Ever wondered what it’s like to cycle through the heart of France’s wine country, surrounded by stunning vineyards and charming villages? Want to know how to plan the perfect self-guided bike tour in one of the most picturesque regions of France? Ready to discover the secret spots and local delights that only a bike can help you find?
Dive into our latest episode, “Biking Burgundy: Vineyards, Villages & Vistas,” where Annie Sargent sits down with Howard Kantoff to explore his cycling adventure through Burgundy. Starting in the vibrant city of Dijon, Howard takes us on a journey across rolling hills, past ancient vineyards, and into the heart of Burgundy’s historic villages.
He shares essential tips for planning your bike tour, from choosing the best routes to uncovering the top places to indulge in the region’s famed wines and gastronomy. This episode is more than just a travel guide; it’s an invitation to experience the joy of discovering Burgundy at your own pace, on two wheels.
Whether you’re a seasoned cyclist or just someone who loves a good adventure story, “Biking Burgundy” offers a unique blend of travel insights, personal anecdotes, and practical advice. So, are you ready to pedal your way through the beauty and culture of Burgundy? Click play and let the adventure begin!
Table of Contents for this Episode
Today on the podcast Podcast supporters The magazine segment Planning the Trip: From Dream to Reality The French Countryside: The Journey Begins Taking a bike on the train Unexpected Challenges The logistics of bringing your own bike 10 favourite things on this trip The stops along the trip Biking with panniers and few things Length of journey each day Stopping for a visit of the Abbey de Cluny Ouche Valley Barge and bike trips are popular in Burgundy Exploring the Véloroute Voie des Vignes A Journey Through France’s Biking Infrastructure Abbaye de Cluny Self-guided vs Guided Tour Culinary Adventures and Accommodation Insights Experiencing the EuroVélo 6 What type of bike did he use? Advice for Future Cyclists Stressful car trip Thank you, patrons! Zoom with Patrons Marais Tour Review New Food Tour in Paris Next week on the podcast Copyright More episodes about active vacations in France
This is join us in France episode 487 bour I’m Annie sergeant and join us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational Journey Through the beauty culture and flavors of France today I bring you a trip report with Howard kantoff imagine yourself pedling along Serene Vineyard paths through
Historic Villages and alongside tranquil canals yes today’s adventure is all about a self-guided bike tour in one of France’s most celebrated wine regions you could drive if you wanted to but Howard did it on a bike and we also discussed the logistics of doing it on two wheels this podcast is supported by
Donors and listeners who buy my Tours and Services including my itinerary conso service my GPS self-guided tours of Paris on the voic map app or take a day trip with me around the Southwest in my electric car you can browse all of that at my Boutique join usinf france.com
Boutique patreon supporters get the episode as soon as it’s ready and add free and listeners who buy my voice map tours from the boutique get a fantastic discount by the way for the magazine part of the podcast after the interview today I’ll tell you about my food tour
In Paris because it was fun to write and I want you to know about It bour Howe count off and welcome to join us in France Mery Annie bonjour how are you very well excited to speak with you oh excited to talk to you as well you had some adventures in France and you did some stuff that I always dream
About doing but I haven’t done any of it yet which is to do an itinerant trip on a bike so you went from point to point it was self-guided right that is correct okay so tell me how you organized this well first of all did you do this by
Yourself were you with a group I was strictly by myself 6 days of biking by myself after that my wife came to meet me in djon and we spent three days together but the biking was Solo solo and so this was entirely self-guided it was yeah how did you prepare for this
Trip and what well first of all what time of the year did you do this trip this was late September early fall so just a few weeks ago it was September 2023 that’s right it’s fresh in my mind fantastic fantastic all right how did you organize this how did you research
It how did it go all of that I want to know everything the planning and the research that was half of the fun or maybe a quarter of the fun I knew that as we’re coming out of the pandemic I wanted to take an amazing trip out of
The US I’ve done it before but not since the pandemic it was time to uh take a fantastic trip again and I just began searching Google for best biking in Europe I was actually almost prepared to do a trip in Austria and Hungary on the danu river I think it was the airfare
That s me back on that and I made a decision I would go in France because what what’s not to like about France and then I took the search from there best biking in France I got some lists various areas were mentioned burgundy was one of them and I settled on them
Because it just seemed to be right you know there were you could go in the Pyrenees but I’m not a super expert tour to France type of cyclist so that you know yeah most of us are not and so burgundy seem to have just about everything some hills but not too
