Eurovelo 4 - Reccomend me a map or guide
- Thread starter YMFB
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bluenotebob
Guru
- Location
- central Brittany, France
As far as I know, a lot of EV4 is still "work in progress" so maps/books might not help very much.
I think the stretch from Roscoff east to Mont St-Michel is mostly buttoned-down now (the crossing of the Rance south of St-Malo is a fairly recent upgrade). Various CC members have cycled St-Malo to Avranches in the last couple of years so you could ask them for their views.
You'd be better off using af3.org to get a decent route plan (it may not be bang up-to-date but it'll be more accurate than anything printed).
The last 90 days here have been very hot and I've seen a few tourers really struggling. Hopefully 2027 will be cooler but I would suggest you avoid mid-May to mid-August, if you can.
lifeonabike
Member
Before you spend money: there's no Cicerone for EuroVelo 4 in France, and as far as I can find no English-language guidebook to it at all. The French section is branded La Vélomaritime, Roscoff to Dunkerque — about 1,450 km on ECF's figure, 1,500 on the French one, split into 53 official stages. Brittany is stages 1-13 (Roscoff to Saint-Malo), Normandy 14-40, so the bit you're after is 40 of the 53.
What exists on paper is all French. Chamina do two spiral-bound volumes: "Eurovélo 4 – Le Tour de Manche, de Cherbourg à Roscoff" (2019, ISBN 9782844664945, €15), which covers your Brittany end read backwards, and "La Vélomaritime Eurovélo 4 – de Cherbourg à Dunkerque" (2021, ISBN 9782844665430, €15), 750 km in 28 stages with mapping on an IGN 1:100,000 base — the cartography does the work even if the French doesn't. The only single volume for the whole Roscoff–Dunkerque run is Ouest-France's "Guide vélo – Vélomaritime" (2024 reprint, ISBN 9782737390456, €17.90, 224pp).
The free GPX is unusually good: lavelomaritime.fr has the whole route as one file, per-stage tracks on each stage page, and a reversed track if you ride east to west.
One number worth having before you commit. France Vélo Tourisme puts the route at 60% on road (907 km) against 39% on cycle path (584 km). It's signposted end to end, but a lot of that is open road rather than segregated path, and ECF publishes a separate "developed sections only" GPX, which tells you what isn't finished yet.
Worth knowing too: Cicerone did publish "Cycling La Vélodyssée" this year, and that one starts at Roscoff as well — if you ever fancy turning south instead of east.
What exists on paper is all French. Chamina do two spiral-bound volumes: "Eurovélo 4 – Le Tour de Manche, de Cherbourg à Roscoff" (2019, ISBN 9782844664945, €15), which covers your Brittany end read backwards, and "La Vélomaritime Eurovélo 4 – de Cherbourg à Dunkerque" (2021, ISBN 9782844665430, €15), 750 km in 28 stages with mapping on an IGN 1:100,000 base — the cartography does the work even if the French doesn't. The only single volume for the whole Roscoff–Dunkerque run is Ouest-France's "Guide vélo – Vélomaritime" (2024 reprint, ISBN 9782737390456, €17.90, 224pp).
The free GPX is unusually good: lavelomaritime.fr has the whole route as one file, per-stage tracks on each stage page, and a reversed track if you ride east to west.
One number worth having before you commit. France Vélo Tourisme puts the route at 60% on road (907 km) against 39% on cycle path (584 km). It's signposted end to end, but a lot of that is open road rather than segregated path, and ECF publishes a separate "developed sections only" GPX, which tells you what isn't finished yet.
Worth knowing too: Cicerone did publish "Cycling La Vélodyssée" this year, and that one starts at Roscoff as well — if you ever fancy turning south instead of east.
I’m fairly open minded, but I live less than an hour by car or an easy day cycle to Portsmouth so a ride between two ports at the other end appeals. I find WW2 sites interesting, Normandy ticks all those boxes. There might be a longer term plan to ride South to Bilbao/Santander.
