Guide books for a first tour in France

Mr_Tomcp

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good book (guide book not reading book for a first tour in France. I know some people would recommend going from a road atlas but given my organisational and map reading skills it would be nice to have some guidance and perhaps start with a preplanned route to follow. I have a month to explore so I can always move on to planning my own routes if I start to feel more confident. Does anyone have any experience of the Lonely Planet Cycling France book? I've already been looking at a lot of web pages but any recommendations for good informative sites would be great as well. Many thanks! Tom

wakemalcolm

Depends where you want to go.

I've just come back from the Alps having followed a route from the Cicerone guide to touring in the Alps. A good selection of routes of varying length ranging from quite tricky to sort of tough. Found the book excellent - if only the occasional road closure caught it out. Plenty of generic advice about preparation and what to take too.

vernonlevy

Mr_Tomcp wrote:

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good book (guide book not reading book for a first tour in France. I know some people would recommend going from a road atlas but given my organisational and map reading skills it would be nice to have some guidance and perhaps start with a preplanned route to follow. I have a month to explore so I can always move on to planning my own routes if I start to feel more confident. Does anyone have any experience of the Lonely Planet Cycling France book? I've already been looking at a lot of web pages but any recommendations for good informative sites would be great as well. Many thanks! Tom

Got the book but won't be doing any of the rides. I'm using a road atals as a better alternative for route planning. The book is fine for everything else i.e. basic phrases and coping with France.

Mr_Tomcp

I think my fear with using the road atlas was accidentally ending up on some kind of terrifiying motorway or dual carriageway or planning a route that took me across a firing range or something :? I'll dig out some of my parents old touring road atlases and have a look. Thanks for the advice on the books - I may order both and see how I get on.

mark1956

I used the Lonely Planet Cycling Guide to France in 2001, it had some great routes but I would wonder if it's been updated since then. New roads do get built from time to time, and after 7 years some of the routes in the guide may have changed, especially where you exit/enter cities of any size. I also used the yellow regional Michelin maps. They are scaled quite nicely for this cycle tourist, and are widely available in French supermarkets and newsagents.

Rough Guide doesn't publish cycling specific guides to my knowledge, but I found their travel guides to Italy to be excellent, I will probably use them for a trip to Sicily/Sardinia/corsica next year.

vernonlevy

Mr_Tomcp wrote:

I think my fear with using the road atlas was accidentally ending up on some kind of terrifiying motorway or dual carriageway or planning a route that took me across a firing range or something :? I'll dig out some of my parents old touring road atlases and have a look. Thanks for the advice on the books - I may order both and see how I get on.

Buy a new road atlas. It's quite clear which roads are the arterial/trunk roads and which are the minor roads. Have a play with viamichelin at www.michelin.com to plot low traffic routes by choosing the bike option.

huntso

I have this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cycling-France- ... 82&sr=8-30
Its split into sections for weekend pop overs, flat, hilly and mountains.
Gives a good few ideas for some routes and general advice

chill888

The below Lonely Planet book is excellent for average difficulty touring in all regions of France. Detailed maps/info etc for loads of tours. I have successfully used it several times

Regards

http://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Planet-Cyc ... 1864500360

magfos

Know a number of people who have happily used the Lonely Planet book but I find it better as an ideas book on regions. The Whitehill's (Karen & Terry) "France by Bike" published by Mountaineers many years ago has lots of great routes. It was still available second hand through Amazon when I looked some time ago.

magfos

p.s.

I use the Michelin 1:200 000 atlas for my planning together with Michelin Green Guides.

jibi

Use any of the above but remember to go into Tourist offices when you are there and see if they have anything, and talk to people.
I have done many detours after having been told about places that I had never heard about.

And they turned out to be some of the best parts of the tour.


Be flexible

Tailwinds

george