Cycling Along the Waterways of France (Bicycle Books)

Rating:
Summary: The Best (The Only) Book On An Overlooked Bicycling Paradise
Review: 3 stars for the book; 6 (six) stars for the region described!

Though tourists now know-and-go "everywhere," the world is wide enough that individual travellers might miss (sadly overlook) mini-regions which would be fulfillingly perfect for them (even if not for other travellers). Roberts' book helped prevent such a misfortune for me. Do you like to bicycle? Perhaps in a foreign country? BUT hold back because hills make older knees ache....because road-traffic is dangerous and dour....because scenery can vary from the sublime to the prosaic, even trashy?

Well, imagine hundreds of miles of bike paths which is (for some not all) a pocket of paradise. No hills at all....no motorized traffic at all (and only one other cyclist every half-hour)....Usually, good riding-surface....Idyllic scenery--calm waterway on one hand, greenery on the other, and often an umbrella of shade trees overhead!....Moderate adventure: you have to navigate your way some, but could never get "lost".....Plus, villages for sleeping-and-eating every so often, which you enter by the waterside "back door," always at a pleasant "middle distance".....This astonishing arena is the network of tow-paths alongside the canals of France!

Formerly used for commercial traffic, France's hundreds of miles of canals now re-bloom with slow-moving luxury tourist-barges for costly vacations. But the still-unknown secret for the bicyclist who wants a trip, tour, promenade--but with few hassles plus the advantages noted above--is the tow-paths alongside many (not all) of the canals. They're a private Royal Road, for an hour, a day, a month.

Sure, most visitors to France probably want to see the sights, from museums to night-life. That's natural. But this seasoned traveller (me) found the canal-paths THE answer for recreational relaxing, as noted above.

And Tony Roberts' book is the ONLY one which gives mile-by-mile--oops, kilometer--guidance. His GOOD POINTS: generic preparation-advice, plus maps-and-text to navigate three canals. (1) BOURGOGNE, S.E. of Paris. (2) BRETAGNE, in Brittany to the west. And (3) MIDI, in the south (from Narbonne to Agen).

His BAD POINTS? The text is not easily-correlated to the maps. And the maps are inconsistent (sometimes incomplete in features) and also sometimes irritatingly transposed onto wrong pages out of sequence (baaaaaad editing!). Also, what about the other canals than these three, why these three only? Roberts never tells us.

PERSONAL DISCLOSURE. In September 1999, I bicycled four unforgettable days on the Canal du MIDI, the 110 miles from Narbonne to Toulouse. My bike was a torture-machine rental; bring your own! And in June 2000 I car-surveyed six canals in Burgundy.

I do RECOMMEND Roberts' book, indispensable as a starting-point. (If you go, however, do acquire the "Navicarte" chart-book used by barge captains; one for every canal.) I recommend the CANALS of the MIDI, Narbonne to Agen. Also in Burgundy, the backwater removed NIVERNAIS, and the straight-shot but tranquil ROANNE A DIGOIN. (Caution--the BOURGOGNE is good but variable; often too open and near the autoroute. The LATERAL LOIRE and the CENTRE are too near highways also and at times the tow-paths vanish into deep grass, making the derailleur eat a salad.....)

THE NEAR FUTURE. France is currently constructing "Voies Vertes" or "greenways" all over. Fine; but they're swaths of ashphalt populated with cyclists, rollers, strollers, BMX kids. Stick to the back-door canals. Let the opulent barge-tourists wait at the locks. Roll along on your private path. I did, and shall again. You too? Acquire Roberts' book and see if it primes your pump....