The Mont Ventoux: the Alp that is not in the Alps This stage is the last in the Alpine foreland and leads over the famous Mont Ventoux. Here, in the Provence of Southern France, the formation history of the Alps … Continue reading →
A ride through the world’s greatest lake Today’s stage leads us through the ‘foreland basin’ of the Alps. The enormous pile of rocks that Adria shoved over Europe to form the Alps, make that the European plate bends down a … Continue reading →
Climbing through a nappe stack Yesterday, we the riders raced through offscraped slices of the French part of the Eurasian continent, but today we ride through rocks of the Alps that have sustained much worse geological torture. As explained in … Continue reading →
The Alps and the collision of Greater Adria and Europe After a week of cycling through the ancient crystalline massifs of France, and the overlying Paris Basin, we now enter younger geological phenomena. So far, we have seen the result … Continue reading →
Rifts, volcanoes, and coal Today’s stage leads us from the southeastern margin of the Paris Basin, in which yesterday’s stage ended, tot he next ‘island’ of older rocks. These rocks have been deformed in the ‘Variscan’ mountain building stage, just … Continue reading →
Bunch sprint in the Paris Basin Yesterday, we stood at the coast of the Jurassic inland sea of the Paris Basin, but the flat stage of today occurs entirely within the basin. The Paris basin is a leage, roughly circular … Continue reading →
A back-in-time trial along a tropical coast The back-in-time trial of today brings us back to the Jurassic period, between 200 and 140 million years ago. The time trial from Changé to Laval leads us along the eastern margin of … Continue reading →
An old subduction zone with gold ores Today’s stage is the last long ride through the Armorican Massif. We now ride from south to north, perpendicular to the main structure of the massif, which is defined by large faults and … Continue reading →
The Armorican Margin: where Spain broke away Today’s stage again leads us through the Armorican Massif, but it starts at the south coast of Brittany, at what is known in geological literature as the ‘Armorican Margin’. To the southwest of … Continue reading →
The oldest rocks of France: 2 billion years About five kilometers west of the start of today’s stage, in the village of Trébeurden on the beack of Pors Raden, we find the oldest rocks of France: deformed and recrystallized granite … Continue reading →