Prende les velos en France!
Some people plan weddings, we plan bicycle tours.
Andrew and Amanda (Andy & Mandy whenever we karaoke) are two young-at-heart Canadians living in North Vancouver, Canada. To say that we love bicycles may be a bit of an understatement. Our passion for cycling is immense; whether it is Amanda commuting to and from work every day on her road bike, to long days enjoying singletrack and downhill mountain biking in Whistler, or on the “North Shore”.
Some people plan weddings, we plan bicycle tours.
Hopelessly in love
Andrew and Amanda (Andy & Mandy whenever we karaoke) are two young-at-heart Canadians living in North Vancouver, Canada. To say that we love bicycles may be a bit of an understatement. Our passion for cycling is immense; whether it is Amanda commuting to and from work every day on her road bike, to long days enjoying singletrack and downhill mountain biking in Whistler, or on the “North Shore”.
Our hope is to quit our jobs in 10 years, and then ride bikes around the world for 10 years or until our money runs out. For now though, we’ll settle for conquering the land of the freedom fries!
It all started when we got this message on Facebook.
Facebook – Title: Next Summer
Vaughan B. writes,
Our friends Kim and Vaughan: We met them on our way to a friends wedding. On our way to the wedding we went to all of the MTB Bike Parks in BC and they were doing the same thing. Turns out we were all going to the same wedding!
“Hey Guys,
Hope you are both doing good – It seems from the odd FB updates i see that you’re having a good time!
anyhow, i’m writing to let you know that me n Kim are getting married next year over here in France. We had a great time with you last summer, and thought we’d ask just in case you were after an excuse to come over this side of the pond?”
When I read the message to Amanda, I think we both knew that cycling in France was something that had to be done. We’ve both become interested in Le Tour de France, and I was itching to ride some singletrack in the Alps. I had even considered racing in the “Mountain of Hell Bike Race” in Les 2 Alpes, which starts at the top of the mountain on a glacier, and ends 30km away in a field.
Then of course there were our friends we met through warmshowers.org, Emmanuel & Nawal, who stayed with us in Vancouver before setting out across Canada. Some emails were exchanged with them, and a route fleshed out. Hopefully we will get to ride bikes with them for a few days!
Our plan has slowly morphed into a cross-continent ride (North/South) from Amsterdam to Barcelona. While we may not end up cycling all of it, we hope to cycle most of it, creating new memories and meeting new people along the way!