Recommend me a route in Normandy for 3 days

[jay clock]

I am an experienced long distance cycle tourist (www.jmhr.com for my rides) but need some advice for a 3 day trip to Normandy. I am also bilingual in French so that helps

end of April, overnight on the Friday, group of 5-8 of us, lightweight road bikes with seat post racks. start from St Malo Sat morning, ferry back from Caen (Ouistreham) on Monday at 1630. We aim to do about 110-120 k on Saturday, 90-100 on Sunday and 80 on Monday (lunch in Caen then cycle to the port)

It will all be preplanned with my Garmin to follow a gpx route, really I am just after ideas for a nice loop to accommodate the plan, with medium size towns with decent hotel/food choices so we are not stuck to find anything open. Out of town hotels OK if they have restaurants. Not looking for cheapo options but equally not five star. Good quality food essential. I am pre-booking all accommodation and double checking availability of food!

We will all be on road bikes so any voies vertes must be very passable. In general I find these dull anyway (did Canal du Midi in May) bearing in mind the network of minor roads

Finally the Suisse Normande area has been suggested. Any comments?

All ideas welcome

 

[Dave Davenport]

I've done St. Malo to Caen over three days following the coastline of the Contentin peninsular, although the mileage would be a bit high (about 270 miles) unless you cut across before Cherbourg, we got the overnight ferry back so had time for a long last day. It's a nice ride along the D day beaches, and there's an old quiet road that tracks the motorway between Carentan and Bayeux, from where you can go back out to the coast at Arromanches.
I've also done a three day loop from the same points going inland via Dinan and Rennes, all quite nice typical Normandy/Brittany countryside, we stayed in a nice Logis hotel in Domfront.

 

[srw]

Paging @mmmmartin ...

 

[Brandane]

St. Malo to Caen in 260 miles; but can be easily adapted to suit by cutting across the Cotentin peninsula.

 

[mmmmartin]

you could fit in quite a lot if you ride that distance. here's a few thoughts, in no particular order, a rather hasty as i have a new bottom bracket to fit and two bikes to service.

• st malo itself is quite pretty and worth popping into for a coffee and a bun with a bit of pootle round, just after you get off the boat. breakfast on the boat is good value and worth it.
• mont st michel is also very pretty and an iconic spot so worth visiting. it's complicated to get to and you might want to leave one person to guard the bikes and then get the bus in and out. it's very touristy but that's because it's very beautiful. there is a good system of cycle paths that will get you to it.
• ridewithgps has a function that allows you to look at OSM cycle maps, which helps with planning. You'll already know about the usefulness of Google Streetview in seeing if a road is wide/busy/ suitable for a group of cyclosts, and how to see if there are bars in a town for coffee and lunches.
• From Avranches you could go south-east to Domfront where there is a nice hotel (far better than it looks from the outside) with a restaurant at the back that is very well patronised by the locals - good food. The Fridays stayed there on our Caen-Bordeaux trip.
• North from Domfront there is a cycle path on an old railway line, The Fridays took 26 people on thin road tyres along it a few years ago, it's fine. it also goes through a few towns for coffee/lunch etc. It's a bit complicated in a few places - planning and maps needed.
• In Ouistreham there is the Hotel Normandy which some of The Fridays used - again, good grub, and very near the ferry. Suitable for a final meal together before you lurch on to the ferry.
• The Normandy Landing Beaches are worth a look, only when you stand on those flat beaches with the cliffs overlooking them do you realise what it took to be in those landing crafts. There's a good museum with films taken at the time. Heading north along the coast along the east side of the Cotentin peninsula is good riding, but with just about every road in France that is by the sea, there is a lot of traffic so it's worth riding on deserted small roads inland which are lovely.
• If you go far enough north you might be lucky to find yourself in the hamlet of Ruffoses where there is a restaurant called Chez Cri-Cri. It has no website. the phone number (speak French) might be +33 2 33 94 91 82 I make no recommendation apart from mentioning that it is patronised by workers employed by the electricity company. https://ianmac55.wordpress.com/tag/chez-cri-cri/ by the inestimable @ianmac62 is worth a read (his blog might give you ideas about where to go). About 50 of The Fridays spent a week in a chateau near there in 2013 and we ate there three times. Nuff said.
• if your route doesn't go through towns around lunchtime then stock up at a supermarket in the morning and have a picnic - be very careful of Sundays when everything is shut and most restaurants are fully booked. if you're thinking of Hotel Normandie in Ouistreham for Sunday lunch (before heading westwards to the landing beaches) then try asking for a later slot and they might fit you in.
• sorry there's no specific route suggestions here but only some ideas.

