chateau, ... read more
Chateau of St Germain de Confolens
Limousine cattle
Chateau of Rochechouart

Europe » France » Centre » Chateauroux September 12th 2021

We arrived Friday at the family home of our friend Marie-Laure to stay for a couple of days. A really welcome break after 7 straight days of riding, between 60 and 80 km a day! The first few days we rode through rolling farm country, often passing through villages with old stone houses. We spent a night in Vitré, where the old centre is full of half-timbered mediaeval houses, surmounted by a truly imposing castle. We reached the Loire valley, and rode along the river and its tributaries for a couple of days. Lots of other cyclists on those routes! Two nights ago we stayed in the village where Rene Descartes was born. His childhood home is now a museum, located on rue Descartes in the village of Descartes. Here we've had a good rest, as ... read more
Old houses in Vitre
Vitre's castle
A valiant cyclist

Europe » France » Lower Normandy » Pontorson September 4th 2021

The first day on the bikes! The route followed the coast for the first two thirds of the way. Initially there was a series of sandy bays, but when we got into the bay of Mont St Michel, the shoreline became very marshy. There was a heavy mist over the sea, which made the offshore views very other-worldly. We didn't catch sight of the Mont all day. This is area where huge numbers of oysters are harvested. Closer to shore, special salt-resistant sheep are raised. (Seriously!) Once we turned inland, we were riding through rolling on small roads through rolling farm country. It was so reminiscent of the southern English countryside. Pontorson is a small but wealthy town. Our hotel has a creperie on the ground floor, so we ate Breton crepes (in Normandy) for dinner. ... read more
Pontorson's tribute to the salty sheep

Europe » France » Brittany » Saint-Malo September 3rd 2021

We spent the day wandering around St-Malo. On the western side of the town the shoreline is a series of little sandy bays. Mostly locals there and the atmosphere was very relaxed. Then we walked into the Intra-Muros, the old fortified section of town. It's full of very charming 18th Century buildings - and scads of 21st Century tourists! We did find a good bookstore with lots of maps for sale, but we soon headed back to the sleepy neighbourhood of our hotel.... read more
Old house in St-Malo

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris September 2nd 2021

Our flight to Paris was slightly delayed, but all went well until we went to collect our bikes. Mine appeared pretty quickly, but Lynn's did not! We got help from the Air France luggage desk, and eventually the bike showed up, about 3 hours later. Fortunately our train to St-Malo left in the evening, so we had time to do a few errands in Paris, like getting French SIM cards - and Covid tests. We needed these because our pass saintaires still haven't arrived. If you have a negative test, this is good for 72 hours. The train left right on time and took us all the way to St-Malo. We arrived around 21:30 and rode to the hotel in the dark. Completely exhausted after well more than 24 hours awake!... read more

North America » Canada » British Columbia » Vancouver August 1st 2016

We flew home from London yesterday after spending a few days of low-key touring. We revisited favourite spots like the British Museum (where we heard a great talk on the Parthenon sculptures), the National Gallery and the quirky collection at the Sir John Soane Museum. Soane was an architect who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He collected all sorts of curious objects and built a house designed to display them. We also visited a couple of places that were new to us, like a community garden in Islington and the Wallace Collection, a beautiful mansion that houses an amazing set of paintings and objets d'art collected by several marquesses of Hereford. Actually, come to think of it, we packed a lot into 3 days! We were relieved to find that the house ... read more

Europe » France » Burgundy » Dijon July 22nd 2016

We arrived in Dijon today after four days of hiking in the Vosges mountains, along the Route des Crêtes (or Route of the Ridges). After an easy first day we had a huge climb on the second day from the valley of the Rhine (at about 400 m) to the height of the ridge (about 1300 m), but for the next two days the path stayed relatively level, with a couple of notable exceptions. At the end of the third day we met a very friendly couple who live near Strasbourg. We got to know each other over dinner and the next day we walked with them. Lynn and I had planned to stay at a refuge-hotel run by the local hiking club that night, but Frédéric and Claudia invited us to stay with them at ... read more
A couple of locals sharing a drink

Europe » France » Alsace » Kaysersberg July 17th 2016

We came to Alsace yesterday after a few days in Paris. Our stay there coincided with the full flowering of a cold I caught in Norway, so I was rather inactive, although I did manage to see Monet's huge, magnificent paintings of the lily ponds in his gardens at Giverny, which are hung in specially-designed rooms at the Orangerie. The building was being renovated for decades and, of the many times I've visited Paris, this is the first chance I had to see them. They probably helped me banish the cold! Today we started our hike into the Vosges. It was a comparatively easy day: about 11 km, through vineyards and then up one side of a forested hill and down the other. Tomorrow the real fun starts: the guide book says we'll be ascending 1250 ... read more

Europe » Norway » Eastern Norway » Oslo July 12th 2016

I'm writing this in the Oslo airport - we got here ridiculously early for our flight to Paris because I've contracted a cold and so wasn't up to sightseeing in town today. Anyway, this gives me a chance to catch up a bit on the blog. After the challenging but hugely rewarding hike on our first day at Gjendesheim, the next day we walked a low-level nature trail. A complete contrast, and our legs welcomed the break. Then back at it the following day: we intended to do a 5.5-hour loop in a mountain valley, but the hike ended up taking more like 8 hours. We were by another long, narrow lake with rounded, snow-covered mountains around it. This time we saw a herd of about 100 reindeer - and they saw us. At first they ... read more
A whole pack o' reindeer




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