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Touring, Via Francigena

Via Francigena, 1000 Km, Emotions

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Greetings EyeCycled Friends,

quick post just to let you know that I did not abandon the Blog… 🙂

I am working on writing Via Francigena content, editing the videos and sharing this experience with you, but progress has been slow due to life’s demands. Please, subscribe to be informed of new post or like our Facebook page.

On the 12th of August 2016, the 14th day of cycling between Canterbury and Rome, I completed the 1st 1000 Kms of daily bike riding of my life.

I know, compared to cyclists that cycled around the world, some of which with 100s of 1000s of Kilometers in their Odometers, just is just a drop in the ocean, but for me it was a pretty special moment in a nice location.
The pilgrimage has ended now and I am back in the UK to my “normal” life. I end up having cycled 2,043 Km when I arrived at Saint Peter’s Square in Rome. Was an experience I will cherish forever, but I somehow don’t think it was the experience of a life time. Not ready for the grave yet… 🙂

New challenges are definitely on the horizon.

Thank you your time!

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Touring, Via Francigena

Via Francigena, Days 12 and 13: From Besançon to Pontarlier (FR) and Vevey (CH)

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  1. Day 12: From Besançon to Pontarlier
  2. Day 13: From Pontarlier (France) to Vevey (Switzerland)

Day 12, 10th Aug (Wednesday): From Besançon to Pontarlier (77.73 Km)

The day started with a French breakfast in the hostel’s cafeteria in the company of Nathalie, whom I met the day before. Breakfast done, goodbyes said was time to get all the mess sorted, take the bike out of the bike garage and move on. Was great to get to know Besançon, but at this point I was still concerned in not taking too much time in one single place so I had enough time to fix things if anything went wrong. At this time the crossing of the Great  Saint Bernard was still an unknown challenge to me.

The next destination was Ornans, stage 41 on volume 2 of the Lightfoot Via Francigena guide.

The ride started with going back to the centre of the city and riding a few kilometres alongside the river Doubs which crosses Besançon.

As I was taking pictures of the Citadel from the river side I remember thinking, thank God I don’t need to ide up there and then I looked at the route Google Maps traced and that was exactly what it was suggesting me to do. I spent several minutes evaluating the maps and could not see a suitable alternative, as other routes appear to required me to climb up there anyway, just from different directions. So, in for  penny, in for a Pound and the British say. Little did I know at the time I would have to go much higher and in a distance of just 4 Km I probably had to climb 350 m of very steep roads to Chapelle des Buis, some of it I had to dismount and push as the angle of ascent was more akin to a staircase than to a road. The view from up there was quite nice though.

After Chapelle de Buis Google was directing me to take a dirt track and not to make mistakes of days past I decided to ask for directions from some locals who were walking up the road. They said “No, No… tout a droite” and directed me to continue downhill on the road I was on and always keep to the right. Yeah, that also proved to be a mistake or I didn’t understand their instructions properly. Took me at least 45 min to get back on track and I had to partially ride the hill up again and push the bike on a steep dirt track up as a bonus.

As I arrived in Ornans I wanted to post some pictures and then I realised the credit on my French SIM card had expired. That meant no Internet. Since I believed this would be my last day in France, I decided not renew the credit and rely on Garmin for navigation, what proved to be a mistake later, which made me ride in circles at least 15 Km more than I needed to.

Ornans is a nice little town. The river gives it a somewhat Venetian feeling. After I got my pilgrim’s credentials stamped at the tourist information office and had a little snack break, the next destination was Mouthier-Haute-Pierre.

The road from Ornans to Mouthier-Haute-Pierre is beautiful and surprisingly flat. It already had a definitely Alpine feeling. As I couldn’t find any of the normal places open, I got my stamp from a Hotel I passed as I arrived in Mouthier

After Mouthier my destination was Pontarlier and I had planned to ride to Jougne this day, the last French town before getting to Switzerland. The problem was that I was, as I had no internet connection on the phone and had not downloaded the offline maps for the region in Google Maps I had to rely on my Garmin Edge for navigation. I was riding on the D-67 road up to that point and Garmin was instructing me to take the D-41, even though the road signs were indicating I should stay on the D-67 for Pontalier. I decided to follow Garmin’s instructions and must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because somehow I found myself back to the same point I had passed about 8Km before. The navigation mistake was as large as the distance I would have ridden to Jougne (about 15 Km), so as I arrived in Pontarlier I decided to stay there, in a F1 Hotel, which a friend said could be an option for cheap accommodation n France before I left UK.

It wasn’t as cheap as a pilgrims’ hostel, of course, but at €31 with breakfast included, it wasn’t bad. The hotel itself appears to be built of several containers put together. You get your own room, but have to use collective toilets and bathrooms.

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Day 13, 11th Aug (Thursday): From Pontarlier, France, to Vevey, Switzerland (94.11 Km)

Before riding to the town centre of Pontarlier to get the stamp on the pilgrim’s credentials I met another cycle-tourist, Joshua (may be mistaken on the name as I forgot to write it down) from Belgium at the hotel. He was cycling to Mount Blanc (I believe) for a climbing holiday.

Once I got my credential stamped, I set off to the next destination, Jougne, stage 44 in the Lightfoot guide and the last town in France. The day started with a “victim” though. I forgot my Gore Windproof cycling jacket at the hotel. I only noticed I had left it there when I arrived in Jogne, 24 Km away. The weather was definitely cooler than that what I had experienced days before. Wasn’t cold, but going down was a bit “fresh”, hence the reason I looked for the jacket and realised I no longer had it. There was nothing I could do at that time. Going back 24 Km certainly wasn’t an option, so I accepted the loss and decided to buy a new jacket in the next town, which was Orbe in Switzerland, stage 45 of the Lightfoot guide and the 1st town in Swiss soil.