 

[jay clock]

All these replies and links are excellent. Many thanks. Currently got six and two possibles for my max of eight, and about to book the ferries. A sign of the 71 years since D Day is that one of my friends coming is German so it will be moving to have both sides of the conflict coming in peace to show we can cycle in harmony.

Will go through all those ideas and links

Jay

 

[jay clock]

@mmmmartin was this the hotel in DOmfront? https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel...e-Domfront_Orne_Basse_Normandie_Normandy.html

 

[mmmmartin]

one of my friends coming is German

Well worth looking at a German cemetery. The bodies are all jumbled in together with one single slab of stone with the names. (The Commowealth bodies are also jumbled in together, but the headstones mark each name.)
Very touching to see the Jewish WW! German graves. Had they lived, they'd have been murdered by the Nazis of course.

 

[mmmmartin]

@mmmmartin was this the hotel in DOmfront? https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel...e-Domfront_Orne_Basse_Normandie_Normandy.html

Yes it was the hotel de france. you enter on the left of the restaurant cerf (part of the hotel) and the bikes were parked in their large dining room (unused at that time, obvs). The rooms are nothing to write home about but it was clean, the staff friendly and helpful and the food was good. They might remember Les Vendredis as we sort of took over the whole place. If you use the cycle track going north you stand with the hotel behind you and turn right then immediately left and the cycle track begins on your right after about 100 metres. (ish)

 

[Dave Davenport]

@mmmmartin was this the hotel in DOmfront? https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel...e-Domfront_Orne_Basse_Normandie_Normandy.html

Eight of us stayed there a couple of years ago, was pretty good and for the price and they have plenty of twin rooms, the restaurant was popular with locals and there's a nice garden to have a beer (or three) in.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Lucky you.

Just get a map, stick some appropriately spaced pins in it, figure out accommodation and off you go. It will be very difficult to go wrong, IMO. Suisse Normand is lovely, and steep. Other bits are lovely and not steep, but apart from some bits of the North of the Cotentin peninsula your route will probably always be undulating (lots of river valleys). Be aware that it may rain, sometimes a lot. (On the other hand, it may not).

Even without any planning - just by riding from town to town - every day you should be able to have mid morning coffee with croissants or pain au chocolat outside a cafe (probably have to nip to the boulangerie which will probably be over the road) and then later on a nice lunch. Then, assuming that your overnight pin has landed in a small town, you should be able to find a nice restaurant.

With detailed planning, you will still have just as good a time, but will also have had the fun of doing the planning and daydreaming. It's win-win.

 

[Simon_m]

Part of our trip coast to coast, but the Normandy section.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1245371595

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1245375175

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1245375865

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1245377208

 

[jay clock]

Thanks everyone.. Current plan is Domfront on Saturday then staying Caen Sunday night then a loop along the Beaches and back to ouistreham for lunch and ferry

 

[Donger]

Similar thread ..... https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/recommend-a-route-in-france.209438/

My earlier reply applies equally here.

 

[jay clock]

OK progress made. Ferries booked and have emailed the hotel in Domfront and an Ibis in Caen.

Caen should have more choice to eat than smaller places on the Sunday night. Not as bad as Mondays in France but food is essential!

That gives us 120km on the Sat and 90 approx. on Sunday. Monday we can do a loop along the beaches and back or cut it short if weather bad. We should be able to get a seaside lunch west of Ouistreham

@mmmmartin is the cycle track out of Domfront tarmacced? I will plot the route using it and avoiding it just in case