Challenging beautiful scenery the wine country and I made a decision that this is where I would go and from there I had to figure out where am I going to be begin where am I going to stop Google was my friend and Google Maps was my
Friend and I figured djon would be a good place to start a decent sized city that key point they had bike rental available I rented a bicycle For Better or For Worse and there was an outfit based in djon and bone called bergonia evasion or evasion they were terrific
They had you know wanted to make sure I could get a decent bicycle and then from djon I just I looked at the map I did some reading I went to various websites there was one I think it was called V trisma de def France which was a go-to I
Had it bookmarked and it kind of went in depth what am I going to find you know right down to the elevation level how bad are the hills and that helped me lot out the route the next thing I knew you know I had to make sure there was places
To stay places to eat I stayed all in hotels and or bed and breakfasts you know modest reasonably priced places and then I had to figure out the distances for the rides each day so they weren’t too short or too long and then I hammered out a route that began in djon
And it kind of looped South and then toward the east East and it ended in bessen B yes Bon after which I took a train back to djon to meet my wife ah so you brought your bike back to Dion yeah that’s where I rented it and that’s
Where I returned it very good how was it taking a bike on the train I want to hear about this that was a key learning experience in a nutshell very easy very userfriendly the first time I had to do this I’d gone four days without a drop
Of rain on the fifth day I was stuck in the village of su in a rainstorm and I’m looking at my phone and I’m standing under an awning behind somebody’s house in a small village as the rain’s coming down and the Thunder is banging and
Trying to figure out how am I going to get to St John delone where my reservation is tonight it was about 15 more miles and I wound up taking the train from Su so easy I read about it but you get down to that moment when you’re boarding the train and you’re
You’re a little little nervous I brought the bike on the train there was another gentleman who did the same thing who had obviously done this before you bring it on there’s a little area for the bicycles and this man saw me kind of fumbling around and he told me what to
Do there’s these elastic straps at the side of the train that you just pull over your seat just to secure the bike it was very very easy you just roll it right aboard now the cars are marked whether they have bicycle space I did this two or three times and each time it
Was no trouble finding a space I’ve read that the longdistance routes the tgv you may have to book in advance or double check that they offer bicycle space yeah I think you have pay a little bit to take a bike on the tgv did you have to
Pay at any point for your bike or was it just part of your ticket no it was just part of the ticket wow and I I had downloaded the sncf scnf sncf yes at sncf app on the phone and it made things so easy I could just purchase my ticket
Right then and there nobody ever checked that I had a ticket but I I’m sure that if I didn’t buy one then they would check it so yes well yeah you should get a ticket because it’s mightly unpleasant if you don’t I mean it they don’t check
Every train but there are spot check so that’s important yeah I’m sure of it yeah and that like I said it was an empowering experience to learn how easy this was and then I just hopped off at s Jean delone the rain was still coming
Down but I just had to ride to the hotel yeah you were close that’s good that’s good yeah that’s always a possibility and there are some train systems in in France that are more they are better prepared for cyclists than others okay so probably this is one of the good ones
Which is very good to know because typically if the trains you tried are well set up for bikes it means that most of the regional trains in that region can handle bikes they do this all the time it seemed that way yes yeah yeah and also finding another cyclist who
Could show you around that that that help that saved you some grief I’m sure absolutely and then the other trains it was the same type of setup right yeah and then by then I was an expert you could help other people right that’s fantastic okay well did you run into any catastrophes like
Did you have a bike uh breakdown I don’t know I’m hesitant to talk too much about it the company I rented from was terrific and very helpful on the first day the bike that I thought I was getting was not the bike that they gave
To me and so I had to sort of work that out with them to get a proper bike for six days of riding they’ given me more of a comfort Style with a mushy seat for long days on the bicycle I’ve learned that a harder firmer seat and style of
Bike is going to be best so I waited an extra hour hour and a half while they prepared the bike that I ordered from them and then I was on my way it was a little bit stressful because I guess time is money and you know you want to
Get to where you’re going yeah and not be arriving after dark or so late that you miss dinner the rainstorm I I would not call that a catastrophe in the end I think it makes for a good story I came prepared I had my rain gear and rain
Jacket but it was thunderstorm and so I didn’t want to be out in the middle of a field by a river in a thunderstorm no he did not if there was a there’s a way and you know you figured it out just fine so no no catastrophes just a few minor
