Velodyssey, Instalment 2

The next stage was to follow the track northwards through the forest to eventually cross the Gironde river to reach Royan, the next major centre on our route. Of course things are made easier with a frequent ferry boat across the river so we wouldn't need to get our cycles wet! We did this with overnight stops at campsites near Parentis, Audenge and Houtin and a final campsite at Pontaillac just west of the centre of Royan. The route bypasses Parentis-en-Born and we went off-route a few kilometers to a site near a lake, Etang de Biscarrosse (Camping la Foret Lahitte).

Cycleway (velo1) which is typical of the easy ride through the forest and dunes, very pleasant cycling with shelter from the westerly wind.

The next few days were hot with temperatures above 25 C, so pleasant cycling past the high dunes near la Salie, Dune du Pilat near where we stopped for a picnic lunch near the beach at Pointe d'Arachon. As we'd left early, our tent was wet from the dew so we stopped for a break to dry our gear on the edge of Etang de Cazaux et de Sanguinet. Further on ,the route more or less bypasses Arachon on cycleways at the side of the road or through woodlands in urban areas. The campsite at Audenge was at the edge of town so we unloaded our gear and cycled for dinner at the Port, eventually returning to town to find a reasonable restaurant. 

Looking north from our lunch stop near La Salie; one of the warmest days on our route.

From Audenge, the route goes through an urban area on a disused rail track to Ares, skirting the east side of the Bassin d'Arachon before heading over dunes through the forest back to the coast to reach a cycle track to Carcans Plage stopping at Lacanau for lunch. We hoped to use the campsite further on at Houtin-Plage but this wasn't open so the only alternative was to go on 11 kilometres by road to the west side of the Lac d'Hourtin-Carcans to Houtin itself. In the evening we walked to the Port in Houtin and wandered around the town before sunset.

Our picnic lunch spot at L'Amelie sur Mer south of Soulac sur Mer. Still warm and a chance to dry our tent  from the nights dew.

The next day was to be relatively short, 66 km, along the coast to the ferry over the Gironde and to Royan. The town of Soulac sur mer is very much a holiday centre and developed. We passed through into the last forest before the Pointe de Grave, getting straight onto a waiting ferry. Helen noticed a puncture in her rear tyre at this point. This was a surprise as I'd renewed all tyres, tubes and chains before leaving. Anyway, it was losing air faster than I could inflate it so we had to wheel it off the ferry and repair at some nearby seats. I just changed the tube after locating the piece of grit that had embedded in the centre of the tyre and repaired the tube later at the campsite. The campsite (Camping Clairefontaine) was easy to locate and the cycleway well signed as we left the centre for Pontaillac, still bright in the afternoon sunshine. Unfortunately, we arrived at the camping when lots of others did and waited half an hour whilst all the campground details were explained to the new campers. There were also a few other touring cyclist sharing the "tent" corner. I did manage a cold shower before realising there were hot showers over the other side of the campground, refreshing!

After the ferry crossing and quick repair, we had the afternoon and evening to enjoy scenes of Royan.

We still had some further forests to go through on our way to Rochefort to reach La Rochelle and onwards to the Loire estuary at Nantes, the next installment...to come soon!!

La Velodyssee, Velodyssey, the Atlantic Cycling Route (EV1 or Velo 1) in France (Installment 1).

We're back home after our cycling trip in France on Velo 1 or EV1 along the Atlantic coast starting in Hendaye near Irun at the Spanish border and finishing in Roscoff in Brittany in Northern France. The details of the route and other information as well as GPS downloads may be obtained from the Velodyssee website:  

http://www.lavelodyssee.com. It seems daunting now to sit down and write about the whole trip so I'll do it as I find time--so here's the first installment!

We cycled for a total of 18 days during May. The whole trip covered about 1480 km or 925 miles, about 50 miles a day on the route, although some days were longer and others shorter. My GPS gave my maximum speed as 31 mph and average moving speed of 10.4 mph which includes walking to find cafes and restaurants ! 

