E-Bike: Paris & Loire Valley 2024 – Blog

And they’re off!!! Our group are on their way to Singapore for a quick stop before carrying onto Paris…..

All went smoothly and we arrived in Singapore evening time. The first glimpses were twinkling lights, high rises and modern cars. First though there was some serious need for a shower and some sleep.

A quick stop in Singapore and what better way to spend the morning than with a visit to Gardens by the Bay. Then to finish the evening in time for sunset at Marina Bay Sands!

After our transfer to the airport, there was a brief detour to see the Waterfall of the Jewel just before the water was turned off. Just after midnight we boarded our plane, and it was “Paris, are you ready for us?”

The plane landed on time, and all went well with the luggage turning up. The transfer to the hotel meant we arrived at 9.30am; in time for a shower, breakfast, coffee and a change of clothes. Once we were all ready, it was out on the streets to explore Paris. From the hotel to Notre Dame and through to the Marais ending up at Bastille. A two-hour tour which was full of stops, especially a refreshing beer at the George Pompidou area.

After a rest, most of us met up for a cheap and cheerful meal in the nearby cafe – Lebanese food which was both plentiful and tasty. Finally, it was time for a rest and restful dreams.

We woke to rain and had to make a few adjustments to our plans. Megan, Mandy’s niece joined few days of fun before returning to London – she soon became the go-to person for navigating the Metro system. Once everyone was ready it was down the hill to the Metro station and a skip across Paris to Versailles. We were in time for the green market in the village of Versailles, with its wonderful fruit and vegetables fresh in from the farms. It started to rain as we approached the Palace and thankfully the queues were short, and we were able to get straight inside.

Versailles is a must-see with its immense rooms, paintings, objet d’art and long history. Most of us viewed the palace in a group picking out one or two features in each room – so much to see!!! The Hall of Mirrors was beautiful with its chandeliers lit and the gold reflected on the glass.

After the Palace, it was supposed to be onto the Gardens, but it was just too wet. As a group we decided to return to the village and find some hot food. French Onion Soup seemed appropriate as well as warming!

Back on the Metro. we managed to find a gap in the weather as we walked between Metro lines to get to Montmartre. This was when the rain really came down and most of us got soaked – at least it wasn’t too cold. A quick visit to the art Installation known as the ‘I Love You Wall’.

Up the hill following the meandering narrow road until we reached the square in Montmartre Village. Home to the Impressionists, Montmartre has transformed from a poor area into a desirable suburb with countless tourists’ shops. It was time for a hot beverage, so we found both in a cafe set up on the main square.

Time for another plan adjustment as we decided to take in the view of Sacre Couer and then go back to the hotel. Thankfully it stopped raining for these last three things, and we made our way down the hill to an alternative Metro Station. Straight back to our local Metrol stop Cardinal Lemoine and very welcome hot shower and rest.

Today it was the opportunity to see the icons of Paris. Like meerkats, we popped up and down on the metro so we could see Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the old Opera House, Lafayette and Louvre. Thankfully no rain today.

Late afternoon we met our cycle guide, Marko Bauer and the Van driver Kirsten Mosny.

Time to say ‘Adieu’ to Paris as we donned our cycling gear and jumped our bikes. First though, we celebrated Janet’s birthday. The ride began with a cycle besides, across and back again on the Seine. Classic Paris disappeared as the poorer suburbs came into view. The tidy Seine became the random gardens and heavy graffiti of bridges and walls.

First stop was near Orly Airport for a coffee. Sunday seems to be the day for markets as we found streets filled with pop-up stalls. No time for shopping as it was back on the bikes and onto the next stop, the largest Pagoda in Europe. Most of the portion was on cycle tracks beside the Seine. Just before reaching the Pagoda, Marko had a puncture and Malcolm kindly took over. Penelope joined us here and its kiwis on bikes streaming across the French countryside.

Lunch was in the small village of Corbeil-Essonnes. A quiet place on Sunday, we watched as families came for a long, slow lunch in the sunshine.

Back to the river path and it was rich houses to the right and the Seine to the left.

Final coffee stop for the day was in Melon and the last few kilometres into Fountainbleau. Who knew the main streets here would be choked with market stalls, vehicles and pedestrians. The Victoria Hotel was a welcome destination with its hot shower and comfortable beds.

After our big day yesterday today was a great opportunity to recharge the batteries – human and bikes. First though we had a 10.30 visit to Chateau Fontainebleau. Mind blowing, the wealth, the OTT decorations and all the Napoleon memorabilia.

Beyond the grand building lay the gardens, sprawling expansively with serene lakes, elegant statues, and meticulously arranged displays.

Our biggest day today and we were up for it! Of course, there was the option to take the shuttle and shorten the riding distance and some of took this sensible choice.

The weather was cloudy to damp from time to time, however it didn’t matter as the scenery was something else.

We headed out of Fontainebleau towards the South and after a few kilometres we joined the Loing River path (this is part of the extensive cycle path from Scandinavia to Compostela, Spain).

Naturally, we had a coffee stop (Marko runs on caffeine) and those interesting features we came across: boats going through locks and beautiful vistas.

Lunch was in Montargis, also known as the Venice of the Gatinas. A beautiful French town with the necessary bakery, church and boutique shops. As the town was very old, there were a few visual surprises around the corners with medieval buildings, small bridges and many flowers.