Crossing the Swiss border was a milestone in the pilgrimage I was very happy to have arrived this far with the power of my legs.

As I arrived in Orbe the first thing I did was to look for a clothes shop in the hope find something to replace the Gore Windproof cycling jacket. The best I could find was a sleeveless jacket for 60 Swiss Francs which wasn’t cheap for what it was, but it proved to be necessary and sufficient later on in the journey. Once that was sorted, I got my stamp in the Tourist Information office did a little coffee break at local café and moved on as I wanted to do ride longer this day to compensate for the navigation errors of the previous day.

The next destination was le-Mont-sur-Lausanne, as the name suggests, very close to Lausanne. As I understand le-Mont-sur-Lausanne is more like a part of Lausanne than a town on its own, so I could not find a place to stamp my Pilgrim’s credentials (asked at a restaurant, but they had no stamp), so I simply left to the next destination Vevey, stage 47 of the Lightfoot guide.

I was really looking forward to cycling this stage, as I knew I would eventually start cycling alongside lake Geneva. I wasn’t disappointed! The views of the lake and the mountains are simply magical. Switzerland is a really beautiful country. Simply had to stop several times to take pictures.

As I arrived in Vevey I went straight to the Tourist Information Office, which, unfortunately due to the late hour (was about 6:00 pm) was already closed. I looked into the Lightfoot guide for the list of pilgrim accommodations and decided to stay at a pension which was very near the place I was, as at that point I had done already more than 90 Km, so I was pretty tired and didn’t want to go looking for alternatives.

The owner of the pension was very kind and gave me a map and a lot of information about Vevey and surroundings.

Vevey is the town where Charles Chaplin lived the last 24 years of his life and he is buried, so I had a mission next day: To go visit his tomb, pray for him and thank him for the wonderful hours of entertainment he provided us throughout his years. I know that as a person he was a considered a controversial figure, but that was really irrelevant to me. He was different and through his way of being he made a difference in the world.

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So this concludes the report for days 12 and 13, but as usual before I thank you for reading this far, have you consider making a difference today? You don’t need to become Charles Chaplin to do so. A small contribution to Mind UK, one of the UK’s leading mental health charities might make a difference to quite a few people. Consider this… you also have the power to make a difference, not only through money, but through many other ways (money is a good option, though, if you can afford it 🙂 )

Thank you!

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Touring, Via Francigena

Via Francigena, Days 10 and 11: From Langres to Gy and Besançon

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  1. Day 10: From Langres to Gy
  2. Day 11: From Gy to Besançon

Day 10, 8th Aug (Monday): From Langres to Gy (94.86 Km)

Day started slow, with me having breakfast in the hostel with the items I had bought the day before. Coffee, sugar and the basics were all available in the kitchen already. Was a beautiful day outside and from the kitchen window I could see the tower of the cathedral. I also took the time to photograph every page of the guest book for later reading as I did in previous hostels. Some of the messages are really nice

I had to cross the town which gave me plenty of last minute photo opportunities, so it took me a bit longer than usual to leave.

The first destination of the day was Torcenay, stage 35 in the Lightfoot guide. As per the road route given by Google Maps I would have to go back several kilometres and then turn to Torcenay only to have to ride it all back!to get to Champlitte (Stage 36) after arriving in Torcenay. I am sure the walking route makes a lot more sense than the road one I took.

The ride to Torcenay was pretty uneventful and flat. Few small hills to climb on the last 2 or 3 kilometres before the town. Torcenay is a small village and as I expected there was nothing open to get my pilgrim’s credentials stamped… except the post office 🙂

So, I got my stamp from the local post office, no complains.

There wasn’t anything really worth looking at, to be honest, so I headed out of town just to find that the water fountain I had seen as I rode into town wasn’t potable. What a shame! Thankfully I still had a full bottle, but it would have been nice to be able to refill.

Next destination was Champlitte as mentioned before. The route traced by Google Maps had about 80% road and 20% dirt tracks. Most of the dirt tracks were OK, but some 5 Km of them were really challenging with a lot of stones / rocks on the ground and sand, which made me have to dismount and push the bike several times as there was no traction in places.

Champlitte is a lovely small town and as I arrived one of the 1st things I saw was the impressive museum of the town (no sure what the museum is for). Unfortunately the tourist information office was closed, but I managed to get a stamp from a Bar/Hotel/Restaurant over the road.

I did a little break in the town to eat an apple and drink some water before leaving to Dampierre-sur-Salon.

It was about 3 Km after Champlitte, that something quite unexpected happened. I was riding downhill, doing perhaps 40 Km/h and gaining speed to tackle a big climb I could see ahead in the road, when I felt something biting me on the inner right leg. In one of those split second moment reactions I just tapped the insect away without even looking at it properly, I was afterall riding down quite fast on a busy French D road. Could have been a bee or a wasp. The event almost knocked me out of balance. Thankfully, perhaps due to my quick reaction, whatever stung me apparently did not have time to do a proper job, so it did hurt for about 5 min and then was OK.

Upon arriving in Dampierre-sur-Salon I went straight to the tourism information office, which thankfully was open, got my stamp and continue to pedal. I did take a few pictures, but I did not find a lot of pictures worthy things to capture.

