Heading out of Saumur towards Montsoreau, my eye was caught by the very impressive 1930s structure that houses the wine cellars of Gratien-Meyer, home of world-renowned, slightly sparkling wines. It was a Sunday morning, and the lure of that fabulous building and the famous bubbly it contains was too strong to resist. Denis Dupré, officiating behind the counter, has a quick word with each visitor, lines up two or three glasses and the festival begins. That morning saw me in the company of a German couple and a group of Dutch people who seemed to know the place well and who cheerfully set to the tasting ritual.

A little later, Denis Dupré gave me a tour of the vineyards on the hillside overlooking the river above Saumur, taking great delight in telling me about Gratien-Meyer’s wines. He then took me back down to the banks of the Loire and EuroVelo 6. On a field currently lying fallow, he got ready to open the little outdoor bar that Gratien-Meyer has set up to catch the trade from passing cyclists: offering snacks and drinks to encourage cyclists to make a detour to visit the famous winery.

“Tell me, Mr Dupré, is wine tasting really compatible with long-distance cycling?”

The port of Les Mantelots belongs to the “commune” of Châtillon-sur-Loire. It has a magnificent lock that allows boats to continue along the river to Briare. “Now leisure boating is the main activity on this canal”, explains the young lock keeper, who energetically opens the gates to let in the wild Loire and a boatload of tourists who have come to explore the riches of the river and discover its boating traditions. It is easy to see how, over the centuries, all these stone and metal constructions, all these bridges and all these manmade waterways have played a role in the area’s economic development. For example, a few kilometres downstream, the Briare canal bridge, built by Gustave Eiffel between 1890 and 1897, allowed the waters of the Loire to flow into the Seine and thus supply water to Paris. The young lock keeper at Les Mantelots has soon finished his task. Every summer’s day he opens the gates of this beautiful lock in exactly the same way as his forebears did several centuries ago. When finished, he stores his tools in a large building, the lock house, which still houses old machines left over from the days of commercial navigation on the canal.  The port and the boating museum at Châteauneuf-sur-Loire are also worth a visit if you would like to learn more about river navigation.

Of the 40 ceramics factories that lined the banks of the Canal du Centre at the beginning of the 20th century, the Vairet-Baudot brickworks (briquetterie), near Ciry-le-Noble, is the best preserved. Bought in 1995 by the Creusot-Montceau eco-museum, it has now been renovated.

Every year it welcomes artists in residence who have projects that involve working with clay.

Tourists can also visit the factory to discover how bricks and tiles are made, and to find out about the skills and lives of the hundreds of workers once employed by the factory.

The display of the artists’ works creates a dialogue between the industrial use of clay and artistic creation in this place of preservation and heritage.

This year, Fabrice Hyber has completed a project called “Fée Maison”, a two-square metre house produced from a single block of clay that required a purpose-built kiln and a whole month to fire! During the visit, my attention was attracted by a small steam locomotive with variable gauge wheels.

It was ordered by the German army in 1943 for use in the USSR (where the tracks had a wider gauge) and, having been blocked at the border, was bought at auction by the Vairet-Baudot brickworks to haul its bricks to Ciry-le-Noble.

La Briqueterie (see slideshow) www.lacommunaute.fr

In every country they cross, cycle tourists can find lodgings with local people who offer bed, breakfast and, sometimes, veritable feasts. This type of accommodation allows travellers a glimpse into the daily lives of their hosts, who are often keen to show off their region’s culture and skills, as is the case of the farmers who have opened up their houses under the “Accueil à la ferme” scheme.

At the three-épi “Chez soi” (in France, épis, or wheatears, are the bed and breakfast equivalent of the hotel star system) visitors are immediately transported into an atmosphere where time is of little consequence and where life is enjoyed to the full. After a day on the bike, a riverside break in these peaceful surroundings is a well-deserved luxury: more expensive than camping, perhaps, but no dearer than a two-star hotel!

www.chezsoi.nl (cf. slide show)

“L’aventure sur la paille” is the name of an association of Swiss farmers who have provided rustic accommodation for passing tourists for over ten years. There are a dozen such farms along EuroVelo 6, all of which offer bunkhouse accommodation in barns or stables, together with showers, toilets and a copious breakfast.

The Mahrer’s farm, near Möhlin, is a family business in which the father, mother and son all help out in the fields and dairy, which produces 700 litres of milk per day.

After a warm welcome from Reguthe Mahrer, I am shown my kingdom for the night: a small barn with indoor shower and toilet – pure luxury. A much larger stable has been converted into accommodation for groups, school children and large families. For Reguthe and her family, it is a way of diversifying their business from May to October. For passing cyclists, it is a taste of rural life with its chores, its smells and its tastes.

“In general, cycle tourists are inquisitive people who are truly interested in finding out how our farm works. It is really pleasant to talk with them”, says Reguthe Mahrer, as she waits for a late-arriving cyclist from Berlin.

In the morning, after a peaceful night, we meet at the breakfast table and share a copious breakfast of delicious farmhouse products: cheese, yoghurt and jam.

www.aventure-sur-la-paille.com (cf. slide show)

A great many cycle tourists use Sigmaringen as a staging post at the end of the magnificent ride through the Alb Valley from Tüttlingen. The beautiful old town would be well worth a visit even without the stunning Hohenzollern castle that towers over it; therefore, I decided to spend the night here and started looking for a hotel or a bed and breakfast offering “Fremdenzimmer”, or “Rooms for outsiders”. I eventually found a bed at the “Traube” boarding house in the centre of the old town, right below the castle. The “Traube” boarding house dates back to the 18^th century and the Ewald family, who took it over at the beginning of the 1980s, obviously take great pleasure in welcoming guests, with or without bicycles. Offering a covered shelter for bikes, a laundry area, wholesome dinners for starving cyclists and walkers, simple, good-value accommodation and enormous breakfasts, the Ewalds do everything possible to help tired travellers regain their strength. That evening at dinner, a group consisting of several families were able to savour the specialities of Bade-Würtemberg. This was followed by a pleasant evening filled with games and laughter. The warm welcome provided by Sigmaringen’s hoteliers prolongs the harmony of a day spent beside the fledgling river that will soon become the beautiful blue Danube.

Wine has been grown on the gentle hills that overlook the Danube near Solt since Roman times. At Solti-halom, György invites us to join him in his semi-buried wine cellar, which has housed barrels of this precious liquid for over 300 years. Every weekend, his family and friends get together to have a drink, taste the plum brandy and share a goulash. Passing cyclists, like us, are warmly invited to share the meal and join in the singing.

A few kilometres before Vidin, at the Serbia-Bulgaria border, turn off the main route and cycle the short distance to the Visocko brdo wine region and the wine-producing villages of Rogljevo and Rajacke. Wines have been made here since Roman times, but the wine trade exploded at the beginning of the 20th-century when phylloxera decimated the French wine industry, allowing the region to export its wines throughout Eastern Europe. Visocko brdo’s remaining 270 semi-buried wine cellars are true architectural wonders.