John: Welcome to the group and thanks for the vacation ride report. Can you repost the photos? They did not show up and I expect it's because the files are too big. But from your description they will be well worth seeing.
Patrick Moore On Mon, Aug 21, 2023 at 3:53 AM John Johnson <johnemeryjohn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello everyone, > > I'm posting a ride report. It's my first and I hope this meets your > rigorous group standards for what a "ride" consists of. For me, a ride is a > ride - short or long, intense or easy, fast or party pace. > > Most of my rides these days are with my family (wife and 3 year old son). > I am reporting on our week of rides vacationing on the Island of Oléron, of > the coast of France (we live inland near Fontainebleau, so Oléron is only a > few hours' drive away). Oléron is the second largest Island (after Corsica) > in Metropolitan France. It's got a fairly mild climate in winter and summer > and the main industries (if you want to call them that) are oyster farming, > salt production, and wine growing. So, if you like quiet beaches, bikes, > white wine, and oysters, it's not the worst place to spend your vacation. > > We took our 2 Clems, a Burley Bee trailer, and our kid's bike on the bike > of the car and drive the 4 and half hours to get to the island, sitting in > traffic to get across the bridge until we finally made it to a small BnB in > the village of Dolus. We then parked the car and didn't touch it for the > rest of the week. All our trips around the island were by bike and it is > almost a perfect island for bike exploring on bike paths or dedicated bike > lanes (there's only a few places we found where you can't avoid going onto > a big main road with not shoulder). There are over 130 km of dedicated bike > paths on the 30x8km island. > > The weather was less than stellar the first day we arrived - it was > raining most of the drive to the island, and though the rain had stopped, > it was cold and dreary the first day. That first evening we rode down to La > Chevalerie for an "Oyster festival" though, I think it was just an ad hoc > restaurant that one of the oyster farms set up for people vacationing on > the island. Either way, I had the best oysters I've ever had, really great > moules frites (which, we probably ate at least once a day while we were > there), and decent bottle of local Pineau. We shivered a bit sitting > outside with our meal, but once we were back on our bikes and riding > through the cold night air, it was extremely pleasant riding weather. > > The rest of the week , it was warm, sunny and yeah, more/less perfect for > riding and swimming. > > Our rides consisted mostly of riding la Cotinière or St. Pierre d'Oléron a > few km away, or a slightly longer ride to St. Trojan les Bains in the south > (to ride the famous little train that's there) or go see Fort Boyard from > Boyardville. The routes to St Trojan or Boyardville go through tons of > oyster-beds, and it's nice rustic scenery to ride through. The island is > almost perfectly flat, so there's not much elevation to speak of - most of > our rides were meandering around, stopping to look at horses, take photos, > or check google maps again because we had gotten off track. Most of the > bike routes are gravel or paved, but a few of them went through small > forest tracks and we found ourselves in a bit of mud the first couple > nights riding back in the dark after dinner (Google maps has some fun ideas > about bike routes - definitely can take you off the beaten path, sometimes > right into someone's garden, but always an adventure. After a few er, um... > mistakes, we starting paying better attention to the bike path signs and > stuck to them a bit more closely). > > Our pace was probably around 20 km/hour on average, not fast riding for > sure, but definitely taking in the scenery. And with a kid on board, the > joy is exploring, rather than fast riding anyway. He kept up his own > though, riding a few kilometers here and there when we were in dedicated > bike paths and getting in the trailer or the child seat for the longer > rides. And Oléron proved to be ruggedly beautiful, blue-collar, calm, with > lots to explore: everything you'd want in a family vacation by bike. > > Anyway, that's my "ride report". And here are a few photos. > > cheers, > > John > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/627cd33d-63c1-4c31-ba99-e8d35a271d0an%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/627cd33d-63c1-4c31-ba99-e8d35a271d0an%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other less well defined but still important writing services. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *When thou didst not, savage,* *Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like* *A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes* *With words that made them known.* Shakespeare, Tempest, Act 1 Scene 2 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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