Day 1&2 Final Leg 5

Sept 2-3

Toulouse – Bardonecchia by train

On the 1st September 2023 Sue and I set off on our new electric bicycles from our home at Borde Neuve, in Southern France.

We cycled 50 km to Agen to catch a train to Nantes to start our planned trans Europe cycle following the beautiful River Loire along the EuroVelo Route 6.

This year we, once again persuaded Rob & Trude to drive down from Kent and kindly look after the dogs whilst we’re cycling the final leg home.

2 years to that same day in September, we set off catching a total of 6 trains to get us back to Bardonecchia, where we’d left the bikes in June of this year.

An early morning train to catch from the ornate station behind. Sue was sitting on the boardwalk covering the canal du midi which we will hopefully be following home, in about 2 weeks time🤞🏽

Our friend Valerio had been keeping our bikes safe in his huge underground 5 car garage for the hot summer months.

He met us at Oulx station, where the Paris- Milan TGV dropped us.

After a delicious Pizza supper we were both exhausted and didn’t need any rocking to sleep!

Day 2

Bardonecchia-Briançon 35 km

It took a while to organise our bikes and pack everything onto them once more. Mine had a puncture to fix, but generally they were good to go.

A beautiful blue sky overhead greeted us as we set off southwards towards the French border, with Valerio joining us for the first day

The first little village of Melezet; very picturesque.

We started climbing slowly to the base of the Col d’Échelle.

The pass is visible above Valerio’s head.
Looking down to Bardonecchia in the centre of the picture
Entering France, having only been in Italy for 16 hours!
Traversing the long summit at 1760 metres. Very pretty whilst we were also enjoying the strong scent of pine trees along the route
Enjoying a roadside galette accompanied by a begging pussy cat
We made it the very interesting and dramatic town of Briançon. Here we parted company with Valerio who had to return to Italy. He had said he’d join us for longer, but he’d forgotten he had a dentist appointment tomorrow which was in Albania!
The centre of old Briançon

Our first day started well. Beautiful weather when last week here’s was mostly wet😁. It was good to get back in the saddle after 9 weeks of rest; although my bum doesn’t think so!

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Published by Robkeene

Sue and I are both over 60 and looking to explore the cycle routes in France

2 Comments

  1. cloudsilly5d207e4aa0's avatar cloudsilly5d207e4aa0 says:
    September 4, 2025 at 7:04 am

    Well done guys, lets hope this is a more enjoyable ride with better tracks and you get home safe and sound, we hope the weather holds for you and look forward to seeing you soon xx

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  2. cloudsilly5d207e4aa0's avatar cloudsilly5d207e4aa0 says:
    September 4, 2025 at 7:04 am

    Well done guys, lets hope this is a more enjoyable ride with better tracks and you get home safe and sound, we hope the weather holds for you and look forward to seeing you soon xx

    Like

    Reply

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