The French coast

The Perfect morning

In 2014 a young keep smiling adventures decided he needed an adventure an escape from the mundane way of life, the adventure was a simple cycle around the coast of Europe starting in Calais, in France. Just keep the sea to my right and pedal each day with no day to day plan whatsoever. Nothing more than a bike, some spare clothes and a compass for navigation, an adventure that has left me with memories for a lifetime. I would cycle for around three months and would make it to Seville, where my journey would end.

To recapture them memories I decided that I wanted to make my way from Cherbourg to Calais, much shorter I know, but the idea with this route was to have a holiday, enjoy some sunshine and enjoy a leisurely pedal along the French coastline. The route is very simple in terms of terrain, it’s mostly quiets roads with some gravel tracks and some beaches to ride along on too, the cycle paths are much better in France than the UK so you will get to enjoy your pedal without fearing for your life. The route is fairly long so you will want some level of fitness, it’s about 370 miles (595km) but it’s a ride that passes through lots of places so you can stop and enjoy yourself, pedal as fast or as slow as you like. Plenty of history along this coastline.

You can extend this tour from Dover back to Bournemouth also, but that is a little more off-road and rugged in places, still nice but a bit more bike handling skills needs for some of the off-road sections.