After lunch, it was powering on to the 7 Locks (Rogny-les-Sept-Ecluses). To add to the variety, Lyndsay got a puncture so the rest of us headed on to have time for photos of this 17th century endeavour to connect the Mediterranean to the English Channel. It’s now obsolete but nevertheless an impressive sight.

The rest of the day was on the path beside the river with trees starting to show their autumn colours – very peaceful and great cycling.

We left the Loing to join the Loire River, first passing over Eiffel Bridge just outside Briare – once the longest iron bridge in Europe, now the second longest. The bridge is actually a canal crossing over the river below.

The morning river was following the Loire, a more natural river than the Seine or the Loing with high stop banks on either side. The cycle path was along the top of the stop banks so we had a great view across farmland. This time of year, we passed sunflowers coming to the end of their flowering, corn nearly ready for harvest and many hay bales. We even saw cattle in the field.

The path also meandered through small French villages with hardly a soul around – very ghostly.

Morning tea was at Sully-sur-Loire, a chateau which was once surrounded by a moat and owned by Duke Sully.

Lunch today was a picnic prepared by Kirsten and we were right beside the Loire. A highlight stop today was Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire where Saint Beniot (founder of the Benedictine Order) is buried. This abbey had incredible acoustics which Kate and Mandy tried out.

After lunch it was cycling through the countryside along those stop banks following the flow of the Loire all the way to Orleans.

The pleasure of a lay-in and late breakfast started the day. At 10.30am we began a walking tour of historic Orleans with a local guide, Yves Lhomer. Best quote from the very humourous Yves, English is mostly French with bad pronunciation.” Orleans had so many buildings, stories and history to absorb. The maid of Orleans (Joan of Arc) is recorded in place names, statues, strained glass windows and motifs all over the city.

A strange but true fact was that our hotel was actually the site of the Duke of Orleans residence. The hotel replaces what was once a fortified chateau.

The historic centre had gothic, medieval, renaissance and several combinations of all those styles in the buildings and significant structures. The Cathedral was particularly impressive with its long history and beautiful interior.

After the walking tour we went off to have some solo time: some went exploring, others went shopping and of course all of us for eating.

Today was a perfect day for riding with a mild temperature, cloud and no rain. We cycled out of Orleans and back up on to the stop banks by the Loire. Pass corn fields, through small hamlets and some forest it was an easy day riding with lots of variety.

Lunch was a small village, Saint-Dye-Sur-Loire with its roses and old buildings – very charming.

We had an entry time at Chateau Chambord (the largest chateau on the Loire) for 2.15pm and we rocked up to this enormous summer home of French kings and for the first time really found ourselves in tourist crowds.

After the visit it was an hour’s ride to our accommodation. A boot beer was waiting for us – very welcome after another day of riding.

Our accommodation for the night was a chateau and what a treat!

The day was forecasted to be wet, to try and avoid the worst of the damp weather we delayed riding until 10am. Lingering at the Chateau was not a hardship as the place was so beautiful, comfortable and peaceful.

At 10am half of us decided to take the shuttle with Kirsten and headed off to Tours. Kirsten kindly detoured to Amboise, which has to be one of the prettiest village on the Loire. Everyone found something they liked and a very happy van eventually found its way to Tours.

Meanwhile the cyclists found out how good (or thin) their wet weather gear was as the rain was persistent and heavy. The cycle out of Cellettes was slow with the unexpected traffic and the rain. Thankfully the cycle track was quieter and rain started to lessen. By 11am the rain had stopped and we did too, at an unexpected cafe called the beach, “La Plage”. The owner was very welcoming and soon hot drinks were in hand. There was a poor French cyclist with a puncture at the cafe and Marko helped him patch his tyre.

After warming up, we could take our wet gear off and a blue sky appeared. The track was mostly on the stop banks again or through fields of millet, sunflower or ploughed fields.

When we reached Amboise the weather started to pack up again and three more of us choose to take the shuttle to Tours. The rest peddled on skipping the puddles and managing to get to the hotel before the rain became a thunderstorm.

Our last official day of cycling done!

The last day of our cycling adventure – to celebrate we had another short ride out to a nearby winery, Maison Du Vouvray. Who knew there was millions of bottles of wine beneath the surface in 4kms of dug out caves.

We certainly enjoyed the tour with the young french student and tasting the wine even more. Although we had biked to the winery most of us took the shuttle back.

Then it was a free afternoon and a farewell dinner in a local restaurant.

This morning it was time to sat farewell to Marko and Kirsten, they were on their way back to Austria with the bikes and then a well earned rest.

For the rest of us, Mandy had two walks planned: the morning walk to the Cathedral, stuffed elephant and remains of Roman occupation and the afternoon walk in the opposite direction to the medieval remains of Tours.

Tours was heavily bombed in WWII first by the Germans and then by the Allies so its remarkable to see the old town squares looking as old as they do – most of the buildings are reproductions of what once stood there. A delightful place to walk around.

Late afternoon it was time to leave Tours and head to Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris. All was going well until we hit wet weather and traffic jams on the Paris ring road. Thankfully out driver decided to take the Olympic lane (no traffic) and we were just about finished deciding what our Paralympic sport was when the driver popped back into the mainstream of traffic and got us to the airport on time. The airport was deserted, very strange with high security but no-one mentioned that there was anything unusual going on.

For those of us going back to NZ via Singapore it was all very straight forward – the remainder of the group went its different ways – here’s hoping we meet up on another e-bike adventure soon.