Evening Singletrack massive,
Just wondering if anyone has been to this area of France. We’re thinking of heading this way over the weekend and wondering wether it’s worth taking the bike and are there suitable running trails in the area. I’ve had a look on web it says there are lots of trails but can’t find any specific info.
Thanks

not ridden there offroad but have stayed there touring. In a brain-rattling thunderstorm in a lightweight tent 😉

Ive not heard of anything in the area for bikes, and utagawa has nothing
http://www.utagawavtt.com/gmap/geoportail-carte-generale-topos-vtt

But there’s two areas on the VTT site, one at “Mont d’Ambazac et Val du Taurion ” and the other at “Le Lac de la Forêt” not too far away, but require a trip (sorry cant link, shit french website)
http://www.ffc.fr/a_VTT/a_SitesVTT/index.asp

there should be route guides available locally.

Stoner, thanks for the reply.I don’t mind a trip to get to these places, we’ve found the Office de Tourism helpful in the past so that will be an option also.

Thanks 🙂

Can’t say about the exact place but stayed about 50km further south near Ussel on a Lake. Plenty of VTT trails everywheree, not trail centre style but good off road routes. I hammered a Peugout round abouts and it was great fun in a low tech way There is no short supply of forest, lake or rivers where you are thinking of going so watersaports and outdoor pursuits in general are abundant.

Oh and Limoges is quite nice for a city day out and the botanical gardens are good if you like that sort of thing…

…and, if it’s not too far to go, the Monts de Blond has some great riding that I was shown by stratobiker of this ‘ere parish. There’s lots of way marked trails out of the VTT centre (maps can be purchased) at Les Mas above Vaulry
(search 87140 Les Mas at http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/ )

I have ridden the area of Les Lacs de Haute Charante, which is No128 on the French Cycling Federation VTT link that Stoner put up. Half way between Limoges and Angouleme. It’s pretty good. The VTT routes are fairly well signposted but you can get small route cards from the tourist information places that provide a back-up for the inevitable missing sign. The land is hilly but not mountainous so you are not going to get anything extereme. The routes that are marked black are usually because of distance rather than any huge technical difficulties.

Running’s just as good. If you can pick up some IGN maps from Stanfords before you go they show all the approved footpaths, although if you are off route I’d be amazed if you ever ended up in a ‘gerr owf my land’ situation.

Take your bike, take your trail shoes, have fun.

Try and get hold of stratobiker off here, he lives near Limoges and seems to know the local biking very well (and is a top guy 🙂 ). I went to an area called Monts De Blond last summer which is west of Limoges – really nice biking and scenery. We’re going back round there for a week his summer in fact.

As above no big hills or super techy riding I don’t think, but still very good fun.

Edit: ah just noticed Stoner already mentioned stratobiker 🙂

Im in your kill file, arent I grum? 😉

Sorry, did someone just say something? 😉

😛