This is a record of  the follow-up in 2011 to my 2010 ride from Saint Malo to Narbonne (see: http://wp.me/TRO2). I conceived the idea of riding the length of the Loire in response to reading Graham Robb’s book The Discovery of France as I was planning the 2010 trip. To see this year’s blog which records a ride along the Rhine Cycle Way go to http://gerryotrickcyclist2.wordpress.com/

To read the latest post and to access earlier posts click the ‘Overview’ tab above or go to the ‘Posts’ page.

Clicking on the ‘header’ picture above will allow you to flip through a series of views of the Loire, all taken by me in the course of the ride.

In the end, I decided to stop at Saumur partly because of the logistical difficulties and time constraints involved in getting back to the car that I had to leave in the Auvergne, and partly because I knew the section from Saumur to Saint Nazaire already and didn’t much fancy cycling it. I stopped 200 kilometres short of riding the entire course of the Loire, but the 1000 I covered were quite satisfying enough.

This year’s trip was tougher than last year’s because of a couple of health problems.

The posts here are in reverse order, but can be read in the right order by clicking on the links on the ‘Overview’ page, or by going to: http://gerryotrickcyclist.blogspot.com/.

All photos and maps are clickable and can be enlarged. One click on the ‘View larger map’ link at the bottom left of the Google maps will open a large map and two clicks on the photos will give the full-size picture.