The next destination was a town called Gy (yes, that is no type, simply Gy), stage 38 in the Lightfoot guide. The route Google Maps traced took me to some small single roads that , although narrow, had good tarmac. The route had also an unexpected surprise though. At some point Google instructed me to leave the road and take some dirt tracks following alongside a little river. At some point the dirt tracks simple ended and there was also a big barrier which made it impossible to cross even of the tracks continued. I analysed the map and could not see any alternative other than going many kilometres back the way I came, however I decided to stop at a impressive property I had seen just before leaving the road to ask for directions. The (presumably) care takers of the property were very nice and told me there was an alternative way to get to Gy. They also said that it wasn’t the 1st time this had happened as 2 years earlier some people on horses were also attempting to get to Gy and made he same mistake. If I understood them correctly apparently these horse riders were also doing the Via Francigena.

After the detour I was finally able to reach Gy, with my Garmin Edge 810 freezing up on the last 2 Km before reaching Gy and making me lose all statistics for the day (thankfully the GPS track was capture by my backup GPS watch).

I had ridden almost 95 Km at that point and was pretty tired, so I decided to give myself a treat and stay in the lovely Hotel Pinocchio, which was apparently was the best hotel in the town. If you have to blow the budget, do it in style, so the dinner that followed was also great 🙂

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Day 11, 9th Aug (Tuesday): From Gy to Besançon (38.85 Km)

After a wonderful night at the Hotel Pinocchio, the day was a bit cloudy with a light rain shower as I left. I first went to the Tourist Information Office to collect my stamp, as it was closed when I arrived the day before.

I then left in the direction of Cussey-sur-l’Ognon, stage 39 of the Lightfoot guide. Like in days before Google Maps traced me a route that included some dirt tracks within forests. The difference with these though was that it:

  • 1st, it had been raining, so there was mud on the tracks making it quite challenging to pedal on a 50 Kg bike.
  • 2nd and most difficult, the tracks started to thin out and being taken over by the forest until they eventually disappeared altogether. At that point I had ridden far too much into the forest and wasn’t willing to give up and go back to the muddy tracks I had just ridden through. I could see the faint traces of what possibly was a track before, so I just followed that in the midst of some quite dense forest. I thought to myself, this is supposed to be an adventure after all, but I would have preferred not to have go through that experience. I eventually landed on some proper tracks and then back on a minor road. I was relieved when I saw the road. Riding through the forest on a loaded touring bike was a bit stressful.

After the adventure of going through a trackless forest on a heavy touring bike, I was happy to arrive in Cussey-sur-l’Ognon. I took a few pictures of the village, but could not find a single place to get a stamp from, so no stamp from Cussey-sur-l’Ognon on my pilgrim’s credentials.

So I continued to Besançon, stage 40 and the last stage of Volume I of the Lightfoot guide. The closer I got to Besançon, the greater the traffic on the road was. I also took a wrong turn somewhere and ended on a busy dual carriage way for a while, until I found a way to leave it.

As I arrived closer to the city centre I started looking for the Tourist Information Office and Google made me do a few unnecessary rounds and turns as it was following the directions appropriate for motor vehicles. As I finally arrived at the tourist information office and got my stamp I felt pretty tired from the stress in the middle of the forest earlier on and Besancon looked like a very interesting place, so I asked them for cheap accommodation and they suggested the city’s youth hostel, which was a different concept of a hostel for me. The first I stayed that offered me a single room with a private bathroom, a luxury in terms of hostels and with breakfast included for just €29 I thought it was a bargain for what it was.

An interesting story that developed as I arrived in Besancon, was that as I was leaving the tourist information office another cycling tourer was arriving. I tried chatting with her, but she just said she didn’t understand English and I left in the direction of the hostel. As I was checking in the hostel, she also arrived, so she obviously received the same advice I did. We smiled and said “hi” to each and I left to lock the bike in the hostel’s spacious bike garage and take my stuff to my room. After a shower and some rest and with the info provided by the friendly reception guy I went to the bus stop closest to the hostel to catch the bus to the city centre and as I was there waiting for the bus, there she came also. That was Nathalie and with all these coincidences it was just right that we became friends and explored the city together. Nathalie lives in Basel, Switzerland, and works as a nurse. She told me she cycled every day to work, but that this was the 1st time she was trying long distance cycling. Her destination was Nantes in the south of France, a trip of over 1,000 Km by bicycle. Not bad for someone’s first cycle-touring experience. It was a  wonderful night in an interesting city and in the company of a new friend, perfect!

This concludes the post about days 9 and 10 of my Via Francigena experience. Although, as I write this, I have already arrived in Rome a week ago, I will continue to write as time (and WiFi availability) allows.

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To conclude, as usual, have you made your donation to my chosen charity, Mind UK, one of the UK’s leading mental health charities? If not, why not? It wold be a good way to pay forward the effort I am putting here in reporting my experiences and you will probably not miss £10 or £20 in a month, right?

Thank you for your contributions, your support and your patience as I get through these posts.

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Touring, Via Francigena

Via Francigena, days 8 and 9: From Brienne-le-Chateau to Arc-en-Barrios and Langres

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  1. Day 8, Brienne-le-Chateau to Arc-En-Barrois
  2. Day 9, From Arc-En-Barrois to Langres

Day 8, 6/Aug (Saturday): From Brienne-le-Chateau to Arc-En-Barrois (80.52 Km)

After leaving the pilgrim’s house, which I am glad to say wasn’t haunted at all (or the ghosts were out on holidays) I went back to the Tourist Information Office to return the keys to the house.

I then cycled on pretty flats and straight line roads, some with a nice tree line, all the way to Dolancourt.

