Calais to Collioure (Channel to Med) - advice please

norfolk gal

Next year we are hoping to cycle down through France and would appreciate any advice on this
We have cycled in France before so know we want to stick mainly to D roads and have lots of maps, however, we need to manage our expectations on distances etc
We are relatively fit in our early 50s and have Specialised Comp hybrids to put panniers on but plan to stay in small hotels or B&Bs so dont need camping stuff.
What we are not sure of is how far is realistic to ride each day - we were thinking of between 40 and 50 miles - does this sound feasible? We can do that distance without too much of a problem, its just whether we can do it day in and day out for 3 weeks!
Anybody with any experience of doing anything similar please?
All help gratefully received!
Many thanks

Wooliferkins

The CTC website and forums are a mine of touring knowledge. 40-50 is a nice distance, gives you time to enjoy the route and see stuff as well as a buffer if there are problems. You may find some days are longer due to straight geography. You are spot on about the day after day stuff. Very few of us don't get the time to ride distance on more than two consecutive days but if you can do the odd long weekend and try to ride both days on a weekend once or twice a month you'll get there.

pneumatic

Sounds about right. We (age range 45-55) did France diagonally from Valenciennes to St Jean pied de Port a few years back with camping gear. We planned for 100km per day and, in practice did between 80 and 130 depending on the terrain and wind direction. We rode every day for 3 weeks, getting fitter as we went.

If you are planning hotel stops in advance, bear in mind that the Massif Central is "casse-pied", i.e. endless climbs and descents, none of them particularly arduous but, one after the other, they slow you down quite a bit. We therefore did our biggest mileages in the North of France and in the South West, where it was flat.

Collioure is charming, by the way, if you haven't been before.

Have fun.

GeorgeShaw

I've been thinking about doing a similar ride myself sometime in the next couple of years - Belgian border to Spanish border, with minimal luggage, 100-120km per day. So I'd be interested to know your plans for where to stay (I first thought about Formula 1 to keep the price down, but they aren't so abundant, and not in the nicest locations) and your ideas for a route.

infopete

Collioure is my favourite seaside town

Take me pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

Oh and Mrs P will want to come too.

If you staying in hotels and travelling light the 50 miles a day should be very comfortable. You'll need a trailer to carry all the euros though.

mz__jo

infopete wrote:

Collioure is my favourite seaside town

Take me pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

Oh and Mrs P will want to come too.

If you staying in hotels and travelling light the 50 miles a day should be very comfortable. You'll need a trailer to carry all the euros though.

Credit cards are very light; they only need a very little trailer!!

You really need to try to ride every day for a while if you can to acclimatise your behinds to sitting on a saddle every day (doesn't need to be far or for a long time) otherwise the end of the first week could be uncomfortable (or not, if you are lucky).

Be careful about your D roads. There are a lot now that are N roads that have simply passed to the départements for maintenance costs. Road numbers that are 5xx, 7xx, 9xx or 10xx should be checked very carefully and try to avoid anything marked 2000 or upwards. This isn't totally fool proof, roads that are parallel to free motorways are generally pretty empty (even if they are Nationales) but its a start.

Otherwise it sound fine. Have fun

infopete

On a more serious note

We cycled from St Malo to Perpignan 3 years ago using the smallest of roads and a bit of the Canal du Midi. We cycled between 40 and 70 miles a day.

We camped rather than staying in hotels though we did start off in a Hotel in St Malo.

At the end of the trip we took the train from Perpignan to Collioure as my wife hates the road into Collioure.

We then drove back in a hire car back to St Malo.

I would look at the velo routes to see if you can fit them into your route. For instance, the Garrone and the first part of the Canal du Midi is tarmac all the way to about Castelnaudary and this would save you doing many of the bastide through the Lot.

After cycling up your 4th or 5th bastide in a day you tend to pronounce it differently.

Oh and I've checked with Mrs P, sh

norfolk gal

Thanks for all the suggestions - especially thanks to infopete - hadnt thought of canal du midi or the hire car - that sounds a lot easier than the train journey and presumably we can pick up a car in Perpignan and drop it off in Calais? I will be investigating that one!

infopete

norfolk gal wrote:

Thanks for all the suggestions - especially thanks to infopete - hadnt thought of canal du midi or the hire car - that sounds a lot easier than the train journey and presumably we can pick up a car in Perpignan and drop it off in Calais? I will be investigating that one!

I used Europcar last time and it's much cheaper if you book online well before you go.

Just remember we want to come too

Gadge

Bit late to reply but just in case you see it....

Better to think in terms of hours per day instead of miles.
With panniers and MTBs, you will probably do 8 miles an hour on off-road paths and approx 12 miles an hour on road. How many hours a day will you want to do? I think 3 hours before lunch and 2 hours after should be plenty but you may enjoy the odd half day of 30 miles and a stroll around your destination in the afternoon.

I would consider starting from St Malo. The route down is a good one.
The overnight ferry from Portsmouth is fun too. I just left my car in the car park there for a week but three weeks would be costly.

The off road routes are very good from St Malo with disused railways, canals and rivers all joining in. You may want to consider starting there instead of Calais then maybe returning to Calais for the return leg.

http://www.voiesvertes.com/

Some route ideas here

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/guide ... -in-france

The St Malo tour can be easily amended to your needs by first taking the little ferry in St Malo to Dinard then picking up the old railway route there to Dinan. You could follow this to Rennes then branch off down to the coast then along to Bordeau. Pick up rivers and canal du midi from there down to Perpignan

This is the company that operates the passenger/bikes only ferry ...

http://www.channelislandferry.com/st-malo-ferry.htm

Check this site out to wet your appetite ...

http://www.wrington.net/archive/2010/montpellier.htm

Also take a look at Biike Express web site for another possible mode of arriving /departing.

http://www.bike-express.co.uk/