Join us on our 8-day bikepacking adventure along EuroVelo 1, riding the beautiful Atlantic Coast of France from Hendaye to Bordeaux. 🚴♀️🌊 From endless beaches and charming coastal towns to forest trails and wine country, this stretch of the EuroVelo route was unforgettable.
After reaching Bordeaux, we decided to turn around and continue on EuroVelo 3… which, in hindsight, might not have been the best idea. Unlike EuroVelo 1, this route is far less developed and made for some challenging (and unexpected) riding.
Unfortunately, our trip came to an abrupt end when Nicole’s passport was stolen – a huge setback, especially since we needed it for our upcoming wedding! Despite that, the journey was filled with incredible moments, stunning scenery, and memories we’ll never forget.
✨ If you’re planning a bikepacking trip in France or looking into EuroVelo routes, this video will give you a taste of what to expect: the highs, the lows, and everything in between.
👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe if you want to follow more of our adventures as we bike, hike, and explore Europe and beyond.
It’s totally dark and we end up finding this. Made it out to the coast. This is stunning. [Music] All right, this is a start from our amazing trip. Hopefully, it’s amazing one. Alexander is unpacking everything. Someone is just goofing off. Well, I I did my effort before to putting putting the bikes inside and taking off the wheels. No, Alexander made all of that. Um yeah, we are taking everything out now. We are in Hendai. Hendai, how would you say in Spanish? And today we are going to ride just like 35 kilometers to arrive to Bayona. And from tomorrow it’s going to start like the big adventure. We are planning to ride from 90 up to 100 per day. Let’s see because we are going pretty heavy. I hope to survive to this. Look at this. I’m going to carry all this weight. So, I kind of regret about what I say earlier that we’re going to ride from 90 to 100. I didn’t know that will be that much. I haven’t seen them like that in my bike. It’s going to be fine. Hopefully. Our [Music] favorite part going up, up and up, up, up. Coming from one of the flattest countries in the world, this is just the best. [Music] It’s day one. And we are already pulling our bike up. This is like I don’t know what gradient is this elevation here, but it’s like my bike almost tipped. Like look at it. It’s like going backwards. I don’t know if I’m dying. There’s no way to bike up here. [Music] The reality is we need to find a camping spot right now and it’s going to be dark in 10 minutes and it’s all all of the camping full so it’s going to be a challenge but let’s see. Well was all booked here. We didn’t find anything and it’s super late so we are just setting our tent here next to a parking area. So if they kick us in the middle of the night, I don’t know. But yeah, we are we don’t have more option actually and we didn’t book anything else for the rest of the trip. Good morning. So it is day two and we just slept here in this I guess camping area because we arrived late and there was no other place. And um I just realized I forgot the most important morning ritual and that is the coffee the air press. So I packed all of this amazing coffee grinded and everything and measured but um forgot the air press. So, no coffee this morning, but uh hopefully we can find one along the way because 12 days without coffee in the morning. At least a good filter coffee is uh going to be hard. So, um yeah, but uh let’s see. We just packed up everything and uh yeah, drove off and now we’re on the route already. And uh we’re officially in our day number two. Number two, exacto. And uh I think we can feel our legs and bike a little bit already, but uh that’s part of the journey. So uh let’s see how we get on. But uh it’s a beauty. We going to bike along the coast all day. So it’s going to be beautiful. You can see here the water. So bamos. [Music] [Music] We are in love with this city. We’ve been here like actually for 2 hours almost. It’s so nice. It’s so beautiful. is full of people, but the people is very quiet. Not like in Spain that the people normally is more loud. And now we are going to just keep keep riding a little more because we just rode 25 kilometers. [Music] So, here at Kilometer 66, just having a quick snack, sneakers, one of the best bike food and nuts, and um yeah, it’s currently 5:00 and things are great. Um a little sore here and there, but our legs are good. And um yeah, we’re going to continue I think 20 more kilometers, maybe more, at least an hour to 1 and a half, and then find a camping and find something to eat and um yeah, see, maybe have a look around in that place. So, um yeah, we’ll keep you updated. 