TENACITY, TRANQUILLITY FRATENITY

Decades after growing apart, Simon Fellows and his brothers reunite to breathe new life into old bonds on a 1,000-mile ride across France

- WORDS SIMON FELLOWS PHOTOGRAPHY XAVIER VEVRON & SIMON FELLOWS

“Voulez-vous le filet de bœuf ou l'agneau?” asked Léa, our smartly dressed cheffe de rang in the dining room of the Hôtel de France in Mende. Choosing between beef and lamb would end up being one of the few decisions I'd have to make all fortnight. It was late June, and I was sitting, dazed from exhaustion, in the loveliest of restaurants with the best of company – my brothers Trevor and Chris - halfway through a fully supported 1,600km (1,000-mile) epic from the Atlantic coast to the French Riviera.

The three of us dining like this, basking in the woozy afterglow of an active day, made me nostalgic for our family holidays of the 1970s. Simpler times, when our parents would march or cycle us across large tracts of rural Wales or Scotland. Decisions, however small, are the architects of our destiny. My brothers and I were close as children, but our decades of life decisions had the unintended consequence of pulling us apart. Latterly, we'd seen one another only at Christmas, when conversations were as dull as the weather forecasts they rarely strayed beyond. Now in our late 50s and early 60s, finally free from the relentless obligations of young families and careers, we've made the grown-up decision to reunite for a 13-day adventure worthy of our younger selves.

For logistical ease, we chose a guided tour, Saddle Skedaddle’s ‘St Malo to Nice Classic’, which carves a sweeping crescent from Brittany and Normandy in the northeast to Provence in the south. However, as we brushed the Breton sand off our cycling shoes, we had no idea that France was on the verge of suffering its second-worst heatwave on record. We were about to ride into the four à pain – the bread oven.

Land of butter