Hiccups along the way yeah and it’s true that perhaps a lot of serious cyclists the ones that I’ve talked to before they bring their own bikes typically but that’s another whole you know level of difficulty did you consider that I absolutely did consider it yeah but I’m
Still just a little bit hesitant to go through all that the packing the bike box the disassembling I consider myself a medium serious cyclist but not hardcore serious and so maybe next time it’s time to try that out but then there’s the logistics of okay I’ve
Arrived I’m at charl deal with a giant box and what am I going to do with this while I’m writing I mean the there’s ways to figure it out I’m sure yes you’ll hear an episode coming coming out soon after we record this where they did
This and they explain how so there are ways it’s just it adds a level of difficulty and I’m pretty sure also that if you find a good bike shop they’ll work with you I mean they might not be prepared right as you arrive as you experience but eventually they took care
Of you and and gave you a bite that didn’t cause you any trouble it did not it did not break down no flat tires I found the rental to be the path of least resistance yeah that sounds good to me all right let’s talk about your 10
Favorite things on this trip and if people want to see the details of you know your route where you went all of that it’s in the document it’s going to be in your guest notes but we’re going to skip around a little bit I just want
To go from you know your favorite thing because that’s always a delight to hear about I would say overall and this was day in day out just the scenery the landscape of this part of France was spectacular I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming it was just
So amazing and so beautiful and as I moved around it would kind of shift and change a little bit on the second day in between Chat n and riding down to Bone before I hit the V deia it was just so completely amazing like you know giant
Hills with Rock faces and horses and cows grazing like being right in the M middle of your very own painting I think that was probably the highlight of the whole thing yeah we should briefly mention where you started and where you ended which you did but tell us the kind
Of the stops you know I went from here to here I slept here and then I went to and okay so the first day of writing I began in djon and I went I started heading a little bit West through the US Valley and most of that was along a
Canal side and then I went away from the canal up into the hills to get to shaton on OA I believe yeah shaton on OA yep the canal paths were very flat but then I had to go up into the hills which was a little more challenging but not
Insurmountable I spent the night in chatau n on day two it was from there to a midday stop in bone and then you know right outside of bone you pick up the V de Vig which I took down to Shani okay so to Shani okay very good spent the
Night in Shani then the next day it was through Shalon s yes and then onward and that’s where I picked up the V just outside or actually right in the middle of Shalon pick up the V and start heading Southward I spent the night in Katan ah very good from there I
Completed the V went down to maon through Clooney and then to maon and then I started heading back up north on the V BL and then I stopped for the night in TN and then there were two more days from tuluse it was back through Shalon and then picked up the euroo 6
And spent the night in St Johan delone I learned it is not sh St Jean delas it’s St Johan delone Delon yes yes it’s Lon there’s an s in the middle that you don’t say yes yeah and that was the day where I kind of finished off my day
Taking the train and then the next day it was onward to Besson B to meet your wife actually I spent the night in Bess andon and then the next morning took the train back to djon very good yeah so that sounds like a very nice adventure
And mostly you didn’t ride on roads did you it was predominantly paved bike trails and that was another highlight uh I wanted to mention you know I’ve read it’s throughout the country but I know that in this part of the country the bicycle trail infrastructure was just
Fantastic here and and there I had to go off the trail and take some roads but they were always deserted Country Roads very few vehicles I always felt safe that was a big part of planning the trip I was not so interested on getting on highways with trucks and cars the trail
System in this area the canal paths and the vinia V they all kind of link up with one another and it made for a good sort of circular Loop yeah so did you have any contacts with locals in the area did you kind of reach out to a biking club
Or anything like that not so much I think as far as it got as I would uh say bonjour as people were I was passing folks on the pathway yeah but it was you know a couple small conversations here and there but I was mostly on my own
During the riding portion of the trip which was just fine yeah yeah so did you have paneers what how did you keep your stuff yes I rented two peners from the company that I’ve learned is really the way to go for an overnight trip even still I had a pack pretty minimally I
Had a couple sets of biking shorts and biking jerseys and then just maybe like one and a half outfits for the evenings to go to dinner my wife would be horrified but I figure I I’ll be wearing this shirt you know for a couple hours
