Marseille to Paris

kayodot

Now that the Eurostar extends to Marseille, a friend has suggested this route for September this year.

Neither of us have done a tour before, only 1-day sportives. We'll be touring 'on credit cards', staying in b&bs.

I'm asking for advice from people who have done similar, as I don't know what is realistic prep/expectations of the ride.

1. We'll be riding standard road bikes (Genesis Equilibrium and a Canonndale), I am thinking a Carradice Super C should provide sufficient storage for a pair of shoes, a couple of t-shirts, light jacket and shorts.

2. Googling 'Mareille to Paris bike ride' doesn't give much in the way of routes or reports of the ride. We're estimating it'll be around 500 miles, and we'd look to complete it in 6-7 days.

Has anyone attempted anything similar, and can offer any advice/whether our ideas so far are naive and ill-conceived?

Thanks!

briantrumpet

The concept and mileage sound fine. My first other thought would be that you might be better to cycle Paris to Marseille, as if you're going north against the Mistral (or the very frequent strong northerly down the Rhone) it could be seriously hard work (as in add 50% to your time in the saddle). Avoid the N routes as much as possible - e.g. take the D86 rather than the N7 south of Valence, if you go that way.

mercia_man

I've done similar rides across France, north to south and south to north. I prefer north to south because you are heading into the sun and it gets warmer as you progress, giving a bit of a psychological boost.

Your suggested mileage per day sounds fine. For an experienced rider carrying a light load, 60-80 miles a day is a good figure. This will enable you to find somewhere to stay by mid-afternoon so you can have a shower, wash your kit and recover. Day after day riding is much tougher than doing, for example, a single 100-mile sportive. Recovery, hydration and fuelling yourself are very important. Keeping clean and hygienic down below is vital. I use chamois creme for riding and an antiseptic cream like Germolene or Savlon after the ride for soothing and keeping down the risk of boils and sore points developing.

A Carradice Super C saddlebag would be perfect for carrying all you need. Don't discount small hotels such as Logis de France. B&Bs are not as common in France as in UK but you will find small, cheap, family-run hotels everywhere, offering excellent set-price evening meals. There is no need to book accommodation ahead. Stock up with food to eat in the day at village shops and markets if possible. Checkout queues at big supermarkets are sometimes horrendous - the French don't seem to employ many checkout operators.

As for routes, I would draw a straight line between Marseille and Paris and follow that along the smaller D roads, marked yellow and white on the Michelin map. Bigger D roads, in red, can normally be fine. But I would avoid N roads, again red, which will almost certainly be fast and busy. I'm old school and prefer to use maps and work out my own routes rather than following something on a Garmin. Every few years I buy a Michelin 1/200,000 road atlas and tear out the pages I need.

The straight line route between Marseille and Paris takes you through the Languedoc, Ardeche, Haute-Loire and Bourgogne, all of which are fabulous cycling areas.

kayodot

incredibly helpful, thank you.

briantrumpet

All good advice above. Re route - the last bit I'd certainly be tempted to do a big chunk along the Rhône, as you can get a good bit of flat riding. I've done the bit of this from Boën to Valence, and I'm pretty sure the road on the west of the river will be OK. After Avignon I'm not sure how I'd get across to Marseille, but if you make a best guess, but have a paper map to adjust if you find a road you don't like, that can be fun, as long as you're not committed to doing an extended stretch on a horrible road, with no other options to escape onto something nice.

Here's a sketch of this part of the route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/8567932

And yes, I agree that it's nice going south, because of the increasing warmth, plus you can time your departure from Paris, preferably early on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

There's a cracking B&B in Boën called Chez Gillou, which is worth the visit, if it fits in with the riding, but as advised above, probably not worth booking anything, as it gives you that much more freedom.

My own luggage includes for clothing just a T-shirt, shorts and flip flops when I'm travelling properly light, as everything else can be found in the hotel/B&B, or bought en route. This is me fully laden for 730 miles:

kayodot

Awesome feedback, thanks!

I'm really looking forward to doing this. Are there any good websites or posts on here that are a 'must-read' of the must-haves, dos and nots?

kayodot

...although I have just seen that Eurostar no longer allows bikes on the Marseilles train. That's thrown a bit of a spanner in the works!

cedargreen

Sticking to minor 'D' roads is good advice but rural France can be a much harder place to find things open. Small UK towns will tend to have pubs doing food, takeaways, petrol stations with supermarkets etc. Pretty much everything closes on Sundays in France, small bars often don't do food and there are fewer takeaways, so you may need to carry some emergency supplies in the event that the next stop turns out to be a one horse town. September is at least better than August when much of France is completely 'ferme'.

briantrumpet

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19630591#p19630591]cedargreen[/url] wrote:

Sticking to minor 'D' roads is good advice but rural France can be a much harder place to find things open. Small UK towns will tend to have pubs doing food, takeaways, petrol stations with supermarkets etc. Pretty much everything closes on Sundays in France, small bars often don't do food and there are fewer takeaways, so you may need to carry some emergency supplies in the event that the next stop turns out to be a one horse town. September is at least better than August when much of France is completely 'ferme'.

And when there are shops, remember they often close at 12.30 and then don't reopen till 3pm. And if you are stopping at restaurants, if you want to enjoy the plat or ménu du jour, sometimes that needs to be started well before 1pm - after 1pm is often towards the end of when they expect to serve food. If you can catch a good local restaurant doing a ménu du jour, you can find a real bargain - my best find was a 12 euro four-course lunch in Thuret in the Auvergne, with a glass of wine included, and cheese board to die for (all local cheeses, and the whole communal board left at my table till I'd had enough). I only ended up in Thuret because the town I reckoned on getting something to eat in (Aigueperse) had absolutely no food to offer at all.

In short, eat before 12.30, and carry something, just in case.