Guide to the Unexpected in France

A short collection of remarks from more than 2 weeks touring on my bike

Yesterday evening, I was walking around Basel, and each time I passed an Asian restaurant I played a new game I invented. The game was called "How much does the fried rice cost?" I now think it was a coping mechanism to let me deal with the shock that even this simple dish, even with the vegetarian option, never appeared cheaper than 21.50 CHF (22.50 USD/22 EUR).

Anyway, as a temporary mental reprieve from this new reality, I want to condense a few thoughts from my voyage in France into a quick post. After all, I spent more than 2 weeks traveling 635 miles in the country, and not everything went according to expectation! If you want to follow a similar itinerary along Eurovelo 6, you might find these notes useful. I rode west to east, starting in St. Nazaire.

The unordered list of unexpected things

• Great campsites
  Nearly every little settlement along the route has a municipal campsite, locating not far from the village or town center. Originally I was not sure what to expect, but each one I visited had plenty of space, a very organized reception, and acceptably clean facilities. They often even had swimming pools, though you will be joining lots of little children if you do enter. Compared to a hotel room, these sites are much cheaper, and even in peak summer season you don't need to worry about not having a spot. Most of them cost between about 8 and 13 euros per person per night, and you will always find many other bike tourists there.
  But my favorite camping location was not at one of these sites. It was at a neat little farm-turned-campsite near Gannay-sur-Loire run by very friendly hosts. The cloudless skies and new moon let the stars completely blanket the night sky, so densely packed that I could not believe it was real. Simply an unforgettable experience!

Business-related:

• Vacationing shops
  In smaller villages, many cafes and bakeries will close for the summer. Of course, they deserve a vacation too! But it would be great if they could update their Google Maps page with the closure. So my advice is to stash a little snack at the bottom of your bag just in case your hungry belly meets a closed door.
• Reduced Capitalist drive
  Maybe this is just because growing up I've been mostly exposed to America and China, where people will absolutely not pass up the chance to make money. But I could not help but notice many stretches of the route with not a single café or convenience shop for thirty or more kilometers.
  Do they not sense the business opportunity in plain sight? In the summer they will have hundreds of people ride right past their front door each day. And cyclists are probably the most consumption-heavy classes of people possible, measuring by calories and caffeine per minute. There is plenty of demand to go around!
  If this was in China I would guarantee that there would be a cold drink or ice cream cart at least every two km. I'm not advocating quite so much commercialization here, but perhaps there is a middle ground for some entrepreneurial people to fill the gaps in the sections with the fewest options now.

Spoiled-by-Netherlands related:

• Train siesta hours
  The trains in France are great in many ways. Especially if you're traveling by bike, the TER trains have plenty of space and don't require you to buy an extra ticket or reservation to bring one onboard, unlike all neighboring countries. In the summer they even run a special train that can carry more than 50 bikes at once.
  However, I noticed that many of the stations in smaller towns have very infrequent service. For example, it might have just one every two hours in the morning until noon. Then a break of 4 hours with nothing in between before a couple more in the evening. It's as if even all the trains are taking an afternoon nap, and it reminds me in a not-so-good way of Amtrak timetables.
  But if you're on vacation like me, maybe it's not too bad. Missing the train can give you the chance to explore the little village you are temporarily trapped in.

• The fast and furieux
  The French website France vélo tourisme is an amazing resource. Each major cycling route in the country is split into very manageable short stages. And each stage comes with a description in both French and English introducing the landmarks, accomodation options, road conditions, elevation profile, and train connections. I wish every country had a biking guide like this one. Most of the route is also quite well-marked, and I hardly needed to open the map on my phone.
  However, do be careful with sticking to the route. In a few places, either because of missing a turn or construction on the trail, I had to ride a stretch on a busier piece of road. They are apparently not shy about letting you share space with traffic going 90 km/hr!

Climate change related:

• Wasps
  I learned a word in French: la guêpe. It means wasp, and the swarming of these insects was constant throughout the trip. And unlike flies, they don't have an instinct to fly away if you wave your arm in their general direction. Especially if you are eating or drinking something sweet, you're in a race to finish before it's discovered by these little terrors. One did sting me on the neck as I was just standing still and checking my map. Ouch!
  Why is this climate change related? Apparently they are only out in such numbers because they all survived the uncharacteristically mild winter.
• Sunscreen
  Historically, summers in the Loire valley where I rode for the first week are pretty mild, with highs usually less than 30 degrees (86° F). However, as is quite often the case now, July this year brought an incredibly intense heat wave to the region, taking the temperature over 40 (104 F).
  Actually this value is quite misleading. The weather reports measure air temperature, but that's not what you actually experience. When you're outside in the sun, it's not just conduction from the air that heats you up, but also direct infrared radiation. Since the summer sun rises high and there was never a single cloud, the sensation of being outside is more like being cooked inside a microwave. In Ambloise, I saw an outdoor temperature sign display a value of 47° C. That's 117° F.

Hope some of these items are interesting or useful!

Quick reminder that there's a comment section below, of course do feel free to leave feedback or ask questions there.