Each night I’ve only got so much space I want to look presentable but I could not pack full outfits for every single day no way and you probably had to do some sink laundry as you went along actually no I’ve done it before it might not have
Hurt with some of the because I I would reuse the bike shorts yeah bikeing Jersey maybe a couple times but it worked out okay yeah well you know you have the scent of the trail I guess that’s how it works right but there was all always a hot shower at the end of
The day yes yeah and you are correct there are bike paths like this all over France if you set your mind if you set your heart on a part of France you can research what’s around there and you can also reach out to a local Club you can
Find you know bike club and then whatever Town email them and see if they send you some tips right right the company that rented the bicycle burone evision they also offer guided tours of all shapes and sizes from say an afternoon in the wine country to multi-day trips they have
Maps and suggestions if you need them yeah and you you never I mean obviously you didn’t have camping gear or anything like that that was okay right you were pretty secure you had booked your places to stay in a Advance perhaps I I did everywhere I stayed I had booked in
Advance so you had to make a pretty good guess how far you could go right right and did that sometimes feel like too much or not enough I think in the end so here in the Midwest United States you can go 50 miles on a flat surface in
Four or five hours but the same 50 miles in France with some hills and you want to stop and take pictures and see things that might be a good seven eight nine hours yeah and so I think in the end I would go anywhere from 30 to 45 miles
Per day and that it was manageable and those were not extreme distances for me that’s not what you I mean you’re not looking for extreme sports you’re looking for a pleasant vacation exactly a pleasure trip but in the end it always took it took more time than I expected
Like oh I think I’ll be able to make this in six hours and it would take eight hours because you know I stopped all the time to take pictures I took some videos as I went and it would be a shame not to yeah you have to plan some
Of that you’re going to go through some stunning Landscapes and also some like you mentioned cloney uh earlier I I hope you stopped and uh looked around I did and that was really you know that was one of the only Overall it all worked out but I think I ered on the side of too much writing you know like you said maybe 20 to 30 miles a day would be just fine and allow a little more time to slow down yeah you know spend a morning in a village sit in
A cafe or whatever you want to do yeah so a lot of these V at least the ones in the southwest where I live they will have places that you can go off to you know there’s a water fall in this direction or there’s a cave you can
Visit or there’s you know things like that that as you read about the some of them take you to some really fun outdoor things that you can do right and I I’d seen a few of these in the map as I was planning the trip but I really didn’t
Make it to any so much I pretty much stuck to the the path so la Val dech where you started has a steam train for example so that’s the sort of thing like typically French families when they do this especially when they have kids they will do shorter distances and they will
Just stop at the steam train stop at the cave so they ride for perhaps three hours total during the day and then they just go from fun activity to fun activity and there’s plenty of w where you can do that it’s just a matter of finding them you know that’s always the
Trick is doing the research but it’s part of the fun absolutely there was one sight that I discovered on the map in between it was in between ChatOn and Bone and I just saw it in the Google Map the ab uh s s margarit which was you know this thing I
Saw on the path and I kind of looked it up and it was an abandoned Monastery in the middle of the hills and it just looked like know there were no roofs No Ceilings the grass was was just growing up through the walls and I thought I I
Would like to go by that I sort of adjusted my route so I would take the you know get off of the pathway and take this tiny little road through the hills so that I would pass the San margarit I did this and it it was beautiful the
Path got a little bit rough along the way and then I I came over a hill and I saw it in the distance up on the hilltop and I was very excited however when I actually got to the site I discovered to my dismay that it was closed it was
Under private ownership and they were renovating the site for tourism so I only got as close as the uh the bwire fence that was surrounding the area but I I I was able to see it off in the distance yeah but that that would be one example where I kind of adjusted my
Route to go see something I that I thought would be interesting I’m I’m glad I did too yeah and very often these places are closed off to the public because they might be dangerous they don’t want an old wall falling on people or something like that so surely no
Yeah okay we got distracted from your 10 favorite things let’s get back to number one shall we of course so that was cycling the US Valley it starts just outside of djon and then making your way to shaf shatona and that was mostly scenery right yeah and primarily a canal
Path riding so alongside the canal it was delightful you’d go there’ be the locks and every lock would have a little house where the lock keeper I don’t know if they really live there but I saw several people showing up to do some maintenance or to let boats through you