Dolancourt is a small village, so no wonder as I arrived there I found no place where to stamp my pilgrim’s credentials. One interesting fact was that as I was having a moment of rest in front of the town hall I could hear screams from time to time. The type of screams children (and some adults) do when having fun. I then found out there is a theme park in Dolancourt called Nigoland, right in the middle of town and the screams were coming from one of the park’s attractions, a vertical thrill ride.

After a few minutes of rest I moved on to the next destination which was Bar-sur-Aube, Stage 30 of the Lightfoot guide.

Few kilometres later I met a Dutch family on a cycling holiday having a pick-nick at the road side (Mum, Dad, daughter and son).

Bar-sur-Aube has interesting river views. As I arrived in the town the Tourism Information office, which I often sought for the stamp on the pilgrim’s credentials was closed, but it would open 20 min later, so that gave me an opportunity for a snack break (I often had a sandwich or some fruit with me).

With the stamp on the credentials, the next destination was Clairvaux, more specifically Clairvaux Abbey, where I found indications and signs of the Via Francigena, which in France is not that common. Time for some rest, pictures a quick prayer to thank for the strength and protection this far and then on the road again.

Châteauvillain was the next destination. Châteauvillain looked like an interesting village. Had a little water break and took some pictures. As I could not find any of the traditional places to obtain the stamp for the pilgrim’s credentials, I went to a Newsagent I found open. They often have stamps of their businesses with the name of the town in them.

As it was close to 17:00h already as I got to Châteauvillain, I had to decide if I wanted to stop for the day or ride a little more. I looked in the guide and the next step was Mormant, but from the description and available places to sleep it looked like a really small village. The few options of accommodation the guide was suggesting were in Arc-en-Barrois, 15 Km away from Châteauvillain, which is along the walkers path of the Via Francigena, so I decided to try my luck there. As I arrived in Arc-en-Barrois I got confused with the directions my Garmin Edge 810 was giving me and ended up cycling 5 Km more than needed 🙁

A good part of the ride from Châteauvillain to Arc-en-Barrois was on dirt tracks through a forest, which was a bit tiring and stressful as my phone decided to stop working and I couldn’t get Google Maps back on. I used the Garmin Edge for navigation the rest of the way, which thankfully had in its database the same small dirt tracks Google was guiding me through.

Thankfully the Tourist Information Office of the village was still open and I got the stamp and some advice from a friendly man working there. One of the 2 Gites he suggested was closed and the other was a bit out of town in the opposite direction. The only hotel I found in town was a bit out of my budget, so as I had seen a camping ground when I arrived in the village I decided to setup camp there.

The information given by the tourist information office was that the cost for camping would be between €2 and €3,so I was surprised when 2 ladies “knocked” at my tent the next morning demanding €9 for the night. I told them what the tourist information office had told me and the price “magically” went down to €3.20. It pays not to be quiet. The camping had good shower facilities, but there wasn’t much around. As it was late, I was hungry and had no food with me I decided to go back to that hotel I had found expensive and have dinner there.

The night ended with me back in my messy tent.

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Day 9, 7/Aug (Sunday): From Arc-En-Barrois to Langres (46.29 Km)

The next day didn’t start well. I didn’t have a good night sleep as my asthma decided to show up. In the darkness of the tent I could not really see what was going up, but the next morning I realised a lot of condensation had built up inside the tent. The inner wall of the tent (or inner skin as sometimes refereed to) was soaking wet and that is likely what triggered my asthma during the night.

It was a slow process to dismantle the tent and get everything ready as I wanted to let the tent dry a bit under the sun and this resulted in me leaving the camp site quite late (around 12 noon actually).

As the day before, after clearing the urban area Google Maps took me to dirt tracks through forests. Something a bit odd happened in the middle of the forest which to this day is still puzzling me. As I was on one of the dirt tracks in the middle of the forest, I saw a Dachshund dog (the “sausage” dog) alone by himself. The had a collar and looked a bit scared and disoriented. At 1st I thought it’s owner was in the forest somewhere and continued cycling, but kept an eye on the dog in my rear mirror. I was already 200m away and no person, so I stopped and got off the bike, and started to walk towards the dog. As I got near him he ran into the forest and I could not follow him. I was I did try whistling to see if the dog would come to me, but after a few minutes I had completely lost track of the dog. I honestly hope he wasn’t lost and that if he was he was found later on. I hate to think there was something more I could have done and didn’t.

The dirt path had some closed barriers and most had a clearance on the side which enabled me to get by, except one. Thankfully there was a bit of clearance between the barrier and the ground and I could lay down the bike under the barrier and get through without having to take the panniers off.

As I arrived in Mormant I confirmed that the decision to stay in Arc-en-Barrois the day before was the correct one. Mormant is a tiny village with just a few houses. There used to be an Abbey where Sigeric presumably stayed during his pilgrimage, but it is now in ruins. There are Via Francigena signs in the ruins.

Few kilometres after Mormant I met Nicholas, one of the few Via Francigena pilgrims I had met at that point and the first from Britain. Nicholas, is from Lancaster and had left Canterbury on the 11th of July. He expected to arrive in Rome by the end of October.

He told me that after his brother died, a few years ago, he walked from Lancaster to Canterbury in his memory. When he got there some people asked, “why don’t you walk to Rome?”, and that got stuck with him.

As the Lancaster to Canterbury walk was in memory of his brother, the pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome he is dedicating to the memory of his niece, who 40 years ago was abducted or went missing right after birth. He says that even after all this time, his sister is still grieving for the loss of her girl, so he is taking her little hospital blanket with him to Rome. Just one of the many interesting stories along the way.

After Mormant Google guided me to a point where the path was closed, so I had to find a way around it, and that meant a quite substantial detour of several kilometres.

