An Englishman on La Vélo Francette

Roaming in the blood

60-year old John Hayes from Brighton (80 km south of London), is using his well-earned retirement to take to the hiking paths of Europe.
He is a regular rambler, having crossed Europe on foot, covering a large part of the E4 European long distance path: from Tarifa in Spain, he walked to Budapest in Hungary, covering a distance of no less than 5000 km!

This time, our English friend swapped his faithful walking boots for a "touring bike"; a steel bicycle designed for long journeys, equipped with well-filled panniers...

1640 km from Montpellier to Brighton via La Vélo Francette

Leaving on Friday 27th May 2016, in the company of Christine for his 3rd cycling adventure in France, but also the longest: 1640 km from Montpellier to Brighton!

The chosen route took him along 3 famous cycle routes:

• Le Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo, from Montpellier to Bordeaux
• La Vélodyssée, from Lacanau-Océan to La Rochelle
• and finally La Vélo Francette, from La Rochelle to Ouistreham
• from there, he boarded the ferry from Ouistreham to Portsmouth in the south of England, leaving him just 80 km to get to Brighton.

He completed this cycle tour in 19 stages, covering an average of 75 km a day!
 

> Relive John Hayes adventure with his friend Christine on his blog

^{Photo credits: © John Hayes}