bikes

Welcome to the virtual launch of my ebook �Cycling North.� Book launches are usually characterised by three things: proud speeches, free cake and champagne; and the chance to sell books. So here goes.   The Speech.   I hereby launch �Cycling North,� my fifth cycling travel ebook.  This ebook project has expanded much further than I could have imagined when I first took my bike, Craig to France in 2012 to ride from the Atlantic Ocean to the Alsace. I enjoyed the cycling, the food and the writing of the subsequent book - �baguettes and bicycles� .   My next project was to convince my wife to join me. It proved easier than I imagined, perhaps linked to the fact that Cathie had already coined the phrase �cycling is just an interlude between meals.� It�s how we approached the next two journeys - down the Danube for �bratwurst and bicycles� and along the Canal du Midi for �bordeaux and bicycles.�   We�re not long-distance cyclists who camp in a tent at the end of a ...

I wake, pull back the curtains and am greeted by clouds, a lone palm tree on the promenade and the morning whine of a motor scooter labouring up the hill. Which is what Cathie and I will be doing in a few minutes, after the obligatory croissant and coffee for breakfast. In the car park, our bicycles have camped under an awning and are loaded with twin panniers at the back. Our preference is for full stomachs and light panniers.  The sun wins its battle with the clouds as we head up the first hill of many leading away from the sea. Today is all mountains. Yellow and purple wildflowers bloom beside the D559. Thankfully most of the cars turn onto the motorway while we wind slowly uphill. Our steel bikes are designed for touring and the 5% gradient doesn�t trouble them as much as it does their riders.  But what goes up, comes down into the ancient village of Aubagne, now popular as a wealthy satellite suburb of Marseille. At caf� Noailles, an immaculately dressed woman in slacks a...