Some statistics about our tour around France

“Did you lose weight?”.
“I doubt it!”
Well, I was surprised to find out that I had! (See image)
(Kate had also lost a little, 1.5kg)

My resting heartrate is usually about 50 - 52. Having finished the ride around France it was 46 bpm!

Distance covered 7,144km
Longest ride 140km
Total ascent almost 85,000 metres
Maximum speed 77.8kph

Retirement allowed us the time and space to plan and ride, unsupported, round the whole of France, just over 7,100 kilometres. The challenge started in May 2023 near Dunkirk, France, travelled anti-clockwise round France and eventually returned back to Dunkirk in the middle of August, about 80 days later (a few people expected us to be back home after a few weeks, having failed).
My wife, Kate, has some disabilities including visual impairments following a traumatic brain injury due to a cycling accident in February 2013, consequently this was to be on a tandem and her Guide dog would be unable to join us, but she had me 24/7 which I think is a good deal.
“That’s amazing, do you take it in turns on the front”, blank stare from me!
The book is a record of our amazing cycle ride and provides insights into how we managed this challenge (largely by turning some pedals round in circles). However, the story also describes some of the places of interest that we passed and visited on the journey and some of the character of France. For example did you know that Carnac, a seaside resort in Brittany, has literally thousands of prehistoric standing stones? Unfortunately they appeared to have been stolen so we didn’t actually see them, though there was a really nice rockery in someone’s garden.
The first 30 days of cycling took us along the North and West coasts of France down to the border with Spain where we took a left turn into the Pyrenees. Our pace slowed a little as the roads went sharply up and the weather came sharply down until our next left turn at the Mediterranean. It wasn’t a great year for nice weather this year, even a snail escaped the rain by hitching a 40km lift in my helmet!
We then hit this years heatwave as we sped along the Mediterranean coastline to the border with Italy. Time for another left turn into and over the Alps to Lake Geneva and then continuing North over the Jura mountains and then back West again to complete the circumnavigation.
Before you ask, no, we didn’t camp – basically I booked accommodation ahead of the tour to provide us with reasonable comfort and a good night’s sleep each night – at the same time emptying my retirement fund!
Above all, I plan this to be an enjoyable and humorous read that try’s not to take itself too seriously. This Facebook page has been useful to engage an audience during the tour and share ideas and information for enhancing the ideas in the book. A big thank you to all of you that have followed this journey and contributed with your comments.

Cycling round France obviously takes time. We are still trying to catch up on some of the jobs that are needed when you get back home. The garden of course had taken over …

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