Copenhagen - Côte d'Azur - Lyon 1994

In 1994 I went on my first bicycle tour from Copenhagen in Denmark to the Côte d'Azur in southern France. This tour of 2500 km went trough western Germany to Alsace and Le Vosges in France, the Jura mountains, the Alps in Switzerland and France, Provence and the Côte d'Azur and finally along the Rhône river to Lyon. I used 27 days for this ride, and I slept on various campgrounds along the route. The campgrounds are usually quite cheap when you only have a small tent, but I experienced prices ranging from free(!) to as much as 18 DM on a popular site in mid-germany. I didn't cook any food myself, mainly because I didn't want to carry so much equipment, but also because of the price. You get a LOT of bread and cheese in France for almost nothing! I mostly used the supermarkets, but also gaz stations and smaller stores. And now don't forget to visit the ice-cream shelfs in the Intermarché stores - imagine resting in the shade with a huge amount of Carte d'Or pistacie after having biked 120 km in bright sunshine? Actually I took off from Denmark together with my friend Thomas , but after 8 days or so, his bike began to fall apart (yes, it did!) and though we made several attempts to repair it, the problem always returned. So Thomas went back to Denmark, and waited of course the obligatoric 5 hours at Hamburg Hbf... As we had planned the tour for quite a long time, I decided to go on, and so I continued alone.
But anyway, this is it: The first part together with Thomas went past Lübeck to Lauenburg/Lüneburg where we made our first wrong turn. We biked some 7-8 kilometers before the road got really bad, and we realized that we had entered the newly opened DDR. But as a sort of a compensation we met a happy and friendly man, who offered us a Kinder Milchschnitte. Quite funny, but not a great pleasure to eat! We continued to Uelzen and Celle, and here the first problems with Thomas' bike arrived. We now had to camp in the forest outside Celle, which turned out to be a memoriable experience... We nearly got runned over by a german ICE train passing us at 300 km/h, then we made our way trough the bushes with our bikes, to finally get some sleep on a not so comfortable spot under some trees, but apart from that it was a night like any other...! The next day we arrived in Celle, which is a beutiful old town, and even well supplied with japanese tourists! Don't miss it, it's sure worth the sight. As we went south of Hannover the first small mountains began to rise near Hildesheim. We stayed for 2 days on a campground outside a little town named Wallensen, and here Thomas decided to go home. So happyly we found a railway-track on the map, but of course it turned out to be a steam train that was only runned on special occasions a few times a year. So we continued to the next town where there was a "real" train. So long, goodbye... - Now I headed straight for the growing hills, and passed trough some very nice mountain areas covered with trees and a lot of small lakes and creeks, and I crossed the Rhine at Wiesbaden and Mainz. Here I went into a gaz station to buy some refreshments and I payed the lady in the store with 200 DM, but as I got outside I realized that she had only given me change for 50 DM. So I went back in and complained, but she had to wait until closing time to count the money and to see if I was right. As I of course didn't want to spend half a day waiting for the store to close, we agreed on her sending me a check if she would find that I was right. Sure, I said to myself... - But one week or so after my return to Denmark, I recieved a check from her with the remainig 150 DM... Now I was approaching Les Vosges, the small mountain range that actually begins around Kaiserslautern and continues southwards into France. This area is very beautiful, and has a lot of old ruins and castles, always located on the top of some high cliffs. As I entered France I noticed how every village, no matter how small, had at least one fountain with delicious cold water - a gift from above for a cyclist... I continued trough these heavily forested mountains, and around La Petite-Pierre (imagine a more French-like name?!) it got rather cloudy and it soon turned into a thunderstorm. As I was driving some 500 m above sea level I was actually surrounded by thick clouds in every direction, the loudest thunder I've ever heard was rolling between the mountains and I could see the lightning belov me in the valleys. I of course didn't want to seek cover under a tree and so I continued as fast as possible to get further down and find a campground for the night. The bad weather continued for one more day, though at least not with thunder. I made an 18 km climb in heavy rain to the Col du Donon (1009 m), which was the highest pass so far, and though I thought of it as rather hard, it should within in a week turn out to be one of the easiest on the tour... The next day offered a clear sky, and I passed the little town Gérardmer and now the mountains slowly disappeared. Now I crossed the open land between Les Vosges and the Jura mountains, and I went trough the villages of Lure, Villersexel and Baume-les-Dames. Here I passed the Doubs river, which flows trough Besançon and into the Saône. The next wall of mountains appeared at Pontarlier, where I arrived late in the afternoon. It was rather dark already, and so I continued 18 kilometers and found a campground in Les Hôpitaux-Neuf. Early the next day I passed the Swiss border, and began a beautiful descent towards the flat area between Lac de Neuchâtel and Lac Léman. Actually I didn't plan to visit Switzerland, and so I didn't carry any Swiss francs, but the stores accepted French francs, though complaining a lot. So advised by a friendly man in a gas station I later went into a small hotel to change some money. Now I had arrived in Lausanne and here there were some great views of the Alps rising 2 kilometers above the water on the other side of the huge lake...

