Ride Report // Île d'Oléron

[John Johnson]

Hello everyone,

I'm posting a ride report. It's my first and I hope this meets your rigorous group standards for what a "ride" consists of. For me, a ride is a ride - short or long, intense or easy, fast or party pace. 

Most of my rides these days are with my family (wife and 3 year old son). I am reporting on our week of rides vacationing on the Island of Oléron, of the coast of France (we live inland near Fontainebleau, so Oléron is only a few hours' drive away). Oléron is the second largest Island (after Corsica) in Metropolitan France. It's got a fairly mild climate in winter and summer and the main industries (if you want to call them that) are oyster farming, salt production, and wine growing. So, if you like quiet beaches, bikes, white wine, and oysters, it's not the worst place to spend your vacation. 

We took our 2 Clems, a Burley Bee trailer, and our kid's bike on the bike of the car and drive the 4 and half hours to get to the island, sitting in traffic to get across the bridge until we finally made it to a small BnB in the village of Dolus. We then parked the car and didn't touch it for the rest of the week. All our trips around the island were by bike and it is almost a perfect island for bike exploring on bike paths or dedicated bike lanes (there's only a few places we found where you can't avoid going onto a big main road with not shoulder). There are over 130 km of dedicated bike paths on the 30x8km island.

The weather was less than stellar the first day we arrived - it was raining most of the drive to the island, and though the rain had stopped, it was cold and dreary the first day. That first evening we rode down to La Chevalerie for an "Oyster festival" though, I think it was just an ad hoc restaurant that one of the oyster farms set up for people vacationing on the island. Either way, I had the best oysters I've ever had, really great moules frites (which, we probably ate at least once a day while we were there), and decent bottle of local Pineau. We shivered a bit sitting outside with our meal, but once we were back on our bikes and riding through the cold night air, it was extremely pleasant riding weather. 

The rest of the week , it was warm, sunny and yeah, more/less perfect for riding and swimming.

Our rides consisted mostly of riding la Cotinière or St. Pierre d'Oléron a few km away, or a slightly longer ride to St. Trojan les Bains in the south (to ride the famous little train that's there) or go see Fort Boyard from Boyardville. The routes to St Trojan or Boyardville go through tons of oyster-beds, and it's nice rustic scenery to ride through. The island is almost perfectly flat, so there's not much elevation to speak of - most of our rides were meandering around, stopping to look at horses, take photos, or check google maps again because we had gotten off track. Most of the bike routes are gravel or paved, but a few of them went through small forest tracks and we found ourselves in a bit of mud the first couple nights riding back in the dark after dinner (Google maps has some fun ideas about bike routes - definitely can take you off the beaten path, sometimes right into someone's garden, but always an adventure. After a few er, um... mistakes, we starting paying better attention to the bike path signs and stuck to them a bit more closely). 

Our pace was probably around 20 km/hour on average, not fast riding for sure, but definitely taking in the scenery. And with a kid on board, the joy is exploring, rather than fast riding anyway. He kept up his own though, riding a few kilometers here and there when we were in dedicated bike paths and getting in the trailer or the child seat for the longer rides. And Oléron proved to be ruggedly beautiful, blue-collar, calm, with lots to explore: everything you'd want in a family vacation by bike. 

Anyway, that's my "ride report". And here are a few photos.

cheers,

John

[Patrick Moore]

John: Welcome to the group and thanks for the vacation ride report. 

Can you repost the photos? They did not show up and I expect it's because the files are too big. But from your description they will be well worth seeing.

Patrick Moore

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[danielle da cruz]

John, this sounds like my dream family vacation. Thanks for sharing/inspiring! I second Patrick's sentiments and request for a photo repost – I'd love to see them!

[John Johnson]

Hmmm, okay, I warned you that I'm new at this! Let me try again... Do these show up?

cheers,

John

[Keith Paugh]

What a beautiful trip!

So fun to see the countryside in such lovely places.

k.

On Aug 21, 2023, at 7:18 AM, John Johnson <johnemer...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hmmm, okay, I warned you that I'm new at this! Let me try again... Do these show up?

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cheers,

John

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5834e063-4104-42e9-8d5e-83c06b861868n%40googlegroups.com.

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[Kim H.]

@John - YES ! ...  your pictures have shown up here. Thank-you for sharing your bicycle adventure with your family. Your CLEMS look great !  I own one, as well in lime olive. Great bikes to ride.

Kim Hetzel

Yelm, WA.

[John Rinker]

Hey John,

This is a lovely report on what looks to be a fine, relaxing ride. Your first photo captures a beautiful sky. I think your line 'the joy is exploring' sums the ride up very well, and makes me think we should always have kids along if that's what it takes. 

Cheers, John

[ascpgh]

John, thanks for getting the pictures to go with your vacation story. It was very rewarding to have imagined your surroundings and rides from your words and then compare them with your subsequent images, like oysters and wine.

Thanks for sharing your trip.

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

[Patrick Moore]

Thanks for re-posting; lovely photos.

[Kyle Cotchett]

Looks like a good time! The scenery reminds me a lot of the Oregon coast.