Like in Laon, Langres has a substantial hill to climb so you can get to town. As I arrived in Langres I was feeling very tired, from the bad night sleep, so after getting my credentials stamped at the tourist information office I asked for pilgrim’s accommodations and they sent me to the L’Abri du Pèlerin, offered and maintained by the Catholic church, right beside the Cathedral. It is a small place, only 2 rooms. One room has 2 beds, the other 1 bed. It has a bathroom and a kitchen and it cost €10 a night (no WiFi). There was a couple from France staying in the room with 2 beds and I was alone in the room with a single bed.

Thankfully, after a shower I was still in time to get the local mini-marked opened, which enabled me to buy some food to prepare in the hostel.

I had a good night sleep there.

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That’s it for days 8 and 9 of the pilgrimage. Have you contributed with your donation to my chosen charity already? Anything will help.

Thanks a lot for your time.

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Touring, Via Francigena

EyeCycled the Via Francigena competition - Preliminary result

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OK folks… the suspense is over. The “mileage” on my cycling computer as I reached Saint Peter’s Square was…

2,048.2 Km

Mileage at arrival in Saint Peter's Square
Mileage at arrival in Saint Peter’s Square

I’ve also updated the table of guesses with all guesses I could find in Facebook and elsewhere. Not that many, but the post has been shared and re-shared many times, so I am finding it difficult to get all guesses. There have been 12 guesses I could find.  If you did take a guess and your name doesn’t appear in the list (to see the last 2 click next) please get in touch.

EyeCycled the Via Francigena Competition

NAMEGUESS (in Km)SOURCE (Facebook, Blog, etc)
Fernando Zambon2008.1Facebook
Ema Satchel2020Facebook
Gyula Mester2022.22Facebook
Luiz Motta2025Facebook
Vinicius Seth2053Facebook
Sandra Laranjeira2060Facebook
Marlene Samson2067Facebook Messenger
Romualdo Ricardo Acquesta Neto2085.8Facebook
Sandra Mara Santos2346Facebook
Marcia Teles2380Facebook
Aparecida Climaco Schaefer2462Facebook
Elenita Seth2827Facebook

I will have a better look later, but the preliminary result indicate that the winner is…. err… my son! 🙂 … with a difference of just 4.8 Km in 2048, or just 0.23%.

I know what this will look like… Foul play, but believe me, there was none!

I did ask him to take a guess and he did so on the 26th of August. At that time not even I knew how many kilometres I would still have to cycle and to increase the unpredictability of the competition I also got lost on my way to Sutri and cycled 8 Km more than I should have, but on the other hand, in my last day I had the advantage of following my pilgrimage friend Roberto, a local Roman, on the last 72 Km from Sutri to Saint Peter’s Square, which was a big help as I would undoubtedly get lost again if I didn’t.

So for now… Well done son! I won’t need to put the T-Shirt in the post afterall 🙂

I will confirm the result once I am back in the UK and rectify any mistakes that might have been made.

Thank you all for participating in this simple competition and for your support during the journey.

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Touring, Via Francigena

EyeCycled the Via Francigena Competition / Prize Giveaway

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EyeCycled the Via Francigena Competition / T-Shirt giveaway

OK, this is a first for the blog, let’s see how this works.

When I get back home I am going to print a few “Via Francigena” (and Camino de Santiago) T-Shirts to sell through the blog, so I thought, why not get this started with giving one away to a lucky winner?

I took the 2 pictures below today at the exact same location. This isn’t a straight to Rome bike ride, so I am pretty certain this will be a 2,000+ Km bike ride. Also there is a degree of unpredictability given my undeniably dubious navigation skills.

Odometer in San Quirico d'Orcia
Odometer in San Quirico d’Orcia
184 Km to Rome according to the sign.
184 Km to Rome according to the sign.

So, here it goes… The person who guesses the closest number of how much will be in my Odometer when I get to the Saint Peter’s square in the Vatican City in a few days will be the lucky winner of a Via Francigena T-Shirt, which I will dispatch to anywhere in the world.

To participate, this is what you have to do:

  1. “Like” the EyeCycled Facebook Page (if you have not done so yet) and “Like” + “Share” this post in Facebook.
  2. Subscribe with your preferred email to the EyeCycled Blog (on the right)
  3. Write your guess (the number in Km, for example, 2,002.8 Km) as a comment in Facebook or in this Blog post (on the bottom of the post)

I am not a big Tweeter user, but you can also Re-Tweet this post and write your guess as a Tweet if you want (need to check if I can see it, though).

That’s it! All you have to do to win a Via Francigena T-Shirt (or Camino T-Shirt, if you prefer) is to follow the 3 steps above.

Competition ends when I publish the picture of the final distance (mileage) in the Saint Peter’s square in a few days (likely to be in the EyeCycled Facebook page). Any entries after the picture is posted will not be valid, as per the time stamp of the picture.

Good Luck!

Now, this may help a little… These are the places I still need to go through and I use (mostly) Google Maps as a guide.

  1. Stage 89: San-Quirico-d’Orcia to Radicofani
  2. Stage 90: Radicofani – Acquapendente
  3. Stage 91: Acquapendente – Bolsena
  4. Stage 92: Bolsena – Montefiascone
  5. Stage 93: Montefiascone – Viterbo
  6. Stage 94: Viterbo – Vetralla
  7. Stage 95: Vetralla – Capranica
  8. Stage 96: Capranica – Campagnano-di-Roma
  9. Stage 97: Campagnano-di-Roma – La-Storta
  10. Stage 98: La-Storta – Saint-Peter’s-Square

I will try to keep the table below as up-to-date as I possibly can, but a stable internet connection is not always present in a pilgrim’s life.