Would see the boats going through the canals some of them I’ve read you know you can do a boat and Bicycle Tour so you would see the people cruising along on the boat they’d have their bicycles up there it looked like a delightful way
To travel and I was just kind of Roll On by them yes th this is very popular in that part of the country you have a bike on the boat the boat stops and you go off to explore somewhere and then you come back and have a nice meal that
Somebody prepared for you it’s pretty good it’s pretty good all right number two was the stunning scenery like we just mentioned and then you did the V via I want to hear about this yes that was an absolute highlight of the entire trip this was a dedicated bicycle path
That shot straight through The Vineyards beginning outside of bone and it goes about 15 miles down to centina and then Shani this was something I discovered in my research it was almost kind of a centerpiece of the entire tour like this is a destination something I want to do
You wanted to do this yeah yeah it was absolutely stunning you know to take a paved bicycle trail you’ve got the vines and the fields on all sides of you the hills going up in the distance and it went through the wine Villages as you
Make your way down R so was a place that I stopped in a beautiful little village and I stopped at a bar and sat outside had a glass of wine that was one of my favorite moments but you know the villages were pretty close together you
Know like every 10 15 minutes you’d ride into one apparently this is where some of the top wine producers of burgundy have their chat and their operations I know some folks would like to arrange tastings at the different wine chat I didn’t do this I just stopped at a bar
In town and that was fine for me but I would ride past and you would see the processes happening you could smell the fermenting grapes as you you ride through the village yes in September yes that’s when they start working the grapes in Earnest yeah definitely that’s
Very fun let’s see going down your list you enjoyed the the wine on the Pao in Moro that’s a beautiful place and then you took the V between Shalon and M so this was a different V yes and like a perfect example of just the terrific biking infrastructure in France a paved
Pathway began in shalone kind of went out through their Suburban area but then the next thing you knew you were back in the Fantastic Landscapes there were more Vineyards along this particular Wert because it’s a former Railway passageway you would see the old train stations as
You moov through which was kind of a nice touch as I was approaching Mone at the southern end of this it went through a tunnel the tunnel I forget the name of it but this was the longest dedicated bicycle tunnel I think in all of France and possibly
All of Europe it just went on and on and on maybe over a mile you go inside the tunnel is it lit the tunnel du Clair tunel du yeah there were little lights along the side but you get in there and it was very dark it was cold inside the
Tunnel because you’re kind of going underneath the mountain but that was a fun exciting and kind of quirky part of the adventure so were there any goats or cows or any because in the pinese goats and cows love to go in those tunnels I didn’t see
May have been some bats but I’m not sure as far as I know it was just me and there it was dank damp and Derk you definitely wanted to get to the other end of this thing as fast as possible that’s great that’s great you visited the ab which you mentioned
Earlier and you you said it was very well worth it terrific just auster old you could feel the history behind it spent about an hour or so on the site in the buildings well worth my time and they had a place where you could lock up
Your bike yeah outside of the site there were some bike racks it was no problem yeah bike racks are very common in France it’s usually easier to find a back bike rack than a parking spot most of the time I have a question at any point during this trip did you think oh
I should have booked a guided tour not really this is kind of you know my personal choice this is how I wanted to do it I I wanted to do the planning the one point in the year I get a little bit of me time as we say and something I
Wanted to mention to your listeners there are a million ways of doing this and it really depends what you prefer from the solo plan tour there’s companies that will set you up for an independent tour but they’ll handle the bookings they’ll give you a GPS that
Tells you where to go and everything set although it’s still an independent tour you can do there are tour groups and people enjoy that something I might do one day you know as I get older and just want somebody else to handle all the details in the work yes and also there’s
A lot of accommodations in France that are bike friendly they usually have a they will have a locked garage space for the bikes they have basic repair tools if you want to tune up your bike or whatever yeah that’s what I found every day as I was getting ready I would send
Each of the hotels a note oh I have a bicycle and they’d write back right away no problem we have space and they were ready for that yeah yeah it’s it’s very good in France you typically don’t really I mean you don’t have to bring your bike into your hotel room they’ll
Have a place for it somewhere right which I’ve I’ve done on some of my United States tours take the bike right into the room and yeah which I mean it works that’s what you have to do that’s what you have to do yeah number seven is a night in
