I wanted to share these photos from a four day bikepacking trip down the Compostela trail. We rode from Le Puy in Auvergne to Conques in the Aveyron, staying at gites and hostels along the way. We rode about 65 to 75 km per day, mostly off road. One day we did 2,200m of climbing, the other days it was about 1,500m worth.

One of the most memorable bits was across the high plains of Aubrac, which is the moorland-type area you see in some of the photos. It’s at 1,300m altitude, so it’s cold, and the wind blows hard up there. From the village of Aubrac we had around 27km of descent, both on steep, rocky singletrack and also on fast, flowing singletrack all the way down to the Lot river.

That looks pretty good, the route goes through a village near where my sister stays a bit further north. Always fancied a bash at more of it.

Quite fancy this too after staying in zarautz.

Do you have a linky to the gpx of your ride, or are you able to email it please.
Bill dot Comer at Gmail dot com

Thx.

Hi Bill – I’ll send you the notebook scans I have for our route. Basically you follow the GR trail from Le Puy, and apart from the climb out of the steep vally to the south of Monistrol-sur-Allier you just follow the red and white signs and Compostela signs, so it’s really easy. The climb from Monistrol isn’t rideable, so you go up a long but scenic drag a bit like the Telegraphe in the Alps before rejoining the GR.

That looks mediocre at best 😆

I’m not very jealous, nope not me 😀

Thanks TristanSpeed.

sounds good.

I believe an ex(?) forumite is heading off to walk something similar at the moment.

After our visit to Massive Central last year, I am keen for some more cycling, paddling and walking there one day…

Looks ace!

This one is a bit like having a “People welcome” sign on a skeleton though – Come to die! 🙂

Looks good. What sort of distance and number of days was the trip. Am looking for a summer jaunt options. Thanks

In reply to smitghga34 – here are the stats from my Strava account:

St Jacques Day 1 69.0km 2,096m

Compostela Day 2 62.4km 1,240m

Compostela Day 3 72.7km 1,769m

Compostela Day 4 13.8km 331m

So we rode for 4 days, the last being easy-peasy, as you can see. About 80 percent was off road. We started from Le Puy en Velay, traditional starting point for the Compostela pilgrimage trail (beware walkers/pilgrims on the trail for the first 15k or so – a couple of us had bells on our bikes to warn them). Nearest international airport is Lyon. There are companies like ‘La Malle Postale’ that will ferry your gear and your bike back to your car at the end – I think we paid 250euros for 5 bikes and 5 blokes in a Renault van from the end point in Conquest back to Le Puy, which isn’t bad, and the driver was a cool mountainbiking dude himself, so conversation was good.

Generally there aren’t too many walkers on the trail, and if you say ‘bonjour’, slow down, and be nice they are very tolerant in my opinion. Only once did we get a bit of bad vibes from a pilgrimette/randonneuse who wasn’t into the whole VTT thing.

Great thread! That trail from the Aubrac down to St Côme looks pretty epic, I might have to head up there and take a gander one of these days.

I live 30 metres from the via Tolosana, another major Compostele route across France, so I meet pilgrims most days on my local loop.
You’ll find that once you’re clear of the villages, you’ll get a clear ride for almost the whole day providing you start early. Remember that they’re on a mission from God, so don’t hang around too long before setting off for the day 🙂

Little French Tractor is slightly embarrassed to be photographed before she has put her face on & done her hair.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/GqXzjW]Tractor is embarrassed for she hasn't done her make-up.[/url] by pten2106, on Flickr

Top thread. France is such a diverse country, large and relatively sparsely populated.

Loving the Soul too !.