The Moselle Cycle Route. Mike Wells

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      Cycling through the Michelsberg vineyards opposite Piesport (Stage 11)

      Beyond this point, where Vosges ends and you enter Meurthe et Moselle département, very little progress has been made building the véloroute. It is possible to continue (Stage 4) on rough gravel and dirt tracks along the towpath, and this guide does so wherever practical, but some sections on road are necessary where the towpath is impassable. After Méréville, things improve when the route joins the Boucles de la Moselle, a circular véloroute from Nancy via Neuves-Maisons to Toul and back via Frouard along various canal and river towpaths (this is followed in its entirety by using Stages 4A and 5A). Continuing north from Nancy (Stage 5), once the Boucles is left behind beyond Frouard, the surface deteriorates and it is again necessary to use sections of road until Novéant, where Moselle département is reached.

      Once in Moselle, things change permanently for the better. A more or less complete cycle path (Stages 6–8), built to national standards and completed in 2012, runs from Novéant past Metz and through Thionville all the way to the German border at Schengen. Waymarked as Véloroute Charles-le-Téméraire, this mostly follows the river or canal banks, although there are sections away from the river circumnavigating riverside lagoons and industrial developments.

      North from Schengen the Moselle leaves France, becoming, for a while, the border between Germany (east of the river) and Luxembourg (west of it). It then turns to run through Germany in a deep, iconic gorge meandering between the Hunsrück and Eifel Mountains. A waymarked cycle route, known in German as the Mosel-Radweg, closely follows the river through the gorge, with signposted alternatives on both sides of the river. Apart from a few short sections, usually when passing through nature reserves, the track is wide with an asphalt surface. This guide follows the right bank (east of the river) from Konz, at the confluence of the Saar, to Neef before Cochem (Stages 10–13), then switches to the left (west) bank (Stages 13–14) to reach Koblenz, where the Moselle joins the Rhine. While this is the route described in detail, in practice you can cycle on either bank, as there is little to choose between them. The stretch through the gorge is characterised by steep slatey slopes, covered in either vines on the sunnier slopes or forest on the inhospitable north-facing side of the valley.

      In addition to the main route, variants are given using the Boucles de la Moselle to visit Toul (see above) and via the small country of Luxembourg (Stage 9A) using mostly dedicated asphalt cycle tracks for a circular tour, visiting the capital. Further excursions, up the Saar valley to Merzig (Excursion 1) and through the Rhine gorge to St Goar (Excursion 2), use waymarked and mostly asphalt cycle tracks.

Natural environment

      Physical geography

      The Moselle is a left-bank tributary of the Rhine, draining a basin of over 28,000km2. Its main catchment includes the western side of the Vosges Mountains through tributaries Meurthe, Seille and Saar, and the southern part of the Eifel range through the Sauer and Kyll. In its length of 538km it falls 653m, flows through France for 296km, forms the German–Luxembourg border for 36km, then flows 206km through Germany.

      There are three distinct geological parts to the Moselle basin, all shaped by geomorphic events further south approximately 30 million years ago, when the Alps were pushed up by the collision of the African and European tectonic plates. This caused rippling of the landmass to the north, creating successive ridges that form the limestone Jura (northern Switzerland) and Vosges (France). Further north, pre-existing sandstone and slate mountains (Hunsrück) and volcanic remnants (Eifel) were raised further. The Moselle rises high on the western slopes of the Vosges and firstly flows down through the foothills. Secondly, it enters a wide valley between limestone hills filled with tertiary deposits of sand and gravel. Much of this has been extracted for building aggregates, creating a large number of man-made lakes. Finally, when the river reaches the Hunsrück it flows through a deep meandering gorge, caused by the river cutting down through the slate rocks as they were pushed up by the rising Alps.