
History and an open road
Heaven from the saddle You will know that Normandy was the place from where William the Conqueror sallied forth to smite his cousin Harold to claim the British throne. You will also know that the region hosted the landing of the Allied forces during WW11 from where they delivered an equally compelling blow to the Third Reich. What you may not know is that there is a whole load more compelling history - between 1066 and 1944 - to be found here although I am not even going to a

Riding through history
Normally my blogs reserve themselves to the rides, the stay and the experience of the WAMC adventures. However I seldom go cycling on any of our popular routes without being reminded of recent (and ancient history) as our group passes through some of the ‘way-points’ that mark our journey. Wherever you cycle in Normandy and Brittany the often perfectly serviced roads, now smooth and un-pitted, transports our group over some fascinating routes. However, this was not always th

Cycling in the footsteps of giants
Our D-Day Memorial Tour Our objective for this tour was to take in some of the more significant parts of Normandy and Brittany during D-Day memorial week. Our journey started once again from Portsmouth but this time on the fast ferry which only took three and half hours in all and took off at the relatively gentle time of 9.00 am. Provided that the Channel is flat the crossing is pretty comfortable and the ferry is undeserving of the nickname “the vomit- comet”. My only gripe

The closest thing to heaven
Breathtakingly beautiful cycling doesn’t quite do it justice. However, if you are lucky enough to be cycling through Normandy or Brittany at the right time you might just get lucky and hit ‘pay dirt’ – as we did! The Normandy peninsula can be a capricious mistress and has a fierce temper if you are cycling at the wrong time (specifically Winter) but our early summer sojourn left nothing to be desired. Riding along near-perfect surfaces in the warmth of a July afternoon agains