Overseas audaxes

[Donger]

For a couple of years now I have been musing over the possibility of making time to get away on a mini break across the channel. It struck me that you could sail from either Poole or Portsmouth and ride from one French port to another, returning to the same place you left your car. Either St Malo to Cherbourg (from Poole) or Cherbourg to Caen (from Portsmouth) sprang to mind as possible routes, but I have as yet taken it no further.

Having now done quite a bit of cycling in France, and having recently completed my first imperial century, the urge to try out one of the above routes is getting stronger. And I've just been looking at the Audax UK website and noticed that those exact routes appear as "Permanents", both listed as 200km in 14 hours. Sounds tempting.

Has anyone ever done these routes? If so, what did you think of them? I know the ferries are much less frequent to Normandy and Brittany than they are over to Calais, so I'm wondering about the logistics. Whilst at first sight it looks like it might be possible as a day trip, would it in fact require one (or even two) night's accommodation because of the ferry schedule? (I seem to remember that being a problem when I looked into doing a day trip to follow the TdF in Normandy a few years back).

 

[Pikey]

I'll keep a beady eye on this thread... I'm not that far from poole if you needed a kip over @Donger or if you wanted to park your car somewhere.

I used to slave off from sixth form and get the ferry from Plymouth..... thems were the days.

 

[ianrauk]

Calling @mmmmartin and @redfalo to the thread please.

 

[redfalo]

Riding in Normandy is lovely. you don't have to use the perm routes but can plan your own one and file it as a DIY. unlike British politicians of late, AUK does not care if you're riding in That Britain or abroad.

 

[mmmmartin]

This is a good idea. You could quite easily take an overnight ferry to St Malo and leave the boat in the morning to take the night ferry out of Cherbourg to get back to the UK. The timing would work well.
It's a bit more tricky from Cherbourg to Caen because of the ferry times: you might have to ride overnight and that could be tricky because water is hard to find at night in France - motorway services will be open, and churchyards usually have a tap to water the flowers, this will take some time to find though. In the day any bar will give you water.
Planning your own route, as said above, would work but you have little idea what the roads will be like - busy, bad tarmac, narrow, etc. Google Streetview will give you an idea though. Somewhere on the interwebs is a series of tracks from a collection of rides done by The Fridays when we were based just south of Cherbourg. You could cannibalise those and enter a DIY by GPS, start from Cherbourg port and up on to the plateau of the peninsula and southwards along the east coast, returning home from Ouistreham. The hotel Normandy in Ouistreham is good, nice food and very close to the ferry.
Riding in France is better than riding in much of England, particularly the south-east of England. (There again, riding just about anywhere in the world is better than riding in south-east England.)

I suggest you email Linda Johnstone (email on the auk website) and ask for a routesheet so you can have a look at where it goes and think about accommodation.

Formule Un hotels are cheap, you can take your bike into the room. Best to ask for a room upstairs so you can open the window (downstairs rooms have windows that can be opened only an inch or so to prevent thefts.) although you'll have to carry your bike upstairs. If you can, book a room for two people not three, as the three-people rooms have a double bed with a bunk bed above while a room for two has two separate single beds and you can park your bike on the bed you're not using.

If you do this, please write about it in Arrivee, I wrote about a Belgian 600k, but for heaven's sake keep it to fewer than 1,000 words, not 12 pages as some do.
Any probs, PM me if you want.

 

[Donger]

I'll keep a beady eye on this thread... I'm not that far from poole if you needed a kip over @Donger or if you wanted to park your car somewhere.

I used to slave off from sixth form and get the ferry from Plymouth..... thems were the days.

Don't tell your pupils about the good old days! Thanks for the great offer. Thought about you the other week as I was passing through North Wiltshire on my 100 miler. I'll have to schedule a ride a bit further South some time so I can see how you are getting on with that trike. Still freaking out the horses, or are they getting used to you?

 

[Donger]

Thanks @mmmmartin. That reply deserves more than one like. Exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for.

 

[mmmmartin]

In Arrivee there is a summary of the overseas perms ridden by Auks, and not many seem to do it. I'm thinking of riding the diagonales but not many have done them before me. You would, obvs, have to decide whether you want to ride the route as an audax or as a tour, which would be far easier and more relaxing.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I can't give you too much practical advice, and certainly can't add to what @mmmmartin says. Have a good look at the Brittany ferries website and to figure out times. My only advice there is to get a cabin. Don't jib at the price, it's not that much. A good nigh's sleep will make the world of difference to your riding (and driving) the day after. Remember that the clocks change going over there and you have to get up early (does not necessarily apply to the St Malo routes, which tend to arrive later).

I don't know the routes, and there doesn't appear to be any route info on them when I finally managed to find them on the AUK website. However, my personal taste would be St Malo-Cherbourg, but that's because I'm biased and more familiar with that area. You'll also get views of Mont St Michel that way. It's really nice cycling. I love Normandy.

 

[tatr]

I did St Malo to Caen, sleeping at Saint-Lo F1 hotel, in September.

Day one was 200km and day two was 100km, and apart from the last 25km of day one it was FANTASTIC. (You could obviously devise a shorter route.)

I followed the Tour De Manche route from St Malo to Saint-Lo which was lovely until I hit the river section at the end where there were lots of mosquitos. The route was fairly flat apart from one rolling section. Most of it was on well maintained gravel tracks laid on an old railway route.

Both ferries were well timed and much more comfortable than I expected. The ferry into St Malo has the advantage of giving you more time to sleep and cabins were pretty cheap, even on the long overnight crossing. One without windows was fine. I had a cabin on the day ferry home, too, which made looking after my stuff easier.

My only other advice would be to eat whenever you see an open restaurant. I went nearly 100km without seeing anywhere to get food or water.

 

[BermudaTriangle]

I have a place in Brittany and have done a fair bit of cycling when there, including the odd century+ ride. It would be a bit of a stretch for a weekend jaunt though as its right down on the border with S. Brittany and Loire Atlantic. Its delightful riding country with plenty to see. Inland the terrain is rolling and you can end up doing a fair bit of elevation. To the South of me is the Briere which is flat (salt marsh) stretching down to Nantes. Some great towns to visit either direction. Fabulous sea food. The Nantes Brest canal is a good ride. There is a network of marked velo routes criss crossing the region too. Highly recommend.