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!