Prologue

Last summer my daughter Enya and I had made a verbal agreement that in case we were both single around March 2015 we would plan a cycling trip together – the first since 2011 – and as this was sort of the case (not anymore when we left) I booked tickets for Corsica, one of the remaining départements of France I had never visited before. Last year I visited Madeira, and that's definitely NOT an island to go around on a bike – the roads there are so incredibly STEEP (furthermore it is quite small), but contrary to the warnings of people that had been on Corsica (none of them cyclists) that it would be too hard, I had concluded from profiles I found on Climbbybike.com and sites like that, that in general the grades should be quite reasonable. Alas no direct flights from Rotterdam to Corsica, and bikes and Schiphol: I did it once and it didn't make me happy (Schiphol never makes me happy), so the outbound trip was a bit complicated. We would fly from Rotterdam to Toulon-Hyères, cycle to Toulon (± 25 km) and take the night ferry to l'Île Rousse.

Getting started:

07-07-2015     Nootdorp → → Rotterdam ↗↘ Hyères → → Toulon → → l'Île Rousse

With my cardboard wings

Enya is going to fly!

Some last packing in, leaving some last things out, some last shopping, washing of dishes, all in a relaxed atmosphere. The plane leaves at quite a reasonable time, 13:30 h, and it's only a 15 km ride, so 11 a.m. seems early enough to set off. And that's what we do. Within ten minutes it starts to rain, and I am wearing a lot of cardboard (for protecting the bikes in the plane) on my back – I look a bit like an airplane myself. Hey, that wasn't the plan! It's not raining so very hard, however halfway we stop to cover the cardboard with bubble plastic (for protecting the derailleur). Preparing the bike(s) for the flight (always) takes more time than I think, and we are the last to check in our luggage and are admonishingly addressed about this by the employee behind the desk. After passing the safety check we can immediately queue up for boarding. Still Rotterdam is much preferable to Schiphol.
The flight goes smoothly and according to schedule we land around 15:45 at the Aéroport de Toulon-Hyères.
The airport is air-conditioned, outside the heat hits us hard (it's at least twelve degrees warmer than in Holland). We get rid of all our wrapping paper and plastic and head for Toulon harbour. Which is not an easy matter. We have to stay away from the motor way, but even the road(s) parallel to it are busy, stuffy, warm, awful, and the indications for cyclists are lacking.

The only part of Michelin 84 we need

The happy two

Pizza on the quay

And I pull my brake and break one of the cables. Nice start! Luckily that can be fixed in a cycle shop in Toulon (and earlier we had already inflated our tubes to the right pressure). At least an hour later than foreseen we finally reach the quays, granting ourselves 30 minutes to buy some food and drinks. Our bags again have to pass through the X-rays (as do our pizza's), but we find a good place for our bikes, with much effort carry all our bags to deck 6, and are positively surprised about our cabin. We drop our weight and quickly climb two floors (i.e. decks) up. There's not much room (let alone chairs) on the open decks, but finally we can relax. Enjoying two slightly jumbled up pizza's we leave the mainland of France behind us. After all, to travel to an island on a boat feels like the right way!

Getting on board

Pizza on deck 8