4 km left to Leon. See, my heart hurts. like hell right now. But uh yeah, it’s such a this path has been incredibly nice. Super super good. So beautiful. So green. See? And we have along the way all those purple flowers. Oh yeah. Well, it’s 9:00 and we’re still riding. So we had a waiting time for a food for approximately 45 minutes. So even more, I think. Yeah, even more. Guys, that was a disaster. But uh yeah, now we’re trying to find a place to camp. To sleep. Yeah, let’s see how I hope I hope we can find something with daylight because yesterday was a little tricky, but at the end was pretty good. Exactly. Well, we’ll keep you updated. It is 10 p.m. It’s totally dark and we end up finding this this place luckily because I don’t like to ride when it’s dark. Um, and we rode at the end 103 km we were in love with today. The only thing the first 10 or 20 kilometers, I don’t remember, were very tough. very very tough but the rest was okay. Day number three. Alexander forgot to bring her his Aerop press. So he love coffee so much and he went to get this new how it’s called? I don’t even know what you call it like a espresso whatever. You pump this and then you hopefully get some uh nice coffee out here. So, let’s see. One, two, three, four, five, 6, 7, 8, 9. Looking good. Well, it’s building up pressure. Come. Here we go. Here we go. We have We supposed to have coffee for both of us with that. But this is a espresso shot, so we’re going to fill some water in it. And now we are unfolding everything and preparing for another big ride. Goofy. Mhm. Day. Good morning. Day number three. [Music] We had this beautiful green path from yesterday I think from the last 40 kilometers. So it’s been amazing. Oh we have to go up a little bit now. Um, and in color is just uh her legs is just diamond just pulling away from me every time. She’s in good shape. I’m going to take it. H. And what we think is going to happen now, we are going to go all along to the coast. So, we are excited for that. We love the this landscape, but it’s also nice to switch a little bit. [Music] going. So, here we have Nicole picking some blackberries. Like all along this route, there’s been millions of blackberries all over. They’re good. I hope it is blackberries. So you you can die for lack of water but not for lack of food. I You’re sure it’s blackberries, right? Blackberries. Yeah. Otherwise, we’ll have to Yeah. If they are not, I will be dead because I tried them the first time 3 days ago. So, yeah, they are yummy. Yummy. So, here at made it out to the coast by the beach. Incredible. [Music] We have arrived already 80 kilometers. It’s been very smooth. I feel that we are flying today. Yeah. And it’s only it’s only 4:30. So 82 is pretty good. So yes, we’re going to Yeah. But the only bad thing, we haven’t find restaurants open or supermarket where we will get food. Yeah, it’s Sunday. It’s Sunday. Sunday. So, it’s impossible to find. And they had a lot of open, but they were closing exactly at the at the time when we arrived. So now we want to ride 20 more. We are at the kilometers 97. We are super hungry. Of course, we got a lot of snacks because is what we are carrying with us, but we need some proper food. Well, the proper food supposed to come in 2 kilometers or 3 km. So, we are looking forward to arrive to that place, right, Alexander? Oh, yes. The food was amazing. All what we needed. And now we are trying to find a place to wild camp. We had plans to stay in a camping area, but unfortunately it was all booked. Oh yeah. So now we rode already 110 kilometers. Yeah. and we hope it doesn’t get dark and find a small place around here. Good morning. So, this is day four and we’re currently standing out in the woods more or less where we camped last night. Like we all the campings are fully fully booked. This is like high season like no places around to to camp. So we didn’t even have yeah an option to go to camping. So we kind of forced to do while camping out here. But um the benefit of that is that you of course have uh everything for yourself. It’s very very quiet and amazing. But you lack water and shower and everything. So in that regards it’s a bit uh yeah simple simple life out here. But um we survived and I think definitely tonight we’re going to get a camp in our hotel because we really need a a shower and freshen up and charge our stuff and everything. But uh I think our body we got some good sleep and we