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Following on from my "how to stop this tandem" themed thread last week,this weeks deliberation is in which direction to point it...
Looking at drive to Portsmouth, ferry to one of Brittany's ports, cycle down the Atlantic coast of France to Bilbo / Santander then ferry back.
Anyone dowe this route / got any pointers? Also any suggestions where to leave a car in Portsmouth for a fortnight?
I lived in the vendee & marrennes for a couple of summer's what felt like a couple of years ago. Upon checking what year it was, turns out it was near on a couple of decades ago... it my have changed somewhat since.
Ta
we rode the vélodyssée last year.
we parked in a hoiday inn in Portsmouth for the 2 week. then took the bikes on to st malo, hired a car and drove to Biarritz, where we rode from.
the route is very easy to follow. and very quiet. good for camping or staying in chambre's like we did.
just a lovely route through forests and sand dunes, some lovely little towns.
marrennes was awesome for oysters which I love. we stayed in la Rochelle for 2 nights which was nice. we also stayed in nantes for 2 nights, again very nice. we went out on a Segway tour.
I love france for cycle touring. it is very relaxed. never get any aggro from cars, even in towns.
from nantes we followed small lanes and a canal to rennes, then the rance all the way to dinan and dinard, both worth a look around.
I am away to Norway in the morning, which hopefully will be good. but france takes some beating.
I've been thinking of this trip for a few years and still not done it. The issue for me is the getting from the Spanish ferry to the French border as there does not seem to be a quiet traffic free route. Also - check you can take a bike on the Bilbao ferry - when I last looked you couldn't be a pedestrian with bike on that route and you had to use the Santander ferry instead. Finally look at alternatives to the ferry - I was looking for this summer and flying to Bordeaux or taking the ferry to Le Havre (so your car is still near Portsmouth for the return) and then the train down worked out faster and cheaper. Flight to Bordeaux inc bike in a box and train to Bayonne was less than £100 and took about 5 hours max all up.
I am away to Norway in the morning, which hopefully will be good.
Enjoy. We were there in our van last summer and enjoyed it. Where are you going Not as quiet and remote feeling as we were expecting. Amazing scenery - Scotland/ West Cost on steroids was something I said far too many times. But unlike west coast Scotland you still come across towns of 10000-20000 pretty frequently and the roads are super smooth. Take care of the tunnels when planning - I thought when we were there how much I'd enjoy doing it on a touring bike but there were plenty of tunnels where bikes were banned (to be fair you'd not want to be in them on a bike - longest we were in was 30km long - and would be flipping scary) where the alternative was multiple hundred mile detour.
Where are you going
Lofoten isles. very quiet this time of year, just before the busy campervan season.
flying to oslo, then flying to tromso, starting there. flying back from bodo.
we only have 1 long tunnel on our route, which has a bike path. so hopefully no problem.
Lofoten isles.
Verrrrry jealous. We only got as high as Trondheim so ignore everything I said! Lofotens are on my bucket list for sure but not in the van - just too far. Enjoy yourselves.
We did a one way car hire from Brittany to Biarritz then rode back. There's loads of accommodation you can book a day ahead via booking.com. We also took camping gear but dint use it 🙄 Most of the route is on bike paths, not too hilly (until Brittany) and is very family friendly. We took a tandem and managed just fine.
That's interstellar boblo - how did you manage the tandem and hire car? Did you hire roof bars or did you dismantle the bike into the back of the car?
Car hire? It was a royal PIA but it usually is.
We book a midsized estate planning to remove wheels, racks and guards and it just fits.
They usually try and supply some sort if 4x4 effort that has less room than a golf hatchback.
We messed around for a couple of hours whilst they went away to find the car we'd actually ordered.
A full sized estate is betterer though even rarer and there's no need if you take the stuff off as above. I often rent a van instead as it's less hassle but they're very unkeen on one way van rental.