Independent site offering comprehensive guidance on cycling in France, including routes, trip planning, accommodation, bike hire, and practical advice for self-guided tours
Charles Ricau, a French cyclist and personal contact, founded and runs Peak&Coast Cycling Camp. The operation offers immersive one-week camps in the French Alps and Corsica for ambitious amateurs—structured rides, professional coaching, recovery care, and on-the-ground support designed for serious cyclists.
Azur Cycle Tours, run by personal contact Justin Lord, offers bespoke cycling holidays in the Côte d'Azur where the Alps meet the Mediterranean. Options range from easy coastal rides to epic mountain routes—single-centre holidays, fully-supported tours, and event-based packages based in Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Nice.
DESKTOP VERSION: Historical companion to the Canal des Deux Mers journey, exploring engineering, commerce, religion, warfare, food, wine, and regional identity from Bordeaux to Sète.
MOBILE VERSION: Historical companion to the Canal des Deux Mers journey, exploring engineering, commerce, religion, warfare, food, wine, and regional identity from Bordeaux to Sète.
Canal des Deux Mers Complete Audiobook: Complete audio combining introduction, all ride-day chapters, rest-day segment, and conclusion for the Canal des Deux Mers narrative from Bordeaux to Sète across southern France.
Introduces the Canal des Deux Mers, its Atlantic-to-Mediterranean purpose, seventeenth-century origins, Bordeaux-to-Sète route, and the historical, geographic, and cultural themes framing the journey itself throughout.
Bordeaux departure day covering Aquitaine's Plantagenet ties, bastide towns, wine wealth, phylloxera recovery, and La Réole's strategic role on the Garonne River corridor beyond Bordeaux.
Follows the Garonne Valley to Agen, highlighting river trade, English and French conflicts, Rembrandt's Christ on the Cross, and the historic Agen prune industry there.
Follow the Garonne through prune country to Moissac, where river commerce, monastic power, Cluniac reform, and medieval pilgrimage shaped southwestern France.
Rest-day overview of Toulouse, covering its reinvention after Cathar conflict, urban culture, rebuilding after fire, Occitan identity, and enduring importance as a regional capital today.
Moissac to Toulouse episode covering canal engineering, the Montech Water Slope, the Shepherds' Crusade, Toulouse's religious conflicts, and local food traditions along the route today.
Lauragais chapter on grain wealth, woad fortunes, Toulouse's cassoulet heritage, and Castelnaudary's commercial role within the historical canal corridor across southern France for riders today.
Castelnaudary to Carcassonne episode on crusade violence, fortress building, inquisitorial procedures, religious conflict, and Viollet-le-Duc's nineteenth-century restoration of the citadel for modern visitors still today.
Ride through the Corbières, where crusade scars, Cathar history, canal commerce, and centuries of viticulture transformed conflict into one of France's premier wine regions.
Corbières chapter covering vineyards, fortified towns, Cathar history, wine appellations, and the transformation of a conflict-scarred landscape into a major wine region for France today.
Final coastal ride from Capestang to Sète, featuring Riquet's canal vision, Malpas Tunnel, Fonsérannes locks, Béziers violence, and the Mediterranean port's creation under Louis XIV.
Closing reflection on the route's contradictions, blending engineering achievement, food, wine, and historical violence into a final meditation on the Canal des Deux Mers journey.