My first cycle tour - France

I'm trying to plan a route to family place near Montaigu de Quercy, first idea is to get Friday overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Roscoff then cycle about 120km a day for 6 days which would get me there on the Thursday evening, spend a few nights there and be back home on the Sunday night ready for work on the following Monday.

Rough calculations using bikeroutetoaster.com show it's about 720km so about 120km a day.

Haven't yet decided whether camping or cheap hotels...

Any recommendations on routes or where to visit/stay?

Lawrence......

Booked ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff and 11 days later a flight from Montpellier to Birmingham...

No route planned other than will visit family near Montaigu de Quercy

/gulp

Avoid the Loire bridge at St Nazaire - scary!

Avoid Rennes (which I am sure you will do) and Nantes (huge-easy to get lost too) - stick on the back roads and am sure you will be fine.

Good luck - sounds like a great ride.

Wow Lawrence that is quite a trip, what is your current max one day miles? I am sure you have done this already but strangely when you input the two locations in to Google Maps and get directions for by foot, it suggests you sail back to Plymouth and then jump on a boat to St. Malo! lol.

What is the climbing profile, when I do it by car it feels like I am climbing nearly all the way to Charente Maritime, from Calais.

If my Wife could drive I might have been tempted to ask to tag along all the way to La Rochelle area.

What bike have you got? Planning on taking much with you, or relying on laundry cleaning on route?

Looks quite exciting keep us posted..

Oh and how are you getting the Bike back? Can you just load a fully assembled bike on to a plane?

You had better log the miles on Endomondo and give Trio a run for her money!

I would be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind the mega miles for that month

I thought Montaigu de Quercy rang a bell. I cycled right through there on my Spain / UK tour last year and up to St Malo. I kept slightly inland and went north via Bergerac,skirted Saintes to the East, Niort to the west,Cholet to the East up to Rennes.

Its quite lumpy and the roads were surprisingly busy (D roads) .Total ascent for that part of the trip was approx 14000 feet so as I said quite hilly so you may want to hug the coast?

I think your 120km days are quite realistic. I got from Moissac to St Malo in 6 days.

It's beautiful:

The St Nazaire bridge is of cousre a category cllimb - and it was a fantastic thing to cycle over but if I could have avoided it at the time I would have. One van (I swear it was a british driver) passed so close and fast it set the rather rear half of the bike to wobbling furiously. I did need a sit down and a glass of wine on the other side ..

We did Roscoff to Bilbao - lovely trip; mostly stayed in hotels as we found them pretty cheap but some camping too (camping atCarnac to see the stones was fun). Very jealous

but not when HGVs are overtaking 10cm from your elbow:



not to mention the 100kph cross-wind off the Atlantic trying to blow you across the carriageway...

That looks brilliant!! ;-)

Thank you....

I know! current max one day miles is 100k

bikeroutetoaster.com shows elevation for selected routes - been playing a lot with that...

today a friend has told me he wants to come - he's even less miles than me - but to be honest I'm not too fussed about maybe taking the train part of the way - going to enjoy it!

A Claud Butler Echelon


Bought one of these yesterday as no holes for pannier...



Oh.. and a tent....


Planning on going VERY light - going to collect what I want to take and then see what bags are suitable.

You are more than welcome - although you may get fed up of a moaning unprepared unfit brummie after half a day....

Flying Ryanair from Montpellier to Birmingham - seems that will need cycle bag, deflate tyres and turn handlebars....

thanks

Love to know your route and the bits you recommend - Carnac stones look amazing - although depends on taking coastal route.

Made the mistake of the trip straddling over two months didn't I!!!

Anyway - would probably still get nowhere near trio25..