T teras hotel and restaurant want to hear about this what a surprising place the OTAs once again I found it on the Google Maps and I kind of looked into it and lo and behold there’s a Michelin starred one star restaurant in this hotel this Village and I thought as long
As I’m there I would like to try that out yeah so I booked myself the night in the hotel it was pretty reasonably affordable you know just a little over A1 and I booked a reservation in the restaurant as well cuz why not and it was terrific the hotel itself it was
Kind of that modern stylish kind of hotel which I enjoyed the room was just so very clean and very neat and then the meal in the restaurant it was fantastic between you and me and all of our listeners I sort of preferred the more hyle local kitchen cooking that I
Found throughout the trip this was a very cheffy fine dining experience don’t get me wrong it was wonderful but you don’t want to do that every night no but I’m I’m glad that I did you know the small plates of the very finely tuned dishes it was very very good yeah so
They want to bring you different flavors different textures they have very small servings of a dozen things and you like some better than others typically it’s for the exploration the adventure of the palette I guess is is what they do yes but like I said I I enjoyed some of the
Other meals I had in some of the other towns even better than that kind of like I said the the home cooking local style that really spoke to me more yeah yeah so yeah in a lot of places in France these Villages where you stop for the
Night I mean perhaps this person went to cooking school but possibly not possibly they just enjoy cooking and can run a restaurant yeah why not fantastic all right so then oh you went to the euroo so tell us about that a little bit that was something that I was really
Excited about that you know I had read about for the longest time this is a Europe wide system of bicycle paths and trails you know from the northern tip of Scandinavia down to the Mediterranean and Spain and they just crisscross the entire continent the eurovelo cess uh
Ov6 goes from the Atlantic Ocean just outside of n through France and then it kind of crosses through burgundy where I picked it up for a couple of days but then moves onward into Switzerland Geneva into Germany Austria right through Eastern Europe to the Black Sea it’s about you know maybe 6,000
Kilometers people do the whole thing that would take six to eight weeks to do it yeah I I don’t have that kind of vacation time yeah but I was excited like I said to pick up just a little piece of this in Shalon serson heading up Northeast toward
Bessen Zone and that too it was a signposted pathway but this kind of varied you know you’d be it would utilize whatever was there Canal paths bicycle trails or areas out just out on the roads but you know they were specifically chosen to be safe and
Traffic free now you would see the euro6 sign every few minutes so it was very hard to get lost so that was another question is did you ever get lost did you have difficulties finding the V because sometimes you’re like okay I’m in the town but where does it where is
It exactly right for the most part I I did find but a couple of times exactly like you’re saying okay I’m in the town where do I pick up the trail head and for that all the different apps were my friend there’s one called komut KO m o
OT that hikers and cyclists probably know about so I was able to set up my my routes in advance and have guided direction throughout but like you’re saying too you know if you you’re in a town and need to find the trail head I found that Google Maps was very
Effective in just getting me from the center of town say to pick up the vad de Vig outside of bone a couple of times on the VT it got a little tricky like I’d make the wrong turn and then after a few minutes like yeah this just doesn’t feel
Right anymore I’d look at my phone oh I’ve gotten off I need to get back and find the RO that was uncommon for the most part everything was very well signed and easy to navigate yeah once you’re on it it’s pretty easy to follow it it’s just finding the start sometimes
We went to mazam to find the Pasa which is a you know it’s welln and I even called The Tourist office before I went and he says well just go to the train station which made sense because it’s an old train track right and I go there and I’m no it’s
Just a train station you know right and it wasn’t very far but it took a little bit of you know a few hesitant steps and with Google Maps we did find it and we went to it and sure enough there was and most of the way the Pasa is it’s kind of
A crushed crushed stone type of path is that what you had most of the time most of what I found was paved charmac kind of Pathways occasionally some of the crush stone or hardpacked dirt but most of what I wrote on was fully paved what sort of bite did you get this
Was a hybrid they gave me sort of in between a mountain bike and a road bike so it had the straight handlebars slightly thicker tires and it worked out just fine yes yes I think they call those VC V or whatever yeah they’re pretty common that’s what my husband rides as well
Yeah and they probably would have rented you an electric bike if you had wanted that oh sure I saw other cyclists moving in you know back and forth in all directions on allp of bikes from you know your hardcore racing bikes to electric bikes to kind of more upright