I followed the shore of Lac Léman all the way to Montreux, and continued into the valley of the Rhône river to Martigny. Here on the left hand there's some high and sharp peaks named Les Diablerets, and on the right hand lies Les Dent du Midi and the famous skiing areas around Morzine/Avoriaz. Now I really was in the Alps and I began the ascent towards Col de la Forclaz, which I still think is one of the most dramatic ports to the Alps. The pass is very hard to climb from the east, but around 10-11 km it offers some spectacular views of Martigny, 1 km below...! On a clear day you can see all of the great Rhône-valley, with Les Diablerets and Jungfrau on the left and the white peaks around Matterhorn on the right. At the summit the road turns into a trilling descent with great views towards Massif de Mont Blanc but also with some rough turns! Just as the descent seems to go on forever, the road suddently crosses the French border and begins to rise towards Col des Montets at 1461m. But from here the road again hurls down into the Chamonix valley, and here I camped in Les Houches. That evening I decided to eat dinner on a restaurant at the foot of the Mont Blanc, and I wonder if anybody noticed me in my colorful cycling outfit as I enjoyed my dinner and stared at the mountain, while listening to Corona's "The rhythm of the night" in the background (quite an experience...!) The Chamonix valley is absolutely beautiful, but the road is, I guess, not meant for cyclists. There are some unpleasant sections, with quite a lot of traffic. As I continued westwards out of the valley, I passed some very high, and almost vertical cliffs where the road splits up and one lane goes on an elevated bridge for several kilometers until it reaches the bottom of another huge valley. Here there's some great views to both Mont Blanc and


several other high peaks. The next climp was from St. Gervais to Megève, an easy but rather long ascent. It has its moments, but the great part of the road is after the little village Flumes. Here I got a high speed ride trough the dramatic Gorges de l'Arly, as the road continues downward and finally joins the main road leading to Albertville. Now I was following the flat road along the Isère river, but soon I turned east along the Arc river and found a campground named "Camping du lac bleu", although I never saw any lake there!


The following morning I headed straight for Col du Glandon and Col de la Croix de Fer, two often used passes in the Tour de France. The northern side of the Glandon is one of the hardest climps in the French Alps, and is very hard near the summit. This area is absolutely stunning with a deep blue lake on the south side of the Glandon, and bright snow scattered along the road even in July! From the summit of Croix de Fer (2067 m), the horizon is packed with sharp peaks and smooth curved plains covered with gray and red rocks, and the views from here are truly spectacular. On the long descent I passed the dammed lake on the southern side of the Glandon. It's a huge reservoir with an incredible deep blue/green color. Around the lake there's snowcapped peaks and green plains in every direction, and the traffic on the roads are almost non-existing even on the brightest summerdays. I continued past the Montagne des Sept Laux where the road has a descent of 10% for more than 4 km. Suddently for a short time the road went upwards again, but it soon returned to a long descent towards another dammed lake and then came to an end near the Veneon river. The descending road from Glandon joins the main road leading from Grenoble to Bourg d'Oisans. This is a nice old town located at the foot of the famous Alpe d'Huez. Here I rested in the evening, and looked around in the narrow streets, and of course got an ice-cream...! This is also the starting point of the ascent towards Les Deux Alpes, where Marco Pantani founded his victory in the Tour de France 1998. In the morning I went past the Alpe d'Huez and began the climb towards Col du Lautaret at 2058 meters. This pass is fairly easy, and offers some beautiful scenery, especially concerning the great Massif des Ecrins with peaks from 3500 to over 4000 meters. The landscape here is more rough than the north-western Alps, with wild creeks hurling down every cliff and some more dramatic shaped peaks with almost vertical sides. From the summit there is a quiet 7.5 km long road leading to the famous Col du Galibier, located 588 meters higher. But I continued heading for Briançon and the more Provencial part of the Alps. The road on the eastern side of the summit offered a descent of more than 45 km (!), and after having free-wheeled for half an hour, it was a rare pleasure to pick a small campground for the night and still know that I would begin the next day with a yet another thrilling descent.

