Looking for West France Routes....

[criostoir53]

Hey all,

My girlfriend and I are planning our first substantial touring trip this May, and route planning along the Atlantic Coast is giving us some difficulty. I have found a few great blogs about the ride, but can anyone recommend an official route or map network? I know that technically, the EuroVelo 1 covers that area, but the only maps I can find online are hopelessly vague. Anybody ridden this before? We're planning to ride from the border with Spain up to the Roscoff Ferry in about 10-12 days.

thanks in advance,

criostoir

 

[rich p]

Just make up your route from maps. The planning, anticipation and uncertainty is half the fun. It's not difficult and you'll end up tweaking it as you go along anyway.

Choose minor roads and a rough idea of your daily distance will give you your choices of overnight stops and so on.

 

[andym]

If you're looking for information about voies vertes, go here:

http://www.voiesvertes.com/

And click on the part of the map you're interested in. The site itself seems to be only in French but it has links to other sites from tourist authorities etc which will usually be in englush as well.

The voies vertes are great but probably best mixed with roads.

As rich_p says, it's very easy to improvise a route so I'd focus on places to see/stay.

 

[Ian H]

The most economical way to find your route is to buy a ring-bound Michelin road atlas and remove the pages you need. Couple that with Andym's link and you'll be fine. As Rich P says, don't overplan.

good luck.

 

[srw]

If you value knowing where the hills are, I'd recommend a mixture of Google maps "terrain" view for the big picture, plus IGN "Top 100" maps for the detail. IGN, the French national mapping agency, have come up with the perfect cyclists' map. They include contours (but beware - not all of the maps have the same contour spacing!), the scale (1:100k) means that you're using about one map per day, and best of all, they're very light indeed.

My sig includes a link to our route from 2010, part of which took us down the West coast of France, if you want some specific ideas and details - including details of at least one road to avoid like the plague.

 

[andym]

I should have mentioned OpenCycleMap as well. This includes topographic info. You can also download these to an iGizmo or AndroidGizmo or to a GarminGizmo.

They're not as good as a topogorphic map, but Michelin maps (or at least the 1:200k ones do) usually include the altitude of high points on the road - so you have a rough idea of how much climbing you need to do.

 

[TheDoctor]

Added to andym's point above, the 1:200 000 have chevrons showing the really nasty up-and-down tendencies of roads.

 

[Dave Davenport]

We did Bilbao-St.Malo last summer. If you go to www.sotonia.co.uk and look at the winter 2010 newsletter there's a write up which you might find of interest.

As Rich said, making it up as you go is part of the fun. We use Michelin regional maps. There are hundreds of campsites along the Atlantic coast.

 

[andy_spacey]

dave, what was the cost of the camp sites you stayed at?

 

[Dave Davenport]

dave, what was the cost of the camp sites you stayed at?

Anything from 6 euro for a French municipal site to 20 for a private one with a pool etc. 10 to 12 more often than not (all for two people).

 

[andy_spacey]

i read it now,, 7 to 10 euro

 

[andy_spacey]

if there is 1 person , how do you pay? per person or per tent?

 

[Dave Davenport]

if there is 1 person , how do you pay? per person or per tent?

Municipal sites are usually a pitch fee circa 4 euro then 2 to 4 per person, private sites tend to be for a pitch plus car and up to 2 people.

It's mostly larger more expensive sites on the Atlantic coast (although we did stop at a municipal one with a pool and loads of facilities for 10 euro) but there's also plenty of places to wild camp and showers on the beaches if you're on a really tight budget.

If the sign says full it's still well worth asking as they'll usually still have room if you're on bikes.

 

[Falwheeler]

I like this http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/ for planning a route. It has a cycle option but that limits you to 200km sections

 

[Lyn]

Hi there

'Cycling Southern France' (Excellent Books) by cycling journalist Richard Peace has an overview of this route, plus maps, suggested places to stay etc.
It's a great guide and he really knows his stuff:
http://amzn.to/iSsLYI

He's written some stuff for me on cycling in Poitou-Charentes, which is on the Atlantic route:
http://www.freewheelingfrance.com/where-to-go/cycling-in-poitou-charentes.html
http://www.freewheelingfrance.com/76

If you come in July, book as many campsites as you can in advance as they get crowded in July (and certainly in August). We got caught out one year and struggled to find a pitch and there were only 3 of us and a tent. This is especially true the closer you get to surf spots like Lacanau or to resorts like Biarritz.

Cheers
Lyn.