After a really successful trip to Paris down the Avenue Verte a few weeks ago (i'll do a write up soon!), I'm keen to arrange another cycle tour in france ('posh', as staying in hotels, and genereally fuelled by rare meat and red wine!).
It was fab as me, a pal, our partners (who happen to be sisters!) and their dad (nearly 70) all did it...me adn the pal on gravel bikes, the others on Ebikes..
I really fancy the Tour De Manche (likley the petit tour), and wondered if anyone has done it, the best direction (CW, or A-CW) etc etc..
Any good books or resources?
Cheers
DrP
@IHN i'll give you that..that looks like a good ride, and one this softy southerner may even enter...!
But... erm... Not Frenchy enough
DrP
It's something we have been loking at for later this year - I wasn't aware of a specific "official" route as such? I suppose it depends how much time you have and how far you want to cycle each day. For a one week tour, we're looking at Portsmouth as the crossing point to Cherbourg, riding to St Malo, then ferry back to Poole and ride back to the start point. We may even go via the Isle of Wight
ok, Google brings up a 5 day stage race, or this
https://www.freewheelingfrance.com/bike-routes-in-france/tour-de-manche.html
and yes the petit route kind of matches what we were thinking
I think ferry times might be one of the points to consider when planning - we're due to sit down shortly to start detailed planning. Like you we strongly believe in supporting local business like hotels, B&Bs, restaurants etc...
Be interested to see what other people say about this. The other option I'd considered was getting ferry (or eurotunnel - only £35 per person for cyclists) from dover and then getting a return ferry Caen to Portsmouth, but that's quite a big ride
i THINK there's issues with UK ferries that 'fit' with the petit route...
I don't think poole - cherborg, OR weymouth-stMalo is running!!!
But, what might work is 'sliding' the UK bit East a bit... and doing poole - pompey, as poole-StMalo and Pompey-Cherborg are both running..
DrP
No ferries from Weymouth accoring to the DirectFerries website, but Brittany Ferries do Cherbourg to Poole - daytime UK to france, some daytime and some overnight for the france - UK leg
Not seeing Poole-St Malo, but AM seeing Portsmouth (I guess that is Pompey? I seem to recall that's a football thing?) to St Malo - so could either just get the ferry to / from Portsmouth or do a "figure 8" in whici the ferry routes cross
https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/ferry-routes/planning/timetables
edit - I suppose you can do poole-st malo via the channel islands
edit no 2 - Brittany ferries were the company who introduced "demand driven pricing" and started charging a FORTUNE for bikes, so check prices carefully
Yep Poole - St Malo is via CI and with Condor https://www.condorferries.co.uk/
I've done Normandy a couple of times on different routes.
Last year we took the Thursday overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo and then came back on the Sunday daytime ferry from Caen to Portsmouth.
Made for a logistically easy trip.
Some of the guys parked at Portsmouth. I got the train down from East Croydon and then rode back up from Portsmouth on the Monday.
We did 65, 60, 35 mile days (road bikes) carrying minimal gear and staying in Airbnbs.
FYI there are no ferries from Weymouth these days as the ‘jetty’ needs repairing apparently. At least that’s what the bloke in the café opposite told me last time I was there. The Channel Island ferries now go from Poole.
We've done the petit-petit tour. Poole cherbourgh Granville CI poole. The Granville ferry takes bikes and isn't really publisiced. Granville, despite it's name is a beautiful town.
After a similarly successful Paris trip I'm looking at doing similar later this year, but thinking St Malo to Dieppe. From all I've read the route takes you through the Suisse Normande which sounds ace. But will watching this thread for any nuggets of information.
I don’t think poole – cherborg, OR weymouth-stMalo is running!!!
Oh, I'll be swimming to Cherbourg in the morning then!
wear a cap, chap...i bet it's chilly!
DrP
wear a cap, chap…i bet it’s chilly!
It is, I swam for 40 mins in the sea without one on Monday 😁
I did Roscoff to Cherbourg about this time last year, it was ace. First 2-3 days were quite hilly as it hugs the coast but it mellowed out after that. Getting past/through St Malo was a bit manic.
just had the 'your order has been delivered' for a little book about cycline this route/that region... (I also had the avenue vert Sustrans route book too)...
Will have a peruse and ping more thoughts up here.
TBH... having ridden the NCN route 2 before, the Poole/Bournemouth -> Portsmouth (Pompey) route is lovely, and would make a great addition..
I could even suggest cycling from home (Hove) to pompey to really get the miles in!!!
DrP
@DrP, what book is that?
I used to live in St Malo back at the turn of the century (I love saying that just to sound old!!)
I’ve ridden a fair bit there but fancy doing St Malo down to Biarritz with a few days stay in La Rochelle.
I’d be looking for something very easy so the missus joins me. She’s fairly new to cycling so not confident on roads yet.
The Roscoff to St Malo part is quite different to the St Malo to Cherbourg part but both lovely rides. The latter is easiest logistically of course as you can sail to the start and end point from Portsmouth.
IIRC there are various EV routes you can take along the Contentin peninsula - we went east from Cherbourg to Barfleur, along the D Day beaches then south to St Lo and the Vire valley before heading SW to Mont St Michel. Beautiful countryside.
The north Brittany coast is also lovely - and fairly quiet even in summer. Suggest to stick to the EV route not only for the views but also the variety of lanes and tracks it takes you along.
And as ever in France, don't expect to find anything open on a Sunday!
Bumping this, any recommendations on which way to ride this route?
Still need to check distances / overnight stops on the route and wondering if there's a reason that all the plans show the route from Cherbourg to St Malo rather than the other way round. We're looking to ride 40 to 50 miles a day so that may not actually work, if we can't get the route to fit around suitable stopping points...
In terms of driving down to the south coast and the ferries, it seems to work really well to get an overnight ferry on Saturday from Portsmouth to St Malo arriving Sunday. We could then ride up to Cherbourg and get a ferry to Poole, then ride back to Portsmouth (possibly via the Isle of Wight). We'd need to be back in Portsmouth early Sunday in order to drive home. If we go the other way round, it's a 7 am ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, which means getting up at about 5am to get to checkin. in the classic words, sod that for a game of soldiers. We'd have to to go from Poole and forget the UK side of the ride I reckon...
This is the book i've just got..
Re the route... I've not given it much thought, but would likely do
Portsmouth -> Cherbourg (on theearly ferry - suits me fine as live on the south coast)
Ride Cherbourg -> St Malo (this seems to be the optimal route...not sure why TBH)
Ferry St Malo -> Poole (possibly via channel island stopover?)
Cycle Poole -> Portsmouth via NCN route 2...
DrP
Between St Malo and Cherbourg I don't really think it matters, certainly not enough to inconvenience yourself! I did it anticlockwise and didn't know there was a preferred direction. Best day was between Carentan and Cherbourg so if anything I'd prefer to finish with that.
If you're looking at a gentle introduction to cycle touring, a few years ago my wife & I done the EV6 up the Loire Valley.
The vast, vast majority of it off road on cycle paths and river side boulevards, no steep hills that I can remember and stunningly beautiful. We camped and there was a campsite every 5km but you wouldn't be short of hotels either. We started fairly early am to get the core of the km's in the morning then had long French lunches with a carafe of wine with a short pootle afterwards to the campsite to chill out of the afternoon and wander around on foot.
I can't recommended it highly enough. Logistically, as you're going cross country you regularly pass train stations (which all non TGV trains gladly take bikes) which all link back to ferry ports (via Paris) so getting to the start / end is entirely without issue.
