Post by Mary on May 25, 2020
The last time I posted on the blog was early March just before we went into lockdown. I wrote about about all our plans for early season mountain biking adventures. All of which have been postponed to next Spring! Mountain biking during lockdown has been restricted but still possible and we’ve certainly made the most of what we’ve been allowed to do safely and will continue to do so.
We are in the process of emerging from a very strict lockdown here in France. After 2 months of staying within a radius of 1km of our house for all exercise it feels like the world is our oyster now that has been extended to 100km! At first we were told that no cycling was permitted but by the second month of lockdown that advice changed and we could get out on our bikes so long as we stayed within our 1km. Since then we’ve explored every inch of the trails on our doorstep and, together with our neighbours, built a fair few more. Up and down our valley mountain bikers have been trail building like crazy to maximise the amount of fun to be had from their front doors! Now we’re allowed to ride a bit further from home we can enjoy what everyone else has been building too.
This week we had a public holiday and instead of heading-off to the west coast of France for a family bike tour as planned we had a mini bike-packing adventure from our front door. We packed-up all the camping gear, loaded the panniers and bike trailer and set off up the river trail to a secret camping spot by the river above Sixt-Fer-a-Cheval. We are so fortunate to live in a beautiful region with great bike trails and big mountains on our doorstep.
With some extra time on his hands Jamie has been spending a lot of time in his workshop. He’s fettled my bike into perfection, built-up a new (second hand) bike for our son Cameron, fixed-up the neighbours’ bikes, friends’ bikes and built several round of jumps and landing ramps. Jamie and Cameron have been doing laps and laps of the jump circuit they’ve set-up next to our house. Our friend Alex from Selwyn Handmade Bicycles has made Jamie a beautiful frame for a new hard tail so he’ll be building that up as soon as it’s back from being painted. He’s very excited to test ride it out on the trails.
We still don’t have any certainty regarding travel and tourism this summer. Whilst Jamie is now allowed to guide and it’s likely that some refuges, hotels and restaurants will begin to open in June we just don’t know if our guests from around the world will be able to get here. Some groups have already decided to postpone until 2021 but others are waiting to see what will be possible. We are hopeful that we will be able to run some trips this season and we should have more certainty early next month when the French Government makes some decisions regarding travel to and from France. It is an evolving situation and it may be that any restrictions in place at the start of the season will ease as the summer progresses and that opportunities to travel open up. We already have newly available weeks in August and September so last minute trips could be a possibility. Even if point-to-point tours aren’t possible we can use our own centre-based accommodation for Alpine Singletrack trips. We’ll certainly do everything we can to stay safe but still ride with our guests this summer. We will keep posting updates here on the blog so keep checking for opportunities and availability this season.
We hope you and your families are happy and healthy and that you’re continuing to get out for some local bike adventures whilst we wait for this health crisis to pass.