Comfortable bikes it was all out there yeah yeah all right so do you have any advice for people who want to do this what should they be aware of how do you feel about doing this sort of vacation after doing it my advice is get out in
France on a bicycle it’s a terrific way to see the countryside to see the areas in between the When it comes to these accommodations even though they are inexpensive if there’s a wedding taking place that weekend or if there’s an event of any sort it all of a sudden everything’s booked up and you’re like well I’m in the middle of nowhere why would anybody want to come stay here
Well it’s because there’s an event of some sort that you don’t know about and also if you make reservations it ensures that it is open that day you know there so many people have no concept of when the you know when the stores the restaurants the hotels might open or close so it’s
Best to try and Reserve right and that goes to my other piece of advice and maybe in hindsight kind of planning things out and being aware of you know the things you want to do and making sure that they are open on the days that you’ll be there whether that’s a
Particular Museum or a restaurant or a Village Market I found myself I’d be in a small town it’s like oh the market was yesterday or the market was tomorrow luckily when I met up with my wife in djon it was Saturday morning that was the market day so I got to
Experience that but yeah in other places there was a photography museum in one of the towns in Shalon cers where the founder of Photography was from I’ve been to that one it’s very nice it’s a good one yeah I was very interested but the day that I was rolling through town
It was not open yeah it happens it’s best if you look these things up before you arrive to make sure I mean you might not be able to be there on the day it’s open but at least you won’t be looking forward to this and then oh you know
Right and then alongside of that back to what we were saying before you know allow a little extra time in your day to do these things you know maybe a little bit less writing and more time to see the things that you want to see in your document you recommend some restaurants
Some food items that you liked it sounds like you enjoy just everyday French Foods really yeah that that’s pretty accurate to say but you did try and yet yeah and I know oh you know I listen to dozens of your shows be getting ready
For this trip and I know in one of them you covered this you talked about the andou at but there I was thinking I’m G to get you know some kind of sausage that I had it in my mind’s eye yeah you thought you were in Louisiana and you
Were not right and it came out and you know I took my first bite I’m like oh okay that this not what I expected it’s a little different I’m G to enjoy this as best I can I’m sitting there at the table and I looked up andet and I found
A description it said you know this that then it said quote the smell of Decay unquote and that’s what it was it it was a good experience I’m glad that I had it but would probably order something different unless you are you know that’s something that you really enjoy the smell of
Decay yes yes let’s see what else did you oh the question did you make any mistakes well you’ve talked about this perhaps you should have brought your own bike perhaps you should have planned shorter rides yes that you didn’t have quite enough time as you would have
Liked to wander around and just take it easy which you know it it makes sense yeah and then I would like to mention really quickly so I did meet up with my wife and ton we rented a car which we used I wanted to show her some of the
Beautiful areas that I had seen we drove through the wine area down to Bone and we got a good taste of that for half a day or so and then we took the car and drove it all the way to Paris which presented probably the the highest level
Of stress of the entire trip you know to make sure are we going to get this thing back in time so we don’t get charged an extra day yeah are we G to be able to fill it with gas that kind of raised the blood pressure a little bit you were
Back in real life everyday life with a car right approaching Paris in the suburbs in you know traffic jams just like back in Chicago you know at the end of the day we got the car back got settled in we stayed in Mar and we had a couple of
Days there and that was also a terrific part of the trip we really enjoyed yeah it’s true that you know cars do ra raise your blood pressure especially traffic City traffic or Paris all yeah not my idea of a great time but sometimes you need a car well it sounds like you also
Listened to a lot of the podcast episodes you listen to trip reports and all that and that helped you some absolutely you know that it’s always good to hear from people because you can read a lot but you’re always wondering is this for real did these people really
Do this whereas you know you’re talking about it you did it right it was helpful yeah just to get a sense of you know what I’m in for and you know I’ve decided to go to this area I don’t want to know everything I want to discover some things for myself but
To have a general idea what it’s going to be like or or what I can expect would you do this again at some other time in your life perhaps a different part of France oh absolutely I plan on it for sure fantastic wonderful well hoe thank