In the city of Briançon I encountered a sign stating that this was Le Capital du Soleil (Capital of Sunshine!), and I sure had to admit that... In the southern France I experienced temperatures around 43 C, but then it should be said that the whole southern Europe had a very hot summer that year. I was now riding along the Durance river, passing through Digne, and I arrived at Lac de Serre-Poncon which has a low 2 km long bridge crossing it from Savines-le-Lac at the east side to the west side where the road continues towards Gap. The lake is no more than 4 km across, but almost 30 km long, and I followed the shore all the way. The last 10 km I could see the road on the other side where I would soon be biking... This was one of the most beautiful places on the tour, and yet the road was surprisingly quiet. Now the mountains had changed into more flattened hills, though still with sharp cuts and peaks here and there, and the vegetation was more bush-like, because of the high temperatures and the strong sunlight. I was now in the upper part of Provence, the goal of my tour! I find it hard to descripe this landscape, but I think the pictures speak for themselves...

The main attraction in Provence must be the magnificent Canyon du Verdon. This is in fact the second largest canyon in the world! The "main" entrance is located right at the famous Lac de Ste. Croix, from which a quiet road passes trough a small village named Aiguines, and crawls the vertical 450 m to the first spectacular viewpoint, and then continues upwards to the summit 800 m above the river. There is a road all the way along the edge of the canyon on both sides, so it is possible to follow the road around the enitre canyon. But remember to go counter-clockwise or else you will position yourself at the outer part of the road...! The vertical 800 m fall to the Verdon river is only guarded by a 50 cm high stone-built wall...! But anyway, this place is among the most stunning I've ever seen. The Verdon river flows through the canyon into Lac de Ste. Croix, and contiunes until it meets the Durance river, which I also followed around Briançon. After a little turn in the vestern Provence the Durance finally enters the huge Rhône near Avignon. The road along the canyon got very narrow in some places, and it even ended up going in a tunnel in the cliff, like some sort of a gallery. Not far from the tunnel I reached Pont de l'Artuby, a very impressive bridge crossing the entire canyon. The bridge was white and it looked really fantastic in the bright sunlight. I suppose one could take a nice bungee-jump from here, as there is more than 500 m from the bridge down to the river...! I ended this wonderful day driving through the jagged hills east of the canyon, while the sun vas setting and highlighting the faint mist that had gathered in the valleys during the day. The next morning I had to go through a millitary area, and according to my map the road was closed "in periods", but I didn't knov when that should be. Fortunately enough the road turned out to be open (it would have been 50 km extra if it wasn't), so I just headed on. And the following day I finally arrived at the Côte d'Azur. I celebrated this moment by buying a kilo of some delicious strawberrys and eating them alltogether while resting under a pine tree. Just what I needed! Then I turned out on the road along the riviera. The road itself is excellent but there can be some heavy traffic, especially in the early afternoon. I camped at a huge campground near Le Lavandou with tourists from many different countries, but mostly european. This was of course one of the more expensive campgrounds... the following morning I continued towards Hyères and Toulon, and from here there are many fine views of the Iles d'Hyères, a short range of islands located 20 km from the coast. Just outside Hyères I left the coast and began the last part of the tour up to Lyon. I went back into the more mountainous terrain. I found a very small and quiet road connecting the two towns Barjols and Varages. In some places it appears more like a footpath than a regular road, but it is in fact paved all the way. In Varages there are some beautiful sceneries and a nice tunnel through some cliffs right in the middle of the town. And the once again I was suddently following the shore of the Durance river, now an old friend of mine... Now I was getting closer to the huge wineyards of Côtes du Rhône, and the impressive Montagne du Luberon was clearly visible in the horizon. This mountaing is actually a small range of peaks between 600 and 1100 m, and I followed the mountains until I reached Cavaillon, and from here I continued on the main road to Carpentras. On the eastern side of the city there is a fantastic roman aquaduct, which looks just like it was built yesterday...! This is a well known city from the Tour de France, where it usually is the starting or ending point of the stage to Mount Ventoux. I didn't go across the famous mountain but instead continued into the Rhône valley and crossed the river near Montélimar. From here I headed straight for Lyon while enjoying the beautiful views of the river, the huge wineyards, and a sunflower field here and there...

Rolf Wahl Olsen 1998