Cycle touring in France and Germany: A selection of notes

For the last 9 years, 4 friends and I have made cycling expeditions to France and Germany and pottered along various cycle ways, rivers, canals, disused railways and small roads (apart from one mad cycle across Paris). During the trips we jotted down some notes which have languished on hard drives or on dusty sheets of paper. This is an attempt to pull them all together, add some more information and publish in the hope they may be useful to others considering similar trips. The adventures were: France: 2012: The river Loire - Nevers to Angers; 2014: La Rochelle to Bordeaux; 2015: Circular expedition east of Bordeaux; 2016: Bordeaux - Cognac - Bordeaux; 2017: St Malo - Rennes - St Malo; 2019: Montpellier and Germany; 2011: Cycling the Elbe; 2013: Cycling the Black Forest Cycle Way; 2018: Cycling the Weser-Radweg - Hann. Münden to Minden. Don't expect 100s of km a day, more relaxed journey looking at interesting places and sampling the local delicacies.