Our first stop in Hendaye in the Basque Country after leaving the train, a welcome coffee starting in the rain.

We left Dorset on 3rd May by cycling from home to Poole and catching the Cherbourg Ferry. From the port we found our way across Cherbourg to get some lunch and then the train to Paris. We had about two hours in Paris before getting the overnight train to Hendaye. I'd booked  beds and place for our cycles on the train which was scheduled to leave at nine fifty and arrive at the border about eight thirty in the morning. Of course this meant crossing Paris to get between the train stations. I'd worked out a route across the city and put a track on my GPS and this worked pretty well although scary at times, especially for Helen who was trying to follow me as I sped across traffic lights and pedestrian crossings in the same way I saw the Parisans doing. I think the trick is to look ahead and peddle with confidence, I could be wrong though. We had one problem when one of Helen's pannier bags decided to go its own way, fortunately we were in a shared bus lane without a bus and soon worked out what the problem had been. It took us about 45 minutes to cross and I don't think Helen will be doing it again for a long time (that's optimistic). We arrived at the Gare Austerlitz in time to get some tea and find our reserved carriage. The train wasn't as comfortable as the Spanish overnight trains we'd been on and it was certainly noisier making sleeping a challenge. However, we did get some sleep and awoke to see the sign for Tarbes station in the French Pyrenees and a grey sombre day enshrouded with drizzle, much as we had been led to expecting from the weather forecasts.

Our first "port of call" at a surfers paradise, Biarritz, and a stroll around the beach in the sun before we searched for dinner. A great end to the first day on the road (literally as not many cycle tracks at this point)

I'm not going to give a day to day account of the trip, so if you want more information on any section or more generally, please contact me and I'll try to answer. Here I'll give a few highlights and parts of our ride. 

We carried about 6 kg each in our four panniers and we had handlebar bags for valuables. We also had a tent, small burner and cups so we could make tea and coffee at will or when we couldn't find a cafe. In total we stopped 11 nights in campgrounds, 3 in hotels (when in rained, mainly in the north), 2 Chambre d'Hotes (B&B's to us) and took a cabin in a campground in Nantes where it rained and the temperatures dropped.

Our loaded cycles at the start of our trip outside the cafe in Hendaye, notice the red container full of nuts!

Overall, after the first day, the weather was good and we enjoyed the numerous campsites in the south (mainly below Nantes in Southern Brittany) with blue skies and little wind which came mainly from the west or north-west but generally didn't cause us problems, well unless we turned west which sometimes happened. The GPS route was very useful, as although the signs were often good, sometimes they disappeared or as in Brittany, were very confusing when they did appear. In conurbations such a Biarritz and Nantes, the markings mainly disappeared and you either need detailed maps, GPS or lots of time! We took  1:150000  Michelin Maps which have some adopted cycle-ways marked and served as backup to the GPS. There are published books on the route but they are expensive and heavy and we decided not to use them but to research possible accommodation but not reserve anything so that we could remain flexible when deciding where to spend the night. The maps were particularly useful in choosing possible stopping points for coffee and lunch, important parts of our day! We were mostly on route by nine and finished between four and six in the afternoon depending on stops and distances. As usual when camping, our day was mainly controlled by the sun!

Well Biarittiz was sunny with good waves judging by the evening gathering of dedicated surfers we watched as we strolled along the promenade. We couldn't resist the temptation of not camping on our fist night as we had only done a few miles but felt pretty shattered, probably because of our lack of sleep on the train. However, we were soon revitalized and did over 96 km in the better weather the following day, stopping north of Veux at a campsite near a lake (Etang de Leon) and enjoying a swim indoors and sauna before dinner, "the Life of Riley" indeed. North of Bayonne we had encountered our first forest tracks, mainly tarmac through sandy terrain within a stone-throw from the sea, usually separated by a dune! The next section through the largest forest in Europe, the Landes Forest, I'll come to shortly but for now we're off to enjoy our few days of summer!