Product Description

Set off on your very own Tour de France! If you’ve always wanted to cycle along the back roads of France, the Ulysses Cycling in France guide will make your dream a reality. France is renowned as one of the world’s choice cycling destinations. It offers small, quiet roads, hospitable, pretty villages, a wide range of accommodations, major historic sites, diverse scenery and, of course, legendary cuisine and wines! This guidebook is an invitation to explore France’s deep-rooted charms. Each suggested tour starts off in a major city before leading you through the country’s back roads, where you can take the time to observe nature around you, to breathe in the heady scent of the countryside and to savour the local specialties you’ll find along the way. In addition to suggested tours of France’s various regions, including Provence, Périgord, Quercy, Burgundy, the Loire Valley, Alsace, Camargue, Brittany and Normandy, biking enthusiasts will also enjoy the Ulysses Cycling in France guide’s practical information on preparing their journey and its listings of the services that are available to cyclists along the way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #485196 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-10
• Released on: 2003-02-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Amazon.com
Pictures of France always focus on the Eiffel Tower or the Champs-Elysées, but the finest gems in France are the towns and villages off in Brittany and Normandy, Périgord, Camargue, and Alsace. You can rent a car, of course, but somehow a drive-through visit to small towns makes one feel like an intruder, whereas arriving on a bicycle in a healthy pedaling sweat forges an instant camaraderie with local folks. When you're not encased in and isolated by steel and glass, you have the leisure to explore, you can exchange "bonjours" with people cycling back from market with their baguettes sticking out of their baskets, you can feel the rhythm of the country and the texture of the terrain.

To fully insert yourself into a French experience like this, a good guide, one written for cyclists, is a prerequisite. Ulysses's cycling guide is superb. A 32-page atlas helps you plot your route, and the detailed chapters let you know what to expect as far as distances and tour routes, how strenuous the ride and what there is to see, where you can stay and what's available to eat, when market day is, and most importantly, where to find the local bicycle shops. --Stephanie Gold