uh are feeling good. Let’s see how uh we we get along um the next couple of hours. But uh yeah, we’ll keep you updated. Our [Music] first stop is going to be our Kon that we rode already 10 kilometers. So we have 10 left and we are going to see this place that seems beautiful. [Music] Okay, we have officially our first stop today. Breakfast more or less. No, it’s lunch. It’s lunch. Well, it’s 12. Yeah. And we are getting a kit with some roasted chicken and I have a terino dea. Hope it’s going to be good. It’s going to be good. We have this amazing view. I underestimate this water. It’s cold. More important sunscreen. Reapply. Reapply. Reapply. What did I say today? Reapply what? Sunscreen. No, but what I said accidentally instead sunscreen. Oh, yeah. Nico said, “Remember, reapply ice cream.” And I was like, “Hell yeah, I’m going to put some ice cream on my buddy.” We are ready for 40 more kilometers to arrive to Bordeaux. Bordeaux. Oh yeah. Tonight it’s going to be a hotel room and a shower. Yes. While camping for two days straight now. And three, not two, sorry. Three days. And uh yeah, it’s been uh we enjoy it, but it’s also nice to get a actually a nice bed, real shower and everything. Exactly. And also the other thing is we enjoy it a lot but normally when we are super tired after to write ride write 100 kilometers the only thing that we wanted is just to have a place to stay but instead but instead of that we have to look around where we will be and that mean kilometers and more kilometers and more kilometers. So, it is tiring and tough. And also, of course, we have a daylight until 9:30 or something. 10:30 or 10:30? No, wait. 9:30. 9:30. Yeah. Okay. Here we go. [Music] The last hour. It’s been very hard. So, I just want to show that is not everything so perfect. We had to walk in the sun like for 20 minutes with our bikes in the hands because we have to push them because it was impossible to ride. And now we are taking this route like this. It’s very bad and it’s super warm. So we are taking this just to go again in the hallway or wherever is a bike path because Google will Google Google map send us to the other way. So yes I just want to arrive and finishing today. I’m super tired. 17 kilometers left for Bordeaux. We were lost. We walk in the sun. We had to ride in the stones was a lot but finally we are getting there. So that give us motivation and now Alexander is setting up the Google map to arrive exactly where we booked for tonight. [Music] We are in our day number five and today surprisingly we are not on the bike. It’s because we took a we took the day off to know Bordeaux. So today we are going to be just exploring Bordeaux and tomorrow we are going to go again in the route. Exactly. [Music] Alexander is trying to find our route for tomorrow. Hopefully doing that and not in Instagram or something like that because tomorrow we are going to start to go back. But I’m planning to go to one city that is just 50 kilometers far away hopefully to do it. And now we’re here. It’s a very cozy bar. Having some wine. Day number six. [Music] This is our first stop. We’ve been riding now for like 40 kilometers. And we have this big sculpture which is super cool. It represent the peline route to Santiago de Compostella. And we don’t know why is there around but we’re going to go and explore. And also, yes, we’ve been riding all the time in Eurob below one and now we are riding in the Euro below 3. Was super good to have a rest day. Was amazing. [Music] Short stop. We are outside of the Cathedral of Labbert. It’s pretty nice. I mean, we haven’t been inside because it’s also tiring to lock the bikes coming in inside being recorded. A lot of time. So, you have to choose your your destiny or like the spots. Exactly. Otherwise, you’re going to spend all day. But at least it’s nice outside. I can’t tell. And you can tell as well when you watch this video. And it has those flowers around mu bonito. This is Alexander’s favorite stop. Coffee feed time. Making an espresso. I bought this vakaco. It’s called espresso uh maker thing because I forgot my air press. So now it’s it’s okay. It was kind of pricey, but uh it gets the job done. So and uh it’s pretty easy to use. I don’t know if I would recommend it, but I I mean the reason why you don’t recommend it is because you are not very huge fan of the espresso. Yes. You like the I like filter coffee and V60 and press like Yeah. Espresso is like I like it, but like the espresso shot you get out of this is tiny. So, I think I’m only Yep. We’ve been riding for 80 kilometers already and we are