EyeCycled the Via Francigena Competition

NAMEGUESS (in Km)SOURCE (Facebook, Blog, etc)
Fernando Zambon2008.1Facebook
Ema Satchel2020Facebook
Gyula Mester2022.22Facebook
Luiz Motta2025Facebook
Vinicius Seth2053Facebook
Sandra Laranjeira2060Facebook
Marlene Samson2067Facebook Messenger
Romualdo Ricardo Acquesta Neto2085.8Facebook
Sandra Mara Santos2346Facebook
Marcia Teles2380Facebook
Aparecida Climaco Schaefer2462Facebook
Elenita Seth2827Facebook

As with everything there are terms and conditions that apply. Please read the boring stuff below:

  • Only ONE entry per person. If you change your mind, change the comment, but let me know you changed it. If you guess more than once, the last guess I can find will be the valid one.
  • The T-Shirts DON’T exist yet! It may take a while until I have the design done and the T-Shirt printed. Your patience will be appreciated (thinking more like a month or two, rather than a few weeks)
  • I will not know who the winner is immediately. I will need to some time to go through all the posts, comments, whatever. May take a few days after I post the picture of my arrival in St Peter’s square.
  • If you win, I will notify you through your preferred social media app or through email (if I have it). Make sure I have the means to contact you. I’ll keep trying to contact the winner for 1 week. If I don’t succeed, I will try the next best guess.
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Bike Rides, Touring, Via Francigena

Acts of kindness on the Via Francigena

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The unexpected sometimes can also be good…

Event #1:

If you have been following my pilgrimage, you’ll know I used to have an orange flag on the back of the bike, to improve visibility while riding on busy roads.
The strong winds on the way to Tergnier last week pulled the upper part of the pole with the flag straight out of the lower pole, so I ended up with 1/2 flag pole and no flag. People were even asking me what the thing coming out of the back of the bike was for and I had to explain how I lost the flag.

On Monday, the 15th of August, I was cycling towards Ivrea I when I stopped at a little makeshift road side kiosk, the type local producers put up to sell their produce. There was some really nice fruit there and I bought a few nectarines (the sweetest and juiciest).

This couple gave me an Italian Flag
This couple gave me an Italian Flag

They had a lot of little flags from EU countries lying around (No British flag anymore though) and even a few “just married” flags (don’t ask me why).
I asked if I could buy one and they gave me an Italian flag. He even fitted it so that it won’t fly out again.

Grazie Mille!

Event #2:

As I left Pontremoli on Saurday, the 20th of August, some 6. – 7 Km later I stopped at a little place that sells fruit and veg, chose a few bananas, an apple and a nectarine. The owner thought I spoke Italian because of the flag in my bike in as I explained I was from England and was doing the Via Francigena from Canterbury, he would not accept my money anymore. The fruits were a gift from him.

Grazie Mille!!!

Event #3:

The kind people who stopped to offer me a Gatorade and water
The kind people who stopped to offer me a Gatorade and water

I was riding my bicycle between Altopascio and San Miniato today and suddenly a car stopped in front of me and out came a gentleman and a child.

P1030347

They offered me a cold bottle of Gatorade and water.
There are so many good people in this world.
Whoever you are, thank you very much. You made my day!

Grazie Mille!!!!

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Touring, Via Francigena

Via Francigena, days 6 and 7: From Reims to Chalons-en-Champagne and Brienne-le-Chateau

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It hasn’t been easy to keep up with Blog posts. It is so much easier to share small insights and pictures on the EyeCycled Facebook page, but I’ll try to reduce the lag by being more to the point and less detailed on the posts. I do intend to write about each day in more detail upon my return anyway.

  1. Day 6, from Reims to Chalons-en-Champagne
  2. Day 7, from Chalons-en-Champagne to Brienne-le-Chateau

Day 6, 4/Aug (Thursday): From Reims to Chalons-en-Champagne

I left the hotel around 8:15am to get a McDonalds breakfast (closest thing open) and walk to the tourist information Office to get my pilgrim credentials stamped. As I was walking I saw 2 typical touring cyclists stop at a nearby café. I wanted to go talk to them, but decided not to as I wanted to be at the tourist Information Office as soon as it opened at 9:00am. After leaving the office I saw they were still at the café and couldn’t resist. As I suspected, they were also Via Francigena pilgrims or bicigrinos, the 1stI had met since leaving Canterbury. We had a little talk took their picture, but when we left I thought that would be the last time I’d have seen them as they were following a different guide and not all routes are the same (the major stops are though).

En-route to Chalons I passed through Verzenay (stage 21 of the Lightfoot guide) and Condé-sur-Marne (Stage 22 with Chalons being stage 23) . The route Google Maps traced had a little of everything. I rode alongside canals, on paved roads and on forest and canal dirt tracks. There was also quite substantial rain this day. Some of the canal towpaths were quite muddy and in places very narrow and slippery. It almost caused me to fall a few times. On the other hand quite peaceful and beautiful as well.

Eventually the muddy canal towpaths became a smooth concrete paved cycle lane, like only the French know how to do (well, not really, but much better than the British ones).

As I arrived in Chalons and was taking some pictures I saw a small cycle-touring family arrive. The Slovenian man was cycling in France with his 2 children, the girl aged 6 and the boy aged 13. He said he wanted to show his children that there are more good people in this world than bad ones and that cycle-touring was ideal for that. Can’t argue with it, totally agree.

Continued riding around Chalons, looking for the tourist information centre and when I found, guess who I met there? The 2 bicigrinos from the Café in Reims. If we had agreed on a time and place it probably wouldn’t have worked.

