Nice to Bordeaux

[Polite]

My end point is Santander (to Portsmouth) at the end of August. I have a maximum 3 weeks, alone with my touring bike, to get there. I was thinking of Marseille to Santander but I'm not the most creative person.

So the timescale is now two weeks, the start point is Nice and the end point Bordeaux. I would love some suggestions of what not to miss. Happy to do 70 miles a day, more or less if need to.

Hope to hear, looking forward to ideas.

Thanks

 

[jay clock]

Plenty of time....

see here for www.jmhr.com my various trips covering some of these areas

My comments would be

• if flying to Marseille, go to Montpellier instead. Coast from Marseille to Montpellier is not inspiring. Or start from Avignon
• Avoid the eastern end of the Canal du Midi. Anywhere east of Castelnaudary is terrible surface (rutted single track). West of there (from about 10km west of Castelnaudary onwards is tarmac)
• Foothills of Pyrenees offer endless choice
• Main cols are there if you are keen
• Personally I would stay on the French side for many reasons and cross over on the Atlantic side
• Download maps.me onto your phone - superb app
• Buy an out of date Michelin atlas on Ebay like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/France-20...070409?hash=item3d2eaca109:g:GkQAAOSw241YXjso and rip out the pages you need
• This site great to get municipal site info http://www.camping-municipal.org
• My best site was the one on this page https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1M2&page_id=458927&v=4y - worth a detour and get them to cook for you!

 

[MichaelW2]

Detour into Picos de Europas before Santander.

 

[Brains]

Detour into Picos de Europas before Santander.

if you like hills .....

 

[Polite]

Maybe UK to Nice, Nice to Avignon then Avignon to Santander?

 

[jay clock]

Bit of a long way to go in 3 weeks

 

[Polite]

Bit of a long way to go in 3 weeks

696 miles would work out at around 40 miles a day, over 18 days. I've done more than that on previous cycling trips before, unless I've miscalculated or missing something......

 

[Polite]

So the start point is now going to be Nice.

The back of a fag packet plan is Nice to Avignon, then west to Montpelier, Narbonne, drop in at Toulouse, continue west to Saint Jean de Poid and then up to the coast and along to San Sebastien followed by an undecided trek over to Bilbao and finally stander.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has done any cycling down there, I'm sure with the ferry back to the UK from Santander there must have been plenty of cyclists who have done something similar......

See amended first post.