fresh like a green salad. We have 20 km left. After 100 kilometers riding the bike, we arrived. Yes. And we arrived in Vas. This is the cathedral. And the square is down there, which is super cute and charming, but there is all the cars down there. They could delete that because honestly, if you see the architecture is is super nice, but the car kind of destroy everything. And now we are going to get some good tacos and try to find a camping. Well, if it’s not already full, which all of them have been Exactly. But if it’s not, we camp like the first three nights. Well, the camping was complete. So, we are trying to find a a place where we can wild camp. And now it’s tiring because we have all the plus all the way that we are bringing. We have all the food that we got now and we have to go up up very tiring. So we hope to find something soon. Well, so far the best advice that I can give you in that trip is um if you know already how many kilometers you can do per day, book the place in advance because for us uh we love to organize stuff but we didn’t know if we are going to be doing 80 100 110 per day so we didn’t book anything. And now that it’s August is everything totally hooked. Even the stuff that doesn’t looks very nice or areas that looks remote, they are booked because everyone is in vacation. Well, we are going to while camp here. We are literally next to a house, but this abandoned house, so we should be fine. And we just saw a what? It was a deer. A deer. Actually, I didn’t see it, but Alexander saw it like just running in front of us. [Music] Day number seven. [Music] [Music] All right. So, we are back in the saddle and back on the Euro Vido 3. So yesterday when uh we’re we couldn’t find camping, we went to to the wild camping spot and uh yeah, found some abandoned place because we ran out of places and then now we’re biking along this beautiful river and uh it’s a stunning day. It’s going to be a warm day. So we trying to make some distance while before it gets too warm. So uh we’ll keep you updated. [Music] We are arriving in Marmande that’s supposed to be a cute town but so far seems ugly. Sorry if someone if someone from Barmandi is looking this but it’s not charming at all compared with all the other French towns that we have passed or village. But maybe it’s going to be prettier now because we are not exactly on the center. But we are like 200 m away from the from the center from the old town. Now it’s nice here. This is the cathedral and we hope to find some good restaurant to eat or get something from the supermarket. I know that I just say that Marmande looks a little ugly from outside, but we have tried the best sushi in our life. It’s amazing. I’m not kidding. And we always go out and eat sushi. This is the best. So, this is a must if you are planning to do this trip. [Music] This is a stunning. It’s true that you don’t have anything else to see in this small town, but this park that is on the side of the NRAAM Cathedral is super beautiful. We are riding with 34°. That is insane. Luckily, we just have to ride 12 more because in 12 more, we’re going to arrive to the place that we rent today. We reserve. But we found on the way this very charming and cute place to sit next to the lake. I’m going to show you from closer. But before, I’m going to order something to drink. I’m sweating a lot, but we made it. We rode 101 today and we are already in the place we’re going to sleep. It’s very cozy and cute. Alexander now is in the reception. So, we haven’t seen the bed, but it’s definitely a place that we will recommend. So, he’s going to show us. Okay, we are going to see the room. Oh, perfect. I stopped to record because the guy from the reception was talking to us. Well, they have a pool which I’m going to go directly there. Like I’m sweating a lot. Even the guy told me like you can go to the pool, but you have showers first there. Oh my goodness. But look, this is the best part of this. Look at the cozy small cabins where we are going to sleep. I love it. Alexander found this. Thank you, Goofy, for founding this amazing place. Okay, I think this is my favorite day so far. And I think it’s Alexandre’s favorite days as well. We have it all. We rode a lot. The path was nice. Now we are going to eat this that when I got it I thought that was but actually is potatoes. Um yeah, we’re very happy here with the surrounding area. We took a nice shower. Went in the pool. We went in the pool and so yeah, now we’re just going to enjoy. Good morning. Good morning. Day number seven. Eight. Eight. Day number eight. Um, I just woke