Loire Valley cycle maps

[Tenorman]

Hi Everyone

I'll be spending a couple of weeks in the Loire Valley, near Tours, next month. It's not a cycle tour as such as my OH is, as yet, more a daily trip to the shops rider. We will be taking a couple of bikes and most days probably heading off to a Chateau or vineyard (or three) and wondered if anyone had any advice on the best cycle maps of the area. I'm sure there are probably cyclist friendly maps around the same size/scale of our OS Landranger types, but wouldn't know which to buy or where from. Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

Colin

 

[Bigtwin]

I did that about ten years ago. Had a great time - there's a track all along the river just for bikes - with free wine and fruit a plenty, you just fill your own container up!

I just got maps when I got there - there are loads of places, every post office/tabac etc has them in a choice of detail.

 

[gavintc]

I upgraded my Michelin road atlas and used the old one as my cycle map. I tear out a page or two from the old atlas depending on the area we are in. The scale is 1:100,000 and is quite adequate to cycle from. I do not use cycle routes as such , just look for the smaller roads and follow them. The French motorists are just so much more cycle aware that you do not really need to worry about them. We toured from chateau to chateau, had a nice lunch etc etc and spent long days on the road doing tourist things.

If you do not have an old road atlas, I propose you can buy a road map for the area when you arrive.

 

[rich p]

Get the local Michelin map when you get there if you can't pick one up here. I think they are 1cm to 3km

 

[Brains]

We took the amazing Esterbauer "bikeline" Loire book - The maps are amazing and I'm sure the details in the book would be very good as well if you can read german. Worth it for the maps alone even if like us you can't read german

 

[Cathryn]

I did it in March, had a fantastic time!! Lovely part of France. I just tore pages out of a 1:200,000 road atlas and it did me fine. Journal's here if it's useful:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3Tzut&doc_id=4972&v=61

 

[andym]

Loire a Velo use do do a series of really neat maps in pdf format. Now they've schanged to Google maps. You can personalise the maps (eg to show campsites but not chambres d'hôtes, say) and then print out full page at whatever enlargement you prefer. It's free and if nothing else would be useful for research. It's in french but I don't think it should be too difficult to work out how to use it. the overview page is at:

http://www.loire-a-velo.fr/tabid/1895/Default.aspx

 

[srw]

The standard Michelin "departement" maps (sold over here as "local") are 1:150,000, which is a pretty good scale for cycling. They show all the roads you could possibly want to use, as well as marked distances and chevroned hills. The only thing they don't have is contours.

 

[asterix]

It's possible to buy 1cm=250m maps published by Institut Geographique Nationale (IGN) which show areas in great detail and add a new dimension to cycling in rural areas as they show many useable roads and tracks that road maps don't bother with. Excellent for walking and leisurely rides exploring a district. The downside is that they aren't much good for long distance rides when you'd need a sackload!

Not too hard to get as most French supermarkets seem to have the local ones.

 

[Brains]

Are you camping ?

In which case we found this site, run by an English couple, it perfectly sited and so nice we went back again

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/moulinfort/moulinfort/index.htm
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/moulinfort/moulinfort/index_files/Page319.htm

 

[Tenorman]

We are camping indeed. I've had a quick look, but was swayed by this one http://www.camplvad.com as much as anything else because of the location - right on the Loire, close to Vouvray (nice wines and cheese ), on the Loire-a-Velo route for getting into Tours quickly.

 

[Brains]

mmm, I'd say your site was just down the road from ours.

Our site had this chatau literally at the bottom of the garden
http://www.chenonceau.com/media/gb/index_gb.php

 

[pinkkaz]

We did exactly the same thing last year, staying in a campsite in Ballan-mire (just on the western outskirts of Tours) and then just going on cycling day trips. Lovely place to cycle and lots of nice things to eat. Unfortunately my husband had to go into hospital in Tours and stay there 5 days which slightly marred the experience but before that it was lovely (!)

Top tip if you're getting the train - we got the tgv from Paris to Tours and it was a bit of a nightmare because there isn't much space for luggage. On the way back we got the local train and it was sooooo much easier!

 

[Tenorman]

Thanks for everyone's replies on this - and especially the journal Cathryn! We're back now - photos hopefully to follow! Picked up a Loire a Velo book with maps of the entire route, and then a local Michelin one for when we strayed further from the river. Beautiful weather and still one of my favourite places to visit, even though I've been numerous times. Got my OH to do almost 40 miles one day in blazing sunshine (which is far more than she usually cycles) and she really enjoyed it. Now just got to keep the encouragement going back in less sunny Blighty :-)

 

[vernon]

I'm just back from 1000km of cycle touring through Brittany and the Loire Valley. I was initially slavishly following the Eurovelo 6 route but when I lost my maps after the first week I purchased an IGN map and selected a road based route along the Loire Valley 'corridor' which was a tad more satisfying as the appeal of sticking to cycle routes and missing out on patisseries and bar/cafes waned after the first week.

The weather was scorching and i frequently snatched long snoozes in bus shelters to escape the peak temperatures of the day.

I can see the appeal of EuroVelo 6 and other cycle routes that avoid publ;ic roads but I found the second week more appealing than the first.

I do recommend that folk wanting to do their first foreign cycle tour should consider Eurovelo 6.