Anyone have any experience of southern france?

mrlargefoot

I'm leaving next thursday to stay here for 2 weeks with my parents. The terrain has always looked awesome around there but this is the first time i will be taking my own bike out so all mountain is the order of business!

My main problem is that i dont know the area that well and although i'm quite prepared to do some exploring it would be nice to know some key areas to go for as internet out there is fairly lacking and i dont have gps.

I do have access to a car so i can travel a fair bit for more in the way of trail centres but it would be great just to be able to get hold of some OS maps too or something.

Does anyone know this general area of southern france and would be willing to share some info?

abductee

I found this route. If you turn on the gallery in google earth you get everytrail and wikiloc icons.

http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=1269432

robertpb

Try this http://www.utagawavtt.com/randonnee-vtt-gps

Or this http://www.vttour.fr/

Or if your french is good have a look here http://forum.velovert.com/forum/7-forum-des-regions/

You could also Google, VTT Gabian, lots of hits.

Brood

Cevennes national park is good - just North East of where you're staying.

Also, look here at the official French cycle federation website - http://www.ffc.fr/a_VTT/a_SitesVTT/index.asp

Brood

There's also a 'trail centre' in Amelie-les-bains - http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Gabian, ... 6&t=h&z=14

TimB34

Hello,

I wouldn't really recommend heading out with just an IGN map - there's no real way to know if a trail is ridable or even exists although it's on the map. You can use http://www.geoportail.fr/ to overlay satellite photos on IGN maps to try and check, but it's hit and miss.

The safe option is to follow some of the waymarked trails at the FFC VTT centres. They're all more XC than All-mountain, but there are some near Gabian:
http://vttyon.free.fr/salagou/carte_VTT (route 6 goes past the lake at Vailhan, near to Gabian)
http://www.ville-montagnac.fr/documents ... es_VTT.pdf
There are some around St Guilhem too, but I don't have a link to a map (5€ at the local tourist offices)

The adventurous option is to get onto utagawa as others have recommended and try and follow the routes, but unless you have a GPS to load tracks onto the routes will be very difficult to follow.

If your French is good (or even basic), then there are a few forums. Velovert as mentioned, but also a couple of Herault-specific ones.

This is the bit of velovert you need : http://forum.velovert.com/topic/27-le-f ... _st__21615

also http://forum.vtt34.com/ (seems quite friendly)

and http://planetelibre.net/phpBB/index.php (not as active, but more freeride/all mountain than VV or vtt34)

If you want to go for a big XC-style ride and not get lost then there are also a few organised "randos" coming up. Typically about 8€ for a well-marked route, a couple of feed stations, no timing or prizes and some great trails - following these is like going out
riding with a local, and they often include brand new/well hidden trails.

There's a pretty good list on http://www.vetete.com , but I think the nearest to you will be

Larzac Brebis Tour on the 18th : http://www.vttlarzac.com/
and Salagou Mania on the 25th : http://www.salagoumania.rocevasion.net/

I'm doing the 44km Larzac ride, not sure about Salagou.

Have fun.

TrailGuru

This info is really useful for me at the moment too as I'm heading down at the end of the month. Mainly on a surf trip but I thought there had to be some great trails down there so the bike is coming along.

Thanks for the info guys.

TimB34

You're going on a surf trip to the Med?

Definitely bring the bike!!

TrailGuru

TimB34 wrote:

You're going on a surf trip to the Med?

Definitely bring the bike!!

South West France... some of the best beach breaks in the world!! My main reason to go is to watch a world championship surf contest sponsored by quiksilver so no... not the Med, the other side

So I guess on that note, does anyone know of any places to ride in South West France?