up, so I don’t know what day it is, but today we are going to ride around 110 and our first stop is going to be in a small village called a small town called Nak. Then we are planning to stop in three more. But if if we add too much more kilometers doing that, maybe we are going to stop in two. But yeah, that is the plan. We have a very beautiful morning. And actually from all the days that we have been riding, this is the second day where we were able to see the sunrise. [Music] We arrived in Iraq. And here we have the Chateau Henry Fort. Super cute. And we are planning to go down there because it’s a river, but maybe it’s too much for so we’re going to take a over view from the top. Yeah, because we might have more a lot of elevation today. So, not sure if it’s worth going up there, but let’s see. Well, we just made a quick stop because our old friends, very very sweet lady, An’s called, she just stopped us while in our darkest times on this gravel road where Nicole was was having a hard time on the gravel and and we just needed a break and she came up and she was like, “Hey, come to my house. I want I want to give you a I will offer you a cup of coffee.” And we’re like, “What? and she uh said, “Yeah, follow me.” Then we followed her and and uh we sat and talked with her for 30 minutes and more, I think. Yeah. 45. And and uh she was the sweetest sweetest lady. And the incredible thing is that I was just saying to Alexander, I really need a coffee. I want a coffee. And we were pushing our bikes. We were not on the bikes because it was too much gravel and hills. And then this lady just come next to me and say, “Yeah, like where are you going?” I don’t know. And some stuff in French, but they didn’t get a word. And then I said, “Sorry, I don’t speak French.” And she asked me, “Let’s go for a coffee in my house.” I was like, “Well, I’m going to take it.” that surprisingly surprisingly she uh she spoke actually very well English like uh not a lot of French people here speak very well English but she was very well and yeah she told us of course her whole life story and everything and uh yeah just such a unique and authentic experience. All right. For the experience that we have had today, um the Euro tree is really not prepared for bypackers or at least the the segment that we are doing today. It’s not prepared at all. We we’ve been riding literally 40 kilometers in gravel which is super hard. we cannot make any progress and I guess that’s why the Euro below one was so packed because it’s full of pavement is very well prepared for for bikeers but also h it’s true that the last two days we were doing the Euro Villo 3 and it was it was Nice. It was totally okay to ride on, but today is impossible. So, I I really don’t know if we can get to do the the 100. I’m saying 100 is because the 100 is where we reserve a place to stay tonight. Yeah. Wish us luck. Hello. Hello. We are at the kilometer 80 already. I would love to say that we’ve been having fun the last uh hours, but the truth is it’s been very hard for me. It’s been my hardest ride in the la in my life. I mean, we had a lot of gravel. We had a lot of elevation is 34°. So, it’s been very very hard. And also another thing um the sign at the beginning pointing the place where we want to go were wrong. It says 60 and after a lot kilome say uh 60 again. So no it said 45 and then exactly afterward like it said 45 then the next sign said 60. Yes. Insane. So I think the mistake was that it should have said six or 65. No, it was say 75 of the beginning and it’s say yeah or well um so it’s been hard and now we have 43 kilometers to go. We stop in this cute town called Kasawon. Wait a second. It’s called Kasawon. Exactly. It’s very cute and charm me a small town and it’s very quiet. I don’t know if it’s quiet because it’s extremely warm and everyone is inside or in general it’s just a quiet town. See? Well, it’s small detour to get up here. It’s quite a hilly town. So, we kind of had to walk up some steep Exactly. sections to not kill the legs. But, uh every step count now like now that we are tired like every step it’s being hard. I mean, I’m more I’m way more smashed than Alexander to be honest. Also, it’s it’s probably going to be a 20 or 30 day kilometers. So, yes, with with the most hills of all days and the warmest of all days. So, yes, I don’t know why everything just collided like that in this day, but that’s how it goes. Sometimes you plans never go as you think. I I guess. Yeah. But we’re together. Still having a good spirit. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]