Bicycle Tours in France: Cycling Through History: Paris to Marseille on the Londonderry Trail
Join us as we recreate the first foreign leg of Annie Londonderry's bicycle ride around the world. Annie was the first woman to bicycle around the world alone. She did this in 1894-95 to much fanfare, purportedly driven by a wager and the opportunity to earn $10,000. The mother of three small children, on June 25, 1894 Annie stood before a crowd of 500 friends, family, women's suffragists and curious onlookers at the Massachusetts State House. Then, declaring she would circle the world, she climbed onto a 42-pound Columbia bicycle and "sailed away like a kite down Beacon Street."
The first foreign leg of Annie's epic ride was from Paris to Marseille in the winter of 1894-95. We're not quite so brave so we'll replicate her ride in late June and early July 2008. We'll stick to Annie's route as best we can, and share insights and details about Annie and her journey when we gather for dinners. We'll try to imagine how she might have experienced France in those early years of bicycle touring.
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