From Lyon to La Voulte with a visit to the gorges of the river Doux

Leaving Lyon was more difficult as expected. One of our trailer attachments had broken in half, and a shop selling this piece was not in sight. So some of us went to the construction store in the early morning to find anything that could be useful as a temporary solution, and just when we had succeeded improvising a replacement part, we realised that an important part of the trailer had actually broken apart and needed to be fixed as well. Navigating out of a big city is always difficult, and the Via Rhona long-distance cycle route along the river Rhône…

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some thoughts on the LGBTQIA+ & FLINTA start

This year, for the first time on the ecotopia biketour, part of the tour was LGBTQIA+ & FLINTA only (non-mixed, without hetero cis men). For the first 3 weeks of the tour, hetero cis men were not invited to join the tour. The other 9 weeks of the tour are open to all genders and sexual orientations, including hetero cis men. More about the reasons behind this decision are here, but a short summary goal of the would be: An attempt at a creation of a temporary space with less sexism/heterosexism/cissexism, with the hope that it would have a positive…

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Self-organised refugee squat, smoothie bike and a huge collection of bike parts in Lyon

We arrived in the evening in Lyon at a squatted Villa in the Sans Souci quarter. There we were greeted by a few of the house’s residents, the majority of which come from Guinea. They have been living in the house for about 3 years. We set up our tents in the garden with the chickens and fell asleep to the noisy city sounds in the background. We woke up refreshed the next morning and had a circle (our word for a meeting) and discussed various topics, including alcohol consumption within the group, what we are doing in Lyon and…

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I’m cycling in the rain, just cyclin’ in the rain What a glorious feeling, I’m happy again…

Well despite record temperatures through the regions we were cycling in this year, wildfire risks and general drought, there were still a few days where the skies opened up and blessed us with litres of water over us and our bikes.. I guess after 6 weeks of no rain most of us were not so prepared for rainy days Luckily there was someone from Britain – island of rain and changable weather – to coach us about cycling in the rain. Maybe it’s helpful for other people, meanwhile we didn’t see rain since a few days again.. Cycling and rain…

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