- The Mercantour National Park area. One operator is Space Between and while non of their packages are suitable date-wise they can organise gite accomodation in Berthemont les Bains at a reasonable price.
- Not too far away from the Mercantour NP is Puget-Theniers (90km from Nice) which would be a good place to use as a focal point. Apart from a Naturist Campsite (oo lala) there is hotel accomodation at Annon about 22km away.
- I came across this web page providing lots of links for Provence-Cote d'Azur. Following the links one can get to individual towns of interest - such as Pugets-Theniers - see what hotels are available and if they are available for the required dates. Hotels can also be booked through the site but this may only apply to those which are connected to an online booking service.
Friday 24 December 2010
France - walking (updated)
For Dominic and I while Garth is doing his course from the 10th-17th September we want to do some high altitude walking possibly including some via Ferrata (iron way). After a bit more research on the web and in contact with a few operators, we found a number of options for doing one or more via Ferrata possibly in conjunction with some other activities such as mountain hiking. We haven't yet settled on one yet but the idea will be similar to the Tuscany segment - choose a base and do activities from there. A couple of possibilities so far are:
Sunday 12 December 2010
Tuscany - more detail
For Tuscany we have pretty much settled on the idea of staying at one place and doing day trips by bicycle or car to places of interest. The two such places on the list currently are:
Pie di Costa is an 'Agriturismo' place which has several apartments for rental so the basis for this is different to the Hotel Prategiano. Since the apartments are self-catering we would have to make a choice between eating in some days or driving to a restaurant or trattoria for dinner. They also don't have bicycles for hire but we can get those delivered to the farm through here.
Also I have been giving some thought to what I want to see in Tuscany:
- Hotel Prategiano in Montieri, Tuscany - about 50 km west of Siena.
- Pie di Costa in Montaione, Tuscany (more information on Montaione) - about 50km WSW of Florence and 60 km NW of Siena.
Pie di Costa is an 'Agriturismo' place which has several apartments for rental so the basis for this is different to the Hotel Prategiano. Since the apartments are self-catering we would have to make a choice between eating in some days or driving to a restaurant or trattoria for dinner. They also don't have bicycles for hire but we can get those delivered to the farm through here.
Also I have been giving some thought to what I want to see in Tuscany:
- Florence
- Siena
- Lucca and Pisa
- Pienza and Montepulciano
- San Gimignano
France ideas
For the French cycling segment we are pretty much agreed on the 'self-guided tour' option somewhere in the Bordeaux region. This has a number of advantages:
- Documented itinerary
- Pre-booked accomodation and some meals
- Baggage transfers daily
- Bicycles supplied
- Lower cost than a guided tour
Tuesday 23 November 2010
Tuscany ideas
While trawling around the internet looking for ideas I came across Hotel Prategiano in Montieri, Tuscany. This looks very promising as a centre from which to do day trips by bicycle, or by car if we want to go further afield. Their rates seem quite reasonable and they are bicycle friendly. There is some information about the village of Montieri itself here.
There are other possibilities for Tuscany too, such as self-guided cycling tours:
and I am sure there are probably many more. The problem I see with these sort of tours though is that they are 'fixed itinerary' so if you wanted to visit one place more than once it makes it difficult to do so. Given the nature of the Tuscan region, then, I am more in favour of using just a single base - or perhaps a couple of bases - in order to be as flexible as possible about daily destinations.
There are other possibilities for Tuscany too, such as self-guided cycling tours:
and I am sure there are probably many more. The problem I see with these sort of tours though is that they are 'fixed itinerary' so if you wanted to visit one place more than once it makes it difficult to do so. Given the nature of the Tuscan region, then, I am more in favour of using just a single base - or perhaps a couple of bases - in order to be as flexible as possible about daily destinations.
Monday 22 November 2010
Early planning
About a year ago I started thinking about another adventure - this time in Europe. The basic idea is simple - choose a few destinations/areas to do some cycling, possibly some walking while visiting some of the places I have read about but never been to.
Number 1 - top of the list, has to be Tuscany. Everything that I've read and seen in movies etc has made this a must visit area. I have a special interest in the Italian Renaissance and its aftermath leading to the modern era and Tuscany abounds with Renaissance history. Apart from that, its (apparently) relaxed atmosphere and temperate climate seem to make it ideal for my kind of holiday which involves very little in the way of lazing around and much in the way of getting out to see and do. I've been doing some internet surfing and found a hotel about 50km from Siena which we could use as a base for day rides and also take some day trips by car to some of the further destinations. It looks like a good starting point anyway unless something else turns up.
Next on the list will be one of several regions of interest in France. The problem is that there are so many to choose from. I'm not particularly interested in Paris (or any of the other large cities) but south of France regions such as:
While discussing this with the family it soon became obvious that Dominic and Garth would be in 'like a shot' to keep me company. They both visited Italy and other areas a few years back and Garth did a couple of bicycle tours in France and Belgium in 2009.
I had initially come up with what I thought was a suitable time to embark on this odyssey -Septemberish 2011. The reason for the long lead time was to firstly give plenty of time for the planning, and secondly allow anyone else who might want to join us for one or more of the segments to be able to include it into their plans - so far we haven;t had any takers but there is still time.
Along the way so far, Garth has come up with a box-making course that he wants to do in France. Dominic and I are still trying to decide on the sort of walking segment that we will include. Some options are:
So - it is going to be a fairly full time - probably 4 -5 weeks - but the excitement is starting to build. Next - firming up on the options and tying down the dates.
Number 1 - top of the list, has to be Tuscany. Everything that I've read and seen in movies etc has made this a must visit area. I have a special interest in the Italian Renaissance and its aftermath leading to the modern era and Tuscany abounds with Renaissance history. Apart from that, its (apparently) relaxed atmosphere and temperate climate seem to make it ideal for my kind of holiday which involves very little in the way of lazing around and much in the way of getting out to see and do. I've been doing some internet surfing and found a hotel about 50km from Siena which we could use as a base for day rides and also take some day trips by car to some of the further destinations. It looks like a good starting point anyway unless something else turns up.
Next on the list will be one of several regions of interest in France. The problem is that there are so many to choose from. I'm not particularly interested in Paris (or any of the other large cities) but south of France regions such as:
- Aquitaine (Bordeaux wine country)
- Provence-Alpes-Cotes d'Azur
- Languedoc-Roussillon
While discussing this with the family it soon became obvious that Dominic and Garth would be in 'like a shot' to keep me company. They both visited Italy and other areas a few years back and Garth did a couple of bicycle tours in France and Belgium in 2009.
I had initially come up with what I thought was a suitable time to embark on this odyssey -Septemberish 2011. The reason for the long lead time was to firstly give plenty of time for the planning, and secondly allow anyone else who might want to join us for one or more of the segments to be able to include it into their plans - so far we haven;t had any takers but there is still time.
Along the way so far, Garth has come up with a box-making course that he wants to do in France. Dominic and I are still trying to decide on the sort of walking segment that we will include. Some options are:
- One or more 'Via Ferrata' (iron way) segments in the Italian Dolomites.
- Part of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim route in Spain - either the last part, or from Santiago de Compostela to the Atlantic coast. Both of these are in the 5-7 days category.
- Something in the Pyrenees - probably around the Carcasonne region.
So - it is going to be a fairly full time - probably 4 -5 weeks - but the excitement is starting to build. Next - firming up on the options and tying down the dates.
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