La Loire a Velo, Cycling the Loire Valley in France. A photo Essay.

This is not a wine or chateau guide in case you were wondering, I don’t drink so there’s not much point. In my early twenties I twice picked grapes in Aloxe-Corton, Burgundy, which was a wonderfully timeless experience and I drank more than enough of the local produce on that trip to satisfy my curiosities. I often thoroughly research my travels in advance, but this time I wanted to travel with as few a preconceptions as possible to see what I could see from as fresh as possible perspective. I do though know France fairly well, and buried deep in the architecture of my brain is French language ‘O’ level (age 16 language qualification in the UK) which when in France miraculously starts to re-surface after a few conversations. So beyond the logistics of getting to Lyon in S.E. France from Totnes in S.W. England (not insignificant: four trains, a ferry and an overnight stay) and mapping basics, I decided that language skills, the fact that it is a well marked popular route, the plentifulness and generally high standard of French campsites and it being summer ought to be enough to just go.

The source of the Loire is actually in the Massif Central, mountains just West of Lyon, but time contraints meant starting from Lyon and pedalling across the northern areas of the Massif Central to join the Loire at Charlieu. So the first day was…