A Veloscenie Anniversary [Overview]

Celebrating 10 Years of Marriage with 10 Days of Cycling from Paris to Le Mont St Michel
This blog entry is a trip summary and testimonial written for www.veloscenic.com 

To mark our 10th wedding anniversary, we wanted a special trip and the Veloscenic fit the bill. Deciding to ride the entire length of Paris to Le Mont St Michel on 2 Brompton folding bikes, self-supported, we planned for 10 days of cycling - one for each year of our marriage. We would cycle in relative luxury, staying in hotels and B&B's and enjoying lots of foie gras and canard along the way! Full details are available on our trip blog at http://veloscenic.blogspot.com 

The first day was spent enjoying Paris, as our overnight flight from Singapore arrived in the early morning and we unpacked our bikes and warmed up our legs. We spent the afternoon visiting the wonderful sites in Paris, including the Seine river to the Louvre, Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomphe and of course the Eiffel Tower. The consummate city of love worked it's magic and we got off to a wonderful start!


The second day was when the longer riding of 40-70km/day began. This is our first time cycle touring, so we felt this schedule would be enjoyable yet appropriately challenging. Ivan is an avid cyclist and commuter, while Renata is a leisure cyclist. Wonderful small towns like Palaiseau gave us reasons to stop for coffee and give us frequent breaks from the saddle.

The weather in mid-September turned out to be perfect and we didn't have a single day of rain! French locals we met were very friendly and helpful to us, despite my poor command of their beautiful language. Several were surprised we rode out of Paris with "all that traffic" but being from Singapore, we found it no problem at all. We had mapped our routes in detail on my Garmin 810 using routes provided by Veloscenie.com. Meeting locals and riding through small towns and seeing many horses were a wonderful part of our trip.



The protected cycle paths and the Voie-Verte were wonderful as well. The Rambouillet forest, cycling by fields of corn, and streams were precious memories. We saw squirrels, deer, goats, and horses. We stopped for pictures of wild mushroom and picked wild blackberries after seeing locals doing the same! Only then did us city folk know this was safe!



Crossing countless bridges and rivers, we learned about "lavoires" and soaked up information about medieval life, cathedrals, and the very interesting towns visited along the way. Wherever we travelled, the experienced lush grass, verdant greenery and flowers everywhere - both wild and beautifully cultivated in the gardens and along city streets.






In the countryside, the roads were smooth and the traffic infrequent. Vehicles patiently gave us time and passed us with plenty of room. We saw more cyclists only at the beginning and near the end towards Le Mont St Michel, with most being out for the day or short rides and only a few carrying touring luggage like us. 

There were some harder days of climbing during the trip, most notably the ride into Carrouges. Others were easy days of flat riding. Our final day day from St Hilaire du Harcouet to Le Mont St Michel was a wonderful ride that was interesting, varied, and not too taxing. After 10 days of cycling, seeing the Mont loom larger on the horizon is a wonderful feeling. Even more wonderful was experiencing this with a loved one after 10 years of marriage, knowing that memories and challenges of these past 10 days would be etched in the tapestry of our lives, weaving us closer together and stronger in our marriage.

Thank you France, Normandy, all the friendly and hospitable people we met along the way! Thank you to the people behind Veloscenie.com because without your efforts and your website, we would not have been able to make this trip!

Ivan and Renata Liew
Singapore
http://veloscenic.blogspot.com