Cycling France

In this beautifully illustrated guide to travelling across France by bike you will discover hidden lanes, stunning gorges, amazing places to eat and stay, plus the best of French cycling culture.

A guide to the leisure cycle routes south of the Loire Valley in France. It includes traffic-free routes and signed touring routes with a factfile and a text description of what to see along the way.

French Cycling: a Social and Cultural History aims to provide a balanced and detailed analytical survey of the complex leisure activity, sport, and industry that is cycling in France. Identifying key events, practices, stakeholders and institutions in the history of French cycling, the volumepresents an interdisciplinary analysis of how cycling has been significant in French society and culture since the late Nineteenth century. Cycling as Leisure is considered through reference to the adoption of the bicycle as an instrument of tourism and emancipation by women in the 1880s, forexample, or by study of the development in the 1990s of long-distance tourist cycle routes. Cycling as Sport and its attendant dimensions of amateurism/professionalism, national identity, the body and doping, and other issues is investigated through study of the history of the Tour de France, the track-racing organised at the Velodrome d'hiver in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s and otheremblematic events. Cycling as Industry and economic activity is considered through an assessment of how cycling firms have contributed to technological innovation at various junctures in France's economic development. Cycling and the Media is investigated through analysis of how cyclesport hascontributed to developments in the French press (in early decades) but also to new trends in television and radio coverage of sports events. Based on a very wide range of primary and secondary sources, the volume aims to present in clear language an explanation of the varied significance of cyclingin France over the last hundred years.

"The book and map describe touring routes north of the Loire. The book also details an additional 100-plus greenways, covering all the major off-road traffic-free trails in Northern France. The waterproof map describes 8 touring routes with 1:200,000 Michelin mapping plus detailed area and town maps. The 8 routes are - Brittany Coast to Coast; Around the Cotentin; St. Malo - Mont St. Michel Circular; Avenue Verte & Seine Valley (Dieppe-Paris-Le Havre); Boulogne to Lille; Paris & the Marne Valley; Rhone to Rhine via the Vosges; and, North Burgundy (Burgundy & Nivernais Canals). The accompanying 256 page book has supporting information for the featured touring routes including directions, cycle-friendly accommodation listings and places of interest. The section on greenways explores these additional routes region by region, the majority being detailed on 1:200,000 Michelin maps - ideal rides for day trips and long weekends."--Publisher description.

This “fascinating” story of a nineteenth-century mystery “should appeal to most lovers of history, as well as to bicycling enthusiasts. Strongly recommended” (Library Journal). In the late 1880s, Frank Lenz of Pittsburgh, a renowned high-wheel racer and long-distance tourist, dreamed of cycling around the world. He finally got his chance by recasting himself as a champion of the downsized “safety-bicycle” with inflatable tires, the forerunner of the modern road bike that was about to become wildly popular. In the spring of 1892 he quit his accounting job and gamely set out west to cover twenty thousand miles over three continents as a correspondent for Outing magazine. Two years later, after having survived countless near disasters and unimaginable hardships, he approached Europe for the final leg. Lenz never made it. His mysterious disappearance in eastern Turkey sparked an international outcry and compelled Outing to send William Sachtleben, another larger-than-life cyclist, on Lenz’s trail. Bringing to light a wealth of information, David Herlihy’s gripping narrative captures the soaring joys and constant dangers accompanying the bicycle adventurer in the days before paved roads and automobiles. This untold story culminates with Sachtleben’s heroic effort to bring Lenz’s accused murderers to justice, even as troubled Turkey teetered on the edge of collapse.

Tim is a mad keen cyclist who loves Cycling in France, loves doing Etape du Tour, loves climbing hills and helping others become awesome cyclists. He also loves surfing, growing food, running and playing golf. He lives on a 10 acre farm in the Byron Bay hinterland with his wife Kate and golden retriever Poppins where they grow pecans, coffee, avos, mangos, bananas and look after their cows, goats, chooks and guinea fowl.

A bicycling adventure from Le Havre to the Mediterranean Fed up with questions about what he was going to do when he retired, Edward decided to get on his bicycle and ride from the Le Havre region in northwestern France to the Mediterranean. He struggled in Normandy to get directions from old men tipsy on Calvados by 9 a.m., passed by prairies of corn and acres of sunflowers, and hit his stride on the towpath of the Burgundy canal. He explored the mystery of what an "ouvrier" eats for lunch, and was barred from a swimming pool because his trunks were too decent. Through the Rh�ne and down to Provence and the Camargue, Enfield is witty and informative as always.

For Adam Ruck, France and cycling go together like a rich Camembert and a heady glass of Bordeaux.