First ever bike tour along Canal des Deux Mers - logistics help, please?

[topheavycyclist]

Hello. I've been cycling for quite a while, but I've only ever done weekend cycling locally and the most I've ever really cycled is probably about 20 or so miles. I'm slowly building up my cycling at the moment (intending to cycle 28 miles next Wednesday) and having recently watched the Channel 4 show where Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel cycled along the Canal des Deux Mers, it's massively appealing as a francophile gourmand who doesn't love hills but would like an adventure, and so I'm starting to plan for doing it in June of 2026.

The preparation for it (i.e. learning to cycle a couple of rides a day totally 40-50 miles) is something I can pretty easily train myself, but I'm really unsure about the logistics of this stuff. How do I get my bike down there? Train seems complicated (St Pancras -> Bordeaux + Montpellier -> St Pancras) especially with an eBike and the plane is even worse. I could just hire a bike but as I'm currently heading through middle-age and carrying too much weight I know I'll appreciate having a good quality ebike for the journey but ideally with all of my own kit on it and set up perfectly (i.e. my own one, with the phone mount with charger tied into the bike battery, camera mounts, radar mount, etc).

I'd love to get some thoughts from people please who have done this sort of stuff before on what is me worrying too much about things I don't have experience of and what I'm missing that would be obvious to others?

 

[StuAff]

You won't get an fully assembled bike on Eurostar into Paris, unless it's a folding one- in a box only, and only on certain services. Hire might well be your best option.

 

[topheavycyclist]

I've been doing a shed load of research. I think my current options are:

* Pack up the bike and use trains
* Pack up the bike, courier it to and from France, travel by air/train personally
* Travel by air/train and then hire a bike
* Drive down, do ride, train back to car, drive back

The easiest one is the hiring. The easiest one for keeping my bike is the driving one.

What would others choose to do?

 

[bluenotebob]

What would others choose to do?

I'd drive .. it's not a 'climate-friendly' choice but it would make your trip far easier.

Ferry prices aren't cheap though. You'd need to shop around for a good price.

You'll also need to find somewhere safe to leave your car for however long you plan on cycling.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Have you looked at the European Bike Express? You travel on a coach and your bike is towed behind in a trailer. Various pick up and drop off points.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I'd drive. We've done this before, leaving car at prearranged accommodating for as long as two weeks.

My top tip would be to look for chambres d'hotes that do tables d'hôtes evening meals. You eat with the hosts.

 

[Cathryn]

I’d drive as well. The logistics are so hard otherwise

 

[topheavycyclist]

Thanks all ... loving the consensus!

 

[Gillstay]

40- 50 miles a day along the flat should be quite easy esp once you have done a few days. If you went on the train, then hiring a bike I would suggest taking a good small tool kit so you can adjust the set up to suit you. You may not need an e bike either if its all canal.

 

[mjr]

I've done ferry/train & bike to Benelux, Germany and northern France, but we drove the bikes to Alsace and I've yet to see a route to southern France with a bike that is affordable and easy, so I've only hired there or beyond. Folding bikes are easier but not everyone has them, the luggage is a compromise and some parts are usually customised so hard to find if anything breaks on tour.

 

[T4tomo]

I’d drive as well. The logistics are so hard otherwise

Indeed our annual "tour" is approaching next week. I say "tour" we are driving (Le Shuttle) down to the Loire Valley, staying in one place and doing a series of day rides, carefully leaving plenty of time for wine tasing food and lounging by the pool!

A -> B is good as a sense of travel but complicates the logistics, and you end up living out of a bag, never unpacking

 

[mjr]

A -> B is good as a sense of travel but complicates the logistics, and you end up living out of a bag, never unpacking

Or you end up repacking each morning. Either way, you have to be organised (maybe a stack of packing cubes), or very good at luggage selection to make it easy to live out of a bag (everything accessible from the openings, but not springing or falling out).

 

[Dogtrousers]

Sorry to mess up the "I'd drive" consensus. I absolutely would not drive.

Train + hire is my preferred approach, and is what I did this year (Pyrenees - train to Lourdes) and last (Jura - Aix-les-Bains). Although I wasn't touring, I was off for a holiday in which I did a bit of cycling and stayed in one place.

Montpellier to St Pancras (the longer of the two legs) by train is easy within a day if you don't have a bike with you. The changeover from Paris de Lyon to Gare du Nord is just a couple of stops on the Metro or RER, I forget which. Takes about 7-8 hours travelling, but I'd add in contingency and also Eurostar check in time. So an all day journey. St Pancras to Bordeaux is a bit quicker, but the changeover in Paris (Gare du Nord - G de Montparnasse) is a bit of a pain, quite a long Metro ride. Another thing that tips the balance in favour of the train for me is that it's easy for me to get to/from St Pancras.

If you do have a bike with you then it's hard. I've never done it but I know that Eurostar and to a degree the fast SNCF services will put obstacles in your way. You could consider getting a bike friendly train to Dover, go through the tunnel in the bike shuttle service (if they still do that) and continue slowly on bike friendly local trains. Would take a while. I've not investigated that alternative, it might even be impossible.

I'm biased in that I detest driving so take this with a pinch of salt ... but driving to the port, taking a ferry (or detouring via the tunnel) and then driving across France would take ages, and would probably need one or possibly two overnights. And you've got to do it all again coming back. I just wouldn't consider that. That's eaten in to my precious holiday allowance before the holiday has even started. Maybe 4 or more days in transit? No thanks. Not to mention that having to do all that driving would be enough to ruin the holiday for me.

Flying I suppose is a possibility, but airports tend to be out in the sticks so you have extra to/from the airport logistics to worry about, plus it's a generally horrible experience, plus it's not very climate friendly.

PS. If you were riding point to point on a hired bike you'd need a hire organisation with branches at both ends. A complication that I've never investigated. Just food for thought.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I know I'll appreciate having a good quality ebike for the journey but ideally with all of my own kit on it and set up perfectly (i.e. my own one, with the phone mount with charger tied into the bike battery, camera mounts, radar mount, etc).

I've not had a problem in this regard with hire bikes.

I take my own pedals, and all the necessary mounts and gubbins, and I spend a couple of hours faffing around with the bike getting it set up before /removing all the stuff after. I don't have an e-bike so the "charger tied into the battery" is a bit of a mystery to me but I doubt it would be a problem. The key thing is to ASK. Don't just pick a picture of a bike on a website and click it to hire it - email them and have a conversation about it.

 

[T4tomo]

I've not had a problem in this regard with hire bikes.

I take my own pedals, and all the necessary mounts and gubbins, and I spend a couple of hours faffing around with the bike getting it set up before /removing all the stuff after. I don't have an e-bike so the "charger tied into the battery" is a bit of a mystery to me but I doubt it would be a problem. The key thing is to ASK. Don't just pick a picture of a bike on a website and click it to hire it - email them and have a conversation about it.

Yes I've taken pedals and saddles & garmin mounts with me when hiring bikes - latest was Puglia, and also Mallorca, driving not an option!

Per above we drove down to Loire Valley (from Hertfordshire) using Le shuttle, that was fine, but we shared the driving between the two of us. crack of dawn start & 9hours door to door, with a couple of 30 mins stops in France, as well as the "break" on the train to eat breakfast. Although we got lucky at tunnel, bumped onto a earlier shuttle so literally drove straight round and onto the train on from check-in, so you could easy add an hour+ for Folkstone faffing to that. Coming back 11.5 hours, 2hrs 15 faffing at Calais and a busy M25.
For Bordeaux I'd want an overnight stop I think, that's a heck of a schlep in one hit.