Les châteaux de la Loire

/ The Loire Valley/
Les châteaux de la Loire

There are few destinations in France, perhaps only Paris and the Côte d’Azur, as iconic as the châteaux of the Loire. Since 1995, exploring the area by bike - following the Loire à Vélo trail - has become the way to see the homesteads, gardens and towns of one of the most fertile parts of the country.

The trail itself runs some 800 kilometres, so when we discussed how far we could get along this trail, in the end the answer was “not very”. With long weekends and holidays allocated to other destinations, we had but one weekend to enjoy France’s longest river and all it has to offer. The real “meat” of the area lies in the UNESCO World Heritage area, which runs from Sully-sur-Loire (upstream of Orléans) to Chalonnes-sur-Loire (downsteam of Angers). In an effort to see as much of the crème de la crème as possible, we selected the section between Blois and Tours.

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Zürich

/ Zürich, Switzerland/
Zürich

One could not be faulted for saying that Zurich is not really a natural excursion when on a journey from Mainz to Paris; however there are direct trains between all three cities, and it was cheaper to travel from Zurich to Paris than from Mainz to Paris, so work did not complain. I had visited Zurich previously in 2011 and my memories of the city were that it was pretty, but that it also stank of money which really put me off. Having visited Switzerland somewhat more extensively since then I wanted to give it another go, not to mention I was very keen to visit the nearby Rhinefalls, which are the largest in Europe.

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Bordeaux

/ Gironde, France/
Bordeaux

May had rolled around and in 2014, this resulted in three public holidays falling on a Thursday. In France, this is equivalent to a four day weekend – it is a given that the Friday is also a day off, even though it is not an official holiday; on doit faire le pont. The first holiday was the first day of the month, and the Labour Day weekend was as good a candidate as any for a trip to Bordeaux. East-west train travel is somewhat problematic, so from Geneva, Mia would fly to Bordeaux and I would catch the first train of the day from Paris. This would provide sufficient time to see Bordeaux and the surrounding sights of Saint-Émilion and le dune du Pilat.

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Italy

/ Italy/
Italy

As our time in Europe always had an endpoint to it, we had made of a point of deciding the things we wanted to see. This had the benefit of allowing those among us with organisational inclinations to plan out a travel calendar over a year in advance. Being aware of one’s chosen destinations does come with a price however - the depressing cost of knowing many great alternative locations. To allow for some spontaneous travel then, we had left a few dates blank, notably on long weekends in case of further-flung trips. Easter was charging toward us and uncharacteristically we still had not decided where we were to celebrate crucifying people. We agreed that we would like to be somewhere that embraces the occasion and as we had no plans in the future to go to Italy, it seemed to be a fitting match; we were to have four days to see all we could. For practical reasons it was best to start and end in Milan, I wanted to see Florence and Mia proposed Venice. Handily, with the recently-completed high-speed rail lines around parts of the country, each destination was only three hours from the previous one. We had a plan and we were going to stick to it… religiously.

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Blaubeuren, Freiburg and Basel

/ Germany/Switzerland/
Blaubeuren, Freiburg and Basel

Once again, my work took me to Mainz, Germany. The winter was nearly over (in the technical sense) and by chance a friend from Australia was to be in Berlin for a conference, so we made plans to catch up. We had other friends in the south of Germany, so after some searching, we decided on a weekend trip to Blaubeuren; a small town with a big hole. Additionally, another opportunity for travel would present itself on my return to Paris: rather than head home directly, I would make a detour to meet up with Mia halfway between Geneva and Mainz and once again we would find ourselves in the Black Forest.

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