You so much for talking to me it’s been very interesting because this is something I aspired to and I just haven’t gotten to it you know but you really need several days to experience this sort of thing Lizen City oh I think it’s Liz in Connecticut I think and Gwen why and to all of my current patrons it is wonderful to have you on board in the community of Fran Ailes who keep this podcast going and to support Elise Go to
Patreon.com elart e l y s a r t and when you do please don’t click on the join for free button because it won’t help you or me this week I had a zoom call with my patrons and it’s always a pleasure talking to them I also published some photos and
Recommendations for visiting new museums and Exhibits in Paris Paris is getting new museums can you believe it I wouldn’t think they needed more but they are getting more my thanks also to Audrey Jenkins for sending in a one-time donation using any button on join us in France that says tip your guide Audrey
Wrote thank you for taking me to France every week your podcast got me through a difficult recovery from a major surgery every night I sat in bed listening and for that time I was in France it gave me hope to listen to you and Elise oh my
God Audrey that is so touching to me you know this podcast is not going to cure cancer but it helps people have a great trip to France and it feeds our passion for France which is necessary I wish you continued health and hopefully you can visit in person soon by the way my
Husband was hospitalized unexpectedly this week and it was a scary time for us too uh I’ve never seen him so sick thankfully doctors did a great job and he’s home and on the men but these are scary times sometimes and you know every little bit of positivity helps somebody
Wrote this review of my tour this week they said thanks for an informative tour I visited the mar on Monday so be prepared for crowds yes yes crowds in the mar is pretty normal I think it’s best to visit the mar on Monday through Thursday because of crowds and also some
Store closures uh that happen over the weekend let me chat about my new food tour in Paris on the voic map app first of all you may wonder is a GPS app really the right tool for food tour and I would argue that it’s the perfect tool
Because it is just you and me I show you the foods that you should get photos appear on your app at the right time I explain how to choose cheese and wine and oysters and I tell you how French people shop for these items I even have
A kind of a graphic that I made to explain oysters just like any other food tour guide I selected the best stores in a particular part of Paris and I give you the tools to go in there and buy what you like you know what they say
About give a man a fish and feed him for a day teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime well not as Grand as all that my goal in writing this food tour was to give you the tools to get the best French Gastronomy has to offer
Again and again and again you’re not just following someone who’s handing you little tastes you are learning how to do this by yourselves the tour starts at La Samaritan and ends at the top of r m along the way I tell stories I recommend restaurants several of them I tried them
All by the way I’m not recommending stuff just because I saw it on a trip advisor or whatever I tell you about regular life in this wonderful regular neighborhood of Paris people say oh I want to experience real life in Paris well here’s your chance I bet you would
Never go to Leal without this tour because most visitors never make it there this one is my shortest tour and I think it’s going to be a favorite for lots of people if you walk it please review it at the end because it’s brand
New and it needs a lot of reviews to get some attention from people who don’t know me from Adam so I am counting on you the other thing I want to say is that those self-guided GPS tours on the voic map app are easy to follow and even
People who are a little bit on the technophobe end of the spectrum can install this app and use it it’s pretty easy and that’s why I don’t write the app voic map does this I just write the content and they take care of the app they keep it updated they keep making it
Better all the time you can enjoy this Tour on your own schedule you can start and stop as many times as you wish you can listen from anywhere in the world and as many times as you’d like you own it you can skip around go back and
Listen again play it from your sofa play it in Paris it’s all good and the photos enhanced The Experience quite a bit as well and I took all of them so uh to see my handy dandy work with my iPhone 13 I didn’t bring my big camera on this trip
Because you know if it’s not flying or playing basketball in a dark room you don’t really need an L lens to do this you can do it with your iPhone Now podcast listeners should buy my tours from my website because you get a really nice discount of as much as 30% from the
Price on the app and to see all of that go to the boutique join usinf fr.com Boutique my thanks to podcast editors an and Christian Covan who produced the transcripts next week on the podcast an episode about the arz department with Elise a fantastic place for folks who
Love nature and want to practice their French as well as go into buery and tea shops to enjoy some wonderful food thank you for listening and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together the join us in France travel podcast is written hosted and produced
By Annie Sargent and copyright 2024 by addicted to France it is released under a creative comment attribution non-commercial no derivatives license I’m One Oh The