cycle trip in south of france?

Obscure

Does anyone have any experience of cycling around the south of france? I was thinking of provence, avignon, nimes.. that neck of the woods. How long did u go for? Did you bring your bikes or hire them there, if so do u know the name of the rental shop? What airport did u fly into? etc

Thanks
Ob'

MiCr0

Trojan should be able to give some advice on this - he did it last year afair

the vivster

i no it is off the topic but what does (tbh) stand for?

Culchie

ffs, lol .....tbh = to be honest

Raam

is it just me, or was the first mention of tbh, in the post where vivster asks what tbh means?

Anyways, Obscure, are you going to be camping again?

the vivster

thank you and no in the last ten minutes i have read it from 5 different posts so i came in hear and asked wat it ment lmao!!! and for the record never before have i seen (tbh) been said in any other chat room hence how i didnt no wat it ment

Trojan

Aint been down the south. My cousin and I flew into Beauvais with Ryanair (25 euro per bike, each way) with the bikes last August. Loaded up our camping gear, and headed south toward the Loire. Eventually reached it, and headed west along, and 2 weeks after arriving got the train back to Paris from Tours.

Beautiful trip.

Post specific questions & I'll answer.

Obscure

Trojan wrote:

Aint been down the south. My cousin and I flew into Beauvais with Ryanair (25 euro per bike, each way) with the bikes last August. Loaded up our camping gear, and headed south toward the Loire. Eventually reached it, and headed west along, and 2 weeks after arriving got the train back to Paris from Tours.

Beautiful trip.

Post specific questions & I'll answer.

Last year I cycled around Normandy beaches for a week and gonna try do something like it again!
Posted the details of the trip before at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=232777

What was the weather like on ur trip? The south of france might be too warm for cycling during the summer. What was the story with bring the bikes on the plane? any hastle? Did you need a bike bag to transport them? You wouldnt have a rough idea of the route u took last year? Any places that should be avoided/visited?

Was planning on just a one week trip, i could do a round trip or plan on arriving at a train station maybe that could bring me back to the beginning!?

Tks

Culchie

I used to live in Leysin and Verbier in Switzerland. (and Evian in France)

You could fly into Geneva, do all around Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) ... Evian, Lausanne, Montreux, Evian , Geneva, Thonon etc.... then up to the mountains ....twould be very nice !!

Obscure

Culchie wrote:

I used to live in Leysin and Verbier in Switzerland. (and Evian in France)

You could fly into Geneva, do all around Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) ... Evian, Lausanne, Montreux, Evian , Geneva, Thonon etc.... then up to the mountains ....twould be very nice !!

Sounds like a great idea!

You know if there are many campsites around that area? And what would the weather be like during the summer?

Culchie

Weather is lovely ...not too hot, but you'll have a nice colour after it !

I can't tell you exactly about camp sites, as I wouldn't have taken it in, but I'm sure there would be.

Google it for camp sites (say in) Evian, Geneva, Montreux, Aigle, Leysin, Martigny, Laussane, Nyon, Thonon, Sion, Brigge, Verbier, Le Chables, Abondonce.

It should throw up some camp sites near by.

If you feeling especially fit, you could cycle into Italy as well from Verbier.

Trojan

Obscure wrote:

What was the weather like on ur trip? The south of france might be too warm for cycling during the summer.

It was late August, early September, so we got tail end of summer, with mild days and some rain showers when we were further north. Down at the Loire it was very warm, beautiful. Used camelbak to stay hydrated - make sure you do so, vitally important. Either use a camelbak or have several bottle carriers on the bike. Thirst is not funny when you're 20 miles from the nearest open shop on a scorching day.

Obscure wrote:

What was the story with bring the bikes on the plane? any hastle? Did you need a bike bag to transport them?

No problems whatsoever. Took them without bags (just another expense). Made the bars parallel with the frame, let a little air out of tyres, and removed pedals.

We made sure we were early to checkin, and the checkin girl called a guy from ServisAir who came though a security door and wheeled our bikes out to the plane.

Obscure wrote:

You wouldnt have a rough idea of the route u took last year?

Look at this map.

We travelled Beauvais - Magny-en-Vexin - Mantes-La-Jolie - Ramboulliet - CHARTRES - ORLEANS - Beaugency - Blois - TOURS - (train to) PARIS centre.

Obscure wrote:

Any places that should be avoided/visited?

In hindsight, I'd have gotten a train past a lot of the boring farmland from Beauvais down to Ramboulliet. It wasn't easy to find campsites, including the first night in Magny-en-Vexin when we stayed with a friendly local we met in the bar, because there were no public sites anywhere. This part of France is not tourist or cycle friendly.

I think I'll do another trip, but may consider hotelling - less weight on the bikes, and more motivation to get out of bed before 1pm

HTH,
Al.

Roddy23

Obscure I was thinking of doing the same myself. Now I wouldn't be a serious cyclist but its always been soemthing I have always wanted to be able to say I had done. I was thinking of grabbing a bike in last August and cycling from Nice down to Perpignan and getting the train back to Nice. I am undecided If I will do it tyhis year, but its definately on the to do list and I am heading to France from July till the Autumn any who.If I get absolutely wrecked I will see If I can make it as far as marseille or montpellier.
Roddy

Obscure

Might put off cycling in south of france cos id probably be going in mid summer and be too warm down there i think. Looking at cyclign around lake geneva instead. Came across some provence websites that might be a help for you:

http://www.mayq.com/Best_european_trips/Provence/Provence.htm
http://www.discoverfrance.com/regions/provence_sgp1.html
http://www.experienceplus.com/bicycling/provence_fun.html
http://www.thechaingang.co.uk/cycling-holidays/provence-itinerary.php
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/travel.htm

I lived in Nimes (between Nice and Monpellier) for 3 months and id recommend visiting the pont-de-gard, avignon and nimes if u get the chance!

Culchie

Good man Obscure, you won't go far wrong around Lake Geneva.

Check out if you can tome it for either The Montreux or Verbier Music festivals.

RuggieBear

I cycled between Lyon and Paris.

Really good fun. Took about 12 days to do but we were taking it easy and the longest we ever cycled in a day was about 120km....we stayed in hotel formula Ones or cheap hostels.

Weather was mostly good altho we did get soaked one day going over a bit of the Massif Central.

Trojan

If you're going down the south or east make sure that you check the altitude profile of your route. Those extra kilos on your bike won't be so much fun if you're climbing all the time.

The advantage of the Loire, and most river routes, is the flat profile

Culchie

Good Point,

the beauty of around Geneva is that you have all around the lake, which would be very easy and scenic, but you also then can cycle along the Rhone Valley, and if you so wish, spur off into the numerous alpine villages such as Leysin, Verbier, Les Diablerets, Crans Montana etc..(or hop on a train), as they are all used to carrying skiers and their cargos.

Raskolnikov

I went cycling around Brittany (north west) at the end of Summer last year for two weeks. Took a bike loaded with tent, sleeping bag, etc and did a ring around a fair chunk of the place. Stayed at campsites every night, didn't plan anything out except what I was bringing with me. Brilliant trip, I went right at the end of Summer too so I got a cheap ticket on the ferry (Cork-Roscoff). Not to mention, hardly any tourists Weather was brilliant too, we had one wet day, a few showers but mostly hot days (not so hot that cycling was tough).

I had an amazing time but wouldn't do it again unless I had a car/camper van so I could mount the bike and drive to where the scenic/good parts of Brittany were. It's no fun whatsoever having French motorists beeping their horns at you while you cycle through some busy narrow streets or when you're suffering from le bonk because you've cycled too far without food and your stop is still miles away.