The 3 of us decided to stay in the same hostel that night and in the hostel we met Fabio and David. Fabio was cycling from the Netherlands, were he lives to his home town of Brindisi in Italy. David was walking from his home town in Belgium all the way to Santiago de Compostela. Fabio cooked a fantastic pasta for the 5 of us and then we went out into town for beer. A truly enjoyable day and night.

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Day 7, 5/Aug (Friday): From Chalons-en-Champagne to Brienne-le-Chateau

The cycling day started pretty much where it ended the day before, at the nice and paved canal towpath, but at some points the towpaths degraded to narrow dirt tracks as well. Giuseppe and his wife had left early that morning and this far I didn’t see them again. They were also under a very tight timetable as they had to arrive in Rome by the 24th of August. I did get a chance to say goodbye to Fabio and David though.

On my way to Brienne I passed through La-Chaussée-sur-Marne (Stage 24), Vitry-le-François (Stage 25), Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont (Stage 26),  Lentilles (Stage 27) and finally Brienne (Stage 28).

The same type route from the days before (bit of dirt tracks, road, etc), but with one added surprise. On my way to Lentilles Google Maps thought it was a good idea to ride alongside train tracks. Yes, there was a hint that a dirt track existed besides the track, but it was barely visible. Mostly covered by the stones used alongside train tracks. Not avery enjoyable ride at all and the stones made me lose my balance quite a few times. Thankfully I always managed to recover.

Most of the villages I rode through had nothing really special, but In Lentilles I visited a 16th Century church build of wood and clay, the Church of St Jacques et St Philippe. Looking at the simplicity of this church, in comparison with the ostentation of cathedrals passed made me think that if Jesus was re-born it would be in a simple place like that he would probably chose to worship God.

As I arrived in Brienne I went straight to the tourist Information office. Collected my stamp and the lady asked me if I was going to stay in town or travel further. She said they had a municipal pilgrims’ hostel in town and that made me decide to stay. I paid her the €10 for the night, she gave me the keys, a map and explained how to get to the hostel. Then she told me “you can’t miss it! There are 2 deer heads in the front wall of the building.”. I then remembered I had read about this place when researching the route. Some pilgrims had reported the place to be haunted.

As I got there, I had the entire 3 floor house just for me… No one else to share it with. There gave me shivers as the house was indeed a bit spooky.

Thankfully, I had a good night sleep and calling Ghostbusters was not needed.

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Before I close this blog post, let me remind you that this is also a charity bike ride. If you enjoy reading these posts and following my progress in Facebook, why not contribute with a little to a good cause? My charity of choice for this ride is Mind UK, one of the UK’s leading mental health charities.

Hope you are enjoying the posts in the blog and Facebook. It takes quite a bt of effort to get them done (especially the Blog posts) and they are responsible for late nights, despite having to cycle all day next day.

Thank you for your time and your support to my cause.

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Touring, Via Francigena

Via Francigena, Day 4 and 5 (2 and 3/Aug): From Peronne to Tergnier (Auberge de Villequier) and to Reims

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In this post…

  1. Day 4, 2nd of August 2016, ride between Péronne and Tergnier (Auberge de Villequier)
  2. Day 5, 3rd of August 2016, ride between Tergnier (Auberge de Villequier) and Reims

Day 4, Tuesday, 2nd of August 2016: From Peronne to Tergnier (Auberge de Villequier)

The night in the tent was not good. It rained all night and I am not used to that kind of “rain on tent” noise. The morning wasn’t different. When I woke up is wasn’t raining, but by the time I was finished with my breakfast it slowly started to come down again. I managed to pack everything just in time when the rain started to thicken.

Google Maps guided me out of town through some very muddy dirt tracks, which wasn’t nice. That is one of the problems with the “beta” cycling navigation of Google Maps. There is no option, as far as I know, to tell it not to trace a route using dirt tracks (off-road). I did manage to get through the mud without an incident (barely) and few kilometres down the track re-joined a “D” road.

The destination was Trefcon and I was expecting it to be small, but not that small. It is really only a few houses together and as expected there wasn’t anything open, nor anyone around.

So, took a few pictures and continued to Tergnier.

The rain is always an annoyance when riding a bicycle, but the big enemy of his day was the wind. You may have notice I had a little orange flag in the back of the bike to improve visibility. Well, the wind was so strong it managed to rip the flag and flag pole from the base without me noticing it. Since then I am riding Flagless 🙁

The 2nd victim of the day was my “side-open” GoPRO case, which I used to be able to charge the GoPRO while recording. He locking lever broke, but the case seems to be holding close well with an elastic band.

I arrived in Tergnier soaked, tired and with a bad mood. As I got there I asked a few locals for a hotel, but I couldn’t understand the directions they were giving me. So I turned to Google and the 1st option Google gave me was an Auberge in the “nearby” village of Villequier). In the Google Maps description, it said it was 4.2 Km from Tergnier, but it turned to be 7 Km, as measured by the Garmin… and in the wrong direction. Can’t really blame Google for that (except for the distance) as I should have looked more. Tergnier is small, but there are apparently a few hotels there.

Anyway, I was settled for the night and manage to hand wash some of my clothes as well as dry a bit more the tent. Didn’t really take any pictures this day as it was raining most of the time and I didn’t feel there was anything picture worthy along the way.

Day 5, Wednesday, 3rd of August 2016: From Tergnier (Auberge de Villequier) to Reims.

