Cycling UK Forum

I did a 2500 mile trip to Italy on a fifteen-year-old steel Raleigh that I bought off a mate for 75 quid. It was fine. I've since upgraded to a £500 aluminium Dawes, and apart from having more gears, it doesn't seem dramatically different: it's fine too, done about 2000 miles and still feels like new.

Has anyone cycled across it since it opened? (OK, I know there isn't a cycle lane, I know it's an autoroute, I know it's illegal, but so's jumping off it ... )

Hmmm ... Calais to Dijon and back? Now there's a thought.

I'm starting to think of next year's trip to Italy, and looking for a good route through France. I did Calais/Reims/Besancon a couple of years ago, and found it a bit dull; I've also done le Havre to the Dordogne, which I liked, so I'm thinking of starting at le Havre and heading quite a long way south before turning eastward. Any advice, suggestions or experiences will be much appreciated ...

Nowt wrong wi' Blackpool!

Just for the first bit … I've headed into Europe from Leeds twice recently, once via Dover-Calais, and once Portsmouth-le Havre. I preferred the route through Oxfordshire/Hampshire to the one down through Kent, and similarly on the other side - the landscape around Calais is surprisingly hilly, and it's pleasant countryside once you're clear of le Havre. Also the ferry from Portsmouth is not dear, you get a night's sleep, and get a good early start in France.

I don't know the Laser competition, but I used a Laser for a couple of months in 2006. 100% waterproof, felt solid and stable (though I don't remember it getting very windy); pretty easy to put up & take down, even though I never figured out what half the numerous toggles and bits of string were for. Maybe a wee bit short of headroom. It did the job well, and I can't really fault it, but I never quite learned to love it ...

Personally I find it great to have both: the paper map for the overview, and the GPS for a reliable 'you are here'. And it's great for the shortcut through the housing estate, or wiggling across the city centre by the back streets, where the OS is pretty useless.

I met a Swede just south of Rome who'd ridden from Stockholm, with no maps, no GPS, nothing - he just kept asking the way ...

By the time you get that far you'll be fit enough to take the Alps in your stride: I hadn't been on a bike for four years when I left the UK, and had never done a big hill before, and went over the Simplon on a loaded bike with no trouble. The weather can be scary though - it was snowing and ferociously windy in late May! I was glad I'd brought gloves and long johns.

When I got to Palermo, I'd had the bike for fifteen years, and reckoned it owed me nothing. So I pedalled to the airport, trousered the small bits I liked - pedals, bar ends, etc (ok, so I'm a cheapskate - it's my jewish blood coming out), heaved the rest fondly into a skip, and flew home pleasantly unencumbered. Any similar stories?

agreed - the route between Paris and Maisons Lafitte will certainly keep you awake! but within the periferique, i found Paris a delight to cycle. You just have to watch out for dozy pedestrians wandering in the bike lanes.

Stella, you might want to think about the borders rather than the highlands: easier to get to, the scenery's a bit less grand but still gorgeous, the hills are a bit gentler, and the midges, i believe, a bit less ferocious!

there's an awful lot of tunnels in italy, but they're mostly on the autostrade. i don't know what the law is, but i came into italy from switzerland at simplon and got down to rome with no problems, and no major tunnels that i remember (except for one that was brand new, no traffic yet, two miles long, well lit, and all downhill: quite an experience!) My general sense was that traffic laws are only regarded as advisory anyway.

Palermo was an interesting challenge - I recollect the only alternative to the autostrada involved going out the back of a station car park, pedestrian underpass under the railway, hundred yards along the beach, onto the perimeter road. No traffic though.