Home » Germany France » From Frankfurt to Sanary

Summer 2003 cycling

From Frankfurt to Sanary

Agelasto
2004-05-18 19:44:23

Displayed times (last time: )

This trip started with a free air ticket, courtesy of Star Alliance, in appreciation of all the hours I have endured in the past on the member airlines (United, Singapore, Lufthansa, etc). Instead of flying me directly to Frankfurt, however, the airlines routed me through Vancouver. The free-ticket rules prohibited my going directly to Europe, they said, so the airlines gave me an extra 12 hours on planes. One doesn't wonder that so many airlines are going bankrupt. In any case, I had a nice lunch with friends in Vancouver.

Eventually, I deplaned at Frankfurt and followed a planned 1,900 km route over 20 cycling days that took me be to Sanary:

From Frankfurt, to Darmstadt, Mainz, down the Rhein River to Koblenz, up the Mosel to Trier, up the Saar to Saarbrucken, over into France to Metz, Epinal, Vesoul, Nancy (a lovely place), Besancon, Grenoble, Gap to Sisteron (on the part of the Route Napoleon that I didn't cover last year), then to Mees, St. Maximin and on to Sanary. Germany is great for cycling. The German cycling organization ADFC has maps that show the array of bike routes. There is almost no need to confront road traffic.

The itinerary, however, doesn't tell much about the trip. I had beautiful weather, the best of any bike trip yet, with no rain, some tail-wind, manageable hills. I camped a few nights and ate in a few restaurants, but mostly I stayed in private homes, with strangers who host strangers as part of either cycling organizations [the Warm Showers List, the German ADFC - Dachgeber and the French Cyclo Accueil Cyclo (CAC) (email--cacoadou@netcourrier.com)] or SERVAS. This latter organization was set up after WWII with the object to promoting cultural exchange and peace in general. The hosts I stayed with were extraordinary individuals, kind not just to me, but plain good people.

Seeing such nice people almost restores my faith in humanity. 'Almost' ...