I had just finished packing and started to rain. It rained for about 1 or 1.5h, but at least the wind wasn’t as strong as the day before and that enabled me to ride almost 90 Km this day. I started by taking the exact same way back to Tergnier as I did the day before. I wanted a Tergnier stamp on my pilgrim’s passport and I had a remote hope to find my flag again (which I obviously didn’t… just wishful thinking).

After receiving the Tergnier stamp from the Hotel de Ville on the credentials, I headed to the next stage in the Via Francigena Lightfoot guide which is Laon.

Laon was probably the high point of the day, but to get up there wasn’t easy. Had to dismount and push the heavy bike most of the way up. You get rewarded by the beautiful cathedral and the views, once you get up there. Managed to get my pilgrim credential stamped in the Tourist Information Office and when I looked for a place to rest and eat something I was told it was closed (I don’t understand the French economy… it was barely 4 pm I think).

While I was taking pictures a group of Dutch cycle-tourists came to talk to me. They were curious about my gear and my pilgrimage. One of them was kind enough to take a few pictures of me with my camera.

The next stage after Laon is Corbeny and, as expected on these little villages, everything was closed, even their hotel. Jeanne D’Arc apparently had stayed in Corberny on he 22nd of July 1429, so she was luckier than me to find anything open that day. Took a few pictures and continued, but feeling a bit disappointed by all these small French villages I decided to skip he next town in the guide, which was Hemonville and head straight to Reims, which is a much bigger city and a place I wanted to visit anyway. So, if there was something worth seeing in Hermonville you’ll have to find out by yourselves.

It was on my way to Reims that met Fabio, the 1st Via Francigena pilgrim I have seem. Fabio lives in Rome, so he travelled to Canterbury and is walking back home… home to Rome. I gave him one of my cards and I hope he gets in touch to share his experiences, eventually.

Reims has a most impressive cathedral as well, so bug, in fact that it was hard to frame it all too close. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to enter it, as it was already late and I had to find a place to sleep still. As I got to Reims, around 7:30pm the tourist information office was already closed, but they have an interactive, touch sensitive display in front of the office which was very helpful. It allowed me to search for accommodation by a number of criteria, such as price, location, etc. I manage to get the address of a cheap hotel just 2 blocks away and by luck they still had rooms available.

I had a walk around the town centre in the evening before dinner and was most impressive by how lively it is. I loved the colour changing buildings (the light shining on them obviously changes colour), such as the opera house and a few other buildings I could see. I wish I had more time to spend there.

Hope the pictures talk for themselves, but if they don’t and you are curious, just get in touch through the contact form on the menu (it may take me a few days to answers, though)

And, if you got to this point, 1st I hope you enjoyed the account and 2nd as usual, before I close this post, how about you donate to my charity of choice, Mind UK, one of the UK’s leading mental health charities? Anything you can donate will be a big help.

Thank you!

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Bike Rides, Pilgrimage, Touring, Via Francigena

Via Francigena, day 3 (1/Aug): From Bruay-la-Bussiere to Peronne

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Left the Ibis hotel in Bruay after a great breakfast. The first destination of the day was Ablain-Saint-Nazaire and it took me just over 1h and a half to cover the about 20 Km of this stage.

As usual in these small villages, I couldn’t find any place that could provide a stamp onto my pilgrim’s credential. I don’t let that stop me from riding to these tiny villages as the goal is to follow the same 80 stages Sigeric did 700 years ago (not the route he took though, as many parts are only suitable to those walking). I always spend a few minutes in the villages, taking pictures, having a little rest and taking up some water.

After Ablain-Saint-Nazaire I rode to Arras, which is a big town in comparison to the previous villages. As I got there what stroke me most was the distinctive architecture and the “beach party” place they had built in one of the empty spaces, complete with sand, Caribbean music, palms trees and everything.

Few hundred meters more and I was in the town centre looking at their impressive cathedral. Took a few pictures and headed to the nearby Tourism Information Office to collect my stamp.

After getting my stamp, I left to Bapaume, another small town (not a village though) village along the way. I managed to get a stamp in the Hotel de Ville, or town hall. On my way from Arras to Bapaume I passed by a curious “Route 66” American style dinner, with a big statue of Elvis in front.

Left Bapaume a bit unsure as to how many more kilometres I should ride before to stop. Decided to just check the next stop in Sigeric’s route and decide when I got there. Next stop was Péronne and as I arrived in the outskirts of the small town it was already 7:00pm, so I decided to stay there. I had seen a sign pointing to the municipal camping site and decided to stay there, but then, for some unexpected reason my phone lost GPS connections, which meant Google Maps didn’t work. I tried the navigation on the Garmin, but it didn’t have the camping site on its database and I didn’t know the address. So I rode around for about 30 min and stopped a few times asking for directions. It is not easy to ask for directions in France when you don’t speak French, but a very nice gentleman took the time and drew me a little map on a piece of paper and with that I managed to find the camping site. Must confess I was looking at the navigation, when I should have been looking at the road signs as there were clear indications on the streets to the camping site.

Thankfully as I arrived the camping manager was still there and told me to just go and setup camp and pay me the next day. The charge was €8.00 for the night. After a shower I went out to see if I could buy something to eat, but the only thing I found open at 8:30pm was a kebab trailer in the town centre. So I got myself some Kebab take-away (and something for breakfast next morning) and had a tent feast.

It rained heavily all night and that prevented me from sleeping well. I had never used this tent under rain before, but it performed well and no water came inside.

Before closing this blog post, I have to ask: Have you already donated to my cause? Please, do so. One of the reasons I am writing these posts, even though very tired after riding all day is so that I am able to give you something in return for your contribution.

Now let’s write the next day as I am already behind of these posts.

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