Loire a Velo - any recent experience?

[jiberjaber]

I'm heading over to France next week to ride down from Caen to St Nazaire and then along EV6 / Loire a Velo and then probably return up through Paris and on to Dieppe.

Has anyone ridden EV6 recently along the Loire and can offer any recent intel etc ? For example, have they tarmaced any of the paths since?

Thanks in advance

 

[mjr]

I rode to Blois from the next bridge north as part of a ride on some Chateaux à Vélo routes last month. The LàV bit was all good compacted stonedust or OK tarmac. No idea if that's an upgrade. Signed fairly well.

 

[jiberjaber]

I rode to Blois from the next bridge north as part of a ride on some Chateaux à Vélo routes last month. The LàV bit was all good compacted stonedust or OK tarmac. No idea if that's an upgrade. Signed fairly well.

Cheers - good to hear

 

[mjr]

https://cycle.travel/route/loire and clicking "open in route planner" says it is currently 52 miles (14%) not tarmac and zooming in to Blois makes me think that is an overestimate because the section to St Denis sur Loire is tarmac but c.t shows it as loose.

I didn't remember exactly where the tarmac started but it's clear on satellite photos, so I've updated the source map. It'll take a month or more to update c.t's figures, though!

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

Thanks @mjr - French mappers aren't always great at adding surface tags to their Voies Vertes!

 

[mjr]

Thanks @mjr - French mappers aren't always great at adding surface tags to their Voies Vertes!

Same everywhere. It also is footpath with bicycle=designated IIRC. Do you know if that's a local convention?

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

That surprises me slightly. The local convention in France is highway=path, bicycle=designated, foot=designated. This is really problematic for reasons I've blethered on about before (and which Martin at Cyclestreets echoed the other day). But cycleway tagging is nothing if not inconsistent!

 

[jiberjaber]

Yeah - I used cycle.travel and had to switch to Paved only for some of the initial route planning as on street view it was showing up overgrown route worse than some of our bridleways which I didn't fancy lugging panniers along!

 

[mjr]

Yeah - I used cycle.travel and had to switch to Paved only for some of the initial route planning as on street view it was showing up overgrown route worse than some of our bridleways which I didn't fancy lugging panniers along!

You probably know this, but keep a sharp eye on the image capture date on street view. Parts of France (including the Loire area) are building cycleways fast but street view images off the main roads often date from 2012 or 2013, sometimes even 2009. Google prioritises car routes.

 

[RobinS]

If you have a look at my travelogue "European tour 2019" the second stage described is the Loire a Velo from earlier this summer. Can't remember exactly how much was tarmac, but I didn't make any notes about poor surfaces along that section at all - so it was all either tarmac or good quality grit surface. We did the whole thing as part of a heavily loaded 3 month tour with 4 panniers plus a rack bag each, and had no problems.

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

You probably know this, but keep a sharp eye on the image capture date on street view. Parts of France (including the Loire area) are building cycleways fast but street view images off the main roads often date from 2012 or 2013, sometimes even 2009. Google prioritises car routes.

I've just added a Mapillary option to cycle.travel - they have good Street View-like coverage of some of the French EuroVelo routes, including the Loire. It's a little hidden because I don't want to add too many obscure options, but if you right-click a planned route (or command-click on a Mac), then the popup bubble will have a link to open that place in Mapillary. When it opens, click the map in the bottom left to see images - they don't show automatically.

 

[jiberjaber]

I've just added a Mapillary option to cycle.travel - they have good Street View-like coverage of some of the French EuroVelo routes, including the Loire. It's a little hidden because I don't want to add too many obscure options, but if you right-click a planned route (or command-click on a Mac), then the popup bubble will have a link to open that place in Mapillary. When it opens, click the map in the bottom left to see images - they don't show automatically.

Thanks Richard - your site has been invaluable in assisting my planning... (which I am still doing) any chance you can add an option for nearest supermarkets to the "campsites and hotels" search ?? (that's my next job now my 2000km route is firmed up)

 

[mjr]

Thanks Richard - your site has been invaluable in assisting my planning... (which I am still doing) any chance you can add an option for nearest supermarkets to the "campsites and hotels" search ?? (that's my next job now my 2000km route is firmed up)

In the meantime, sites like https://searchosm.com or Android apps like AAT can do that, although I have to pick the OSM (Mapnik) layer to get a display on searchosm just now.