Carcassonne

TheBlaaMan

I'm off to the above in about 10 days with the family in tow for a weeks RnR. I fancy renting a road bike and will bring shoes/pedals/lid for a bit of gentle (or not so) climbing nearby - anyone got a recommendation for a rental location? I've seen a few online, so can try those, but first-hand reports would be good!

Secondly, I'll probably try to get the kids (youngest 11) out for a day on hire bikes - Canal du Midi features a fair bit, and I see a few boardies have done this, with mixed reports. If anyone has any suggestions/guidance about this, please chirp up.


Thanks in advance

ROK ON

Castelnaudary is a nice town. IIRC there is a really good restaurant there.
It is less touristy and more quaint than Carcassonne.

Lots of rolling countryside nearby.

The canal du midi has towpaths which are fine for walking or slow touring. Mostly gravel so not suitable for road biking.

TheBlaaMan

ROK ON wrote: »

Castelnaudary is a nice town. IIRC there is a really good restaurant there.
It is less touristy and more quaint than Carcassonne.

ROK ON, we'll be very close to Castlenaudary, so if you track down the name of it, I'd be very grateful

ROK ON

I can't recall the name.

There is also a restaurant high up in a mountain forest called Le Boute du Monde.

Run by a guy who keeps his own ducks, and also shoots game. Rustic but unbelievably stunning. Think I had a pigeon starter followed by Guinea Fowl stuffed with foie gras served in a sweet wine jus. Devine.
I had the strongest coffee ever - was buzzing for hours.

Gavb

We did a week long tour of this area in November.
We mainly followed the Canal Du Midi, but used the excellent roads quite a bit as well.
In the end we brought our own bikes, but I was in contact with Phil from http://www.mellowvelos.com/
Altough we didn't use his services in the end, he was very helpful.
They seem to have a good range of bikes including panniers, maps etc if required and will drop off and pick up wherever you want, there may be an extra charge for this, depending on where you are.

In Castlenaudary we ate in the 'Hotel de France' as recommended by Rick Stein for the cassoulet. It was a bit like a French version of Fawlty Towers! The food was good though.
There is a French Foreign Legion base near there too, wich was tempting :-)

If you head further south, Narbonne is a nice town, and there is a lovely cycle from there to Gruissan on the coast, through vineyards.

Why is it that the French seem to dissappear and close everything just when you are getting hungry and looking for something to eat? We cycled through a few places that were like ghost towns at lunch time. Have an emergency stash on you at all times!

It's a great area for cycling, the French drivers give you loads of room, we felt safe on the roads.

As previously mentioned some parts of the Canal Du Midi are not suitable for road bikes, but we were told that between Castlenaudary and Toulouse it was a better surface.

Enjoy!

Diarmuid

ROK ON wrote: »

Think I had a pigeon starter followed by Guinea Fowl stuffed with foie gras served in a sweet wine jus.

Daithi BC

I'm just back from 10 days over there and missing it already. We hired a couple of mountain bikes and went up and down the canal from Carcassonne. The towpaths are fine for them, but I wouldn't bring a road bike down them. Castelnaudary is a good spot (and the home of cassoulet so you'll have no problem finding some).

polariz

Gavb wrote: »

We mainly followed the Canal Du Midi, but used the excellent roads quite a bit as well.
In the end we brought our own bikes, but I was in contact with Phil from http://www.mellowvelos.com/
Altough we didn't use his services in the end, he was very helpful.
They seem to have a good range of bikes including panniers, maps etc if required and will drop off and pick up wherever you want, there may be an extra charge for this, depending on where you are.

I rented a couple of mtbs from this guy about 2 years ago. We got bikes, panniers, tools & computers for a week @ 70e each! We arranged everything over email and he met us at the airport with the gear. We didn't have a plan so just gave him a ring towards the end of our week to arrange collection. He was very obliging and met us at the airport again.. it was all very easy. The Giant mtbs were in decent nick and we'd no problems. I wore out the brake pads coming down a few Cols and lost the bike computer but he didn't charge me for either. I'm sure his road bikes would be similar.. not top of the range but will be well serviced. Oh yeah, he didn't even ask for a deposit! ..mellow velo indeed

Hope this helps..

dewindygap

Thanks for that polariz, thats handy to know. It's 80€ return to bring bikes on the plane plus the worry and hassle. We passed thru there last year on road bikes and eventually came off the tow track as it was so bad (as mentioned in an earlier thread.) I certainly would not chance it with a child but generally there are quiet enough road running adjacent the canal. Beautiful area, as is Castelnaudary, where we camped for 1 night.

TheBlaaMan

So, back after a week in the south of France and managed to rent a road bike for two days from Philippe Sauvage at www.wandeo.fr

I had contacted MeloVellows, but it wasn't working out when I took into account delivery fees or the time I would have had to put into travelling to/from where we were staying. I'm glad I dealt with Wandeo.fr, it was a really easy experience and a great bike - a full carbon nearly new Cannondale Synapse SL with Fulcrum Racing1's and Campy Record group. It cost me €80 for two days, and a charge of €25 for delivery/collection to my front door, with repair kit & bidons provided. A bit pricier than M/V, but the bikes are better, I think (they are sold off each winter, so stock is generally new) and total cost incl delivery was not that much more.

Both days were warm but not really sunny or too hot and quite windy by 10am - so not good for tan lines......! I was surprised to see very few cyclists on the road - presumably the weekend is far busier.

Anyway, I didn't get in to the really high stuff, and stayed in the rolling hills close to Carcassonne - still challenging enough (for me) with plenty of 500m high climbing opportunities. I did drive up into Andorra - now those are real mountains! Road conditions were excellent on the main Dxx roads but not too dissimilar to our R roads on the smaller Dxxx roads off the above. None had dedicated sectors for cycling. In the main, drivers were great, but trucks can come a bit close for comfort and some car drivers take real chances. On three occasions I had to nearly get into the ditch when oncoming drivers overtook on their side, coming within less than two feet of my left 'bar - pretty scary with the combined closing speed being over 120kmph - no way was I surviving any sort of impact if there was even a slight misjudgement - not nice!

A few (crappy phone camera) pics are here

I can wholeheartedly recommend Philippe Sauvage if anyone is looking in to hire in the area - a dead decent guy to deal with and excellent english speaker.