While in the shed this morning, I found a round tuit:
There is Stuff To Do: booking ferries and hotels, etc. Please read the final sentence before booking anything…….
Latest update.
DATES
You have fixed the dates – we start riding from Caen
on the morning of Saturday June 14. We plan to arrive in Bordeaux on the night of Friday June 20
and on the morning of Saturday June 21 you catch the train from Bordeaux to Caen (crossing Paris) with your luggage. The van arrives in Caen
about 4pm on the Saturday and you pick up your bikes and make your own way home. (Not everyone will be putting their bikes in the return van. Some will get the Eurostar home from Paris, others will go southwards from Bordeaux.)
FERRIES
You need to buy ferry tickets: I have spoken to Brittany Ferries and they have space for 75 bikes on the Friday night June 13 crossing. This particular crossing was fully booked last year, and the nice lady said although this date is not in school holidays and the D Day palaver will be finished, Friday night is popular. When you book you pay only a £25 deposit and the balance is due 46 days before the crossing. A reserved seat for the night is a fiver: you may wish to book a cabin which is more expensive (obvs) but more comfy
: if you want to group together to book a cabin one person needs to handle the booking with Brittany Ferries. I suggest you make these arrangements between yourselves in more privacy in the “conversation” thread rather than let the entire interwebs see.
The return ferry could be on
the night of Saturday June 21. (Some may wish to take other ferries: this is up to you.)
HOTELS
Hotels need to be booked: the route will deliberately go through towns with enough hotels to cope with us. Again, you may wish to sort this out among yourselves in the “conversation” rather than provide entertainment for the entire interwebs. Also, perhaps before, or after, booking somewhere, you may wish to let others know so they can book the same place (or elsewhere….)
http://goo.gl/maps/78MFyis a route on Google Maps: while individual roads may well change as a result of the recce, the towns will not. We cannot wait until after the recce to decide which towns we’ll stay in: if we do that it will be only a few weeks before the actual ride and we take the risk that hotels will be full. As a general rule, I suggest you aim for the Ibis hotel because they are generally OK. Please try to remember our Friendly and Helpful White Van Man: he will not thank you if he has to drive round a dozen hotels each night. Also:
Formule 1 hotels are unmanned and Ian will not be able to get in to them: if you book these (and they are amazing value) remember you may have to either cycle to where Ian is and pick up your luggage, or phone Ian and ask him to please nicely drive over now please nicely and drop off your bags please thank you.
A decision has been made: these are the towns we’ll stay in:
Saturday, June 14
Domfront, no Ibis but various B&Bs listed on the tourist board website. EDIT JANUARY 7 - I have booked Ian and myself into this:
http://www.hoteldefrance-fr.com - it looks OK and there seems to be a restaurant attached and also up the road: there should be another Logis style hotel in town - in fact, next door, called Le Relais but it seems to have no website and may have disappeared as a business.
Sunday June 15
Laval, perhaps: http://ibishotel.ibis.com/gb/hotel-0613-ibis-laval-le-relais-d-armor/index.shtml# NOT THAT ONE - I HAVE BOOKED IAN AND MYSELF INTO THIS ONE
http://www.campanile.com/en/hotels/campanile-laval-ouest (because the Ibis seems to have closed or gone out of business, either way the website is refusing to show it now - the Campanile hotel chain is very similar. this one claims to be 15 minutes walk from the centre) €74 including breakfast for the two of us.
Monday June 16
Angers perhaps http://ibishotel.ibis.com/gb/hotel-0848-ibis-angers-centre/index.shtml
Tuesday June 17
Cholet.perhaps
http://ibishotel.ibis.com/gb/hotel-3357-ibis-cholet/index.shtml The Ibis website seems to only allow the boking of double rooms, so I have booked Ian and myself into this one
http://www.campanile-cholet.fr/en/index.aspx which seems OK.
Wednesday June 18
La Rochelle perhaps http://ibishotel.ibis.com/gb/hotel-0638-ibis-la-rochelle-vieux-port/index.shtml (there are three Ibis hotels in La Rochelle but this looks prettiest).
Thursday June 19
Royan there are many hotels here, but no Ibis – does anyone have any suggestions as to a decent hotel? Otherwise, somewhere central so Ian can get to you.
Friday June 20
Bordeaux, possibly http://www.ibis.com/gb/hotel-1561-ibis-bordeaux-centre-gare-saint-jean/index.shtml which is close to the railway station.
THE VAN AND DRIVER
The plan is to hire a large van, similar to the LeJog one, so we (I) can build a wooden frame to carry two layers of bikes for the return to Caen, just as we did after LonJog. Hire costs, including comprehensive insurance, an extra driver, and charges for the extra distance driven over the 900k basic, plus fuel at £250 plus motorway tolls, etc etc, is likely to be in the region of €1,000. Driver, who is giving up his time for free, gets hotels and ferries (he shares with me, poor chap, but I pay for myself) but buys his own food.
The only way I can think of to do this is for each of you to post me a cheque (or send as a personal gift via PayPal) for £100 and at the end of the trip I’ll reimburse you what is left.
Every one of you will get a set of accounts explaining everything spent. There are so many imponderables that I can’t think of a better method. For instance, we don't know the fuel bill, or which motorways tolls we'll need to pay, some will not need the van to take their bike back to Caen so perhaps should not pay the full amount. Some will have absurd amounts of luggage that will take up most of the van space going south (
I’m looking at you @Michael Adu ). As a rough, back-of-envelope and off-the-top-of-my-head figure, I would think you’ll probably get back half of that £100. That will depend on how many of us there are, obvs.
Finally, please feel free to make comments, as always the critical ones are the most helpful.
Finally finally, hang on a while to see if there is a general revolt at the suggestions: if everyone wants to avoid Laval and you have booked a hotel there, I’d never forgive myself…….
- next time maybe. 
