Just come back from an island called Ile De Re off the west coast of France with the wife and my four kids. Every town linked with traffic free cycle ways which are brilliant.

Does anyone know of other areas in Southern France (Or southern Europe) where they have loads of traffic free cycle ways?

Cheers

Dave

We've just come back from Biscarosse in Aquataine and the cycle paths throughout the area were never ending. Recommended.

http://www.alternative-aquitaine.com/regions/cote_landaise/cote_landaise.htm

Cheers Nellyp,

Thanks for the recommendation. Will certainly look in more detail.

How is the weather down there? Fortunately for us on Ile De Re the weather was good, but the previous week they had rain pretty much every day. Also, while we were there, for three of the days it was fairly blowy, a bit much for the kids. Whats it like in Aquataine?

Dave

there's a traffic free cycle path all the way from Bordeaux to Montpellier that basically follows the Canal du Midi. It's dead flat (obviously as it's canal) with just the little jumps up at locks. Perfect for family riding. I spent a week doing it with a non-cycling girlfriend. Works particularly well as it's all shaded too. can get a bit boring for the 'cyclist' in the family though…

St Jean de monts , a bit further north but has 500k of trails . Should keep you going for while.

Thanks for your replies. I have come across the official French Cycle Path website at

http://www.af3v.org

I will cross reference your recommendations to their mapping.

Cheers

Dave

we've just ridden from just north of Toulouse to the Med on the Canal Du Midi and it's connecting bits, i believe the path goes all the way to the Atlantic in the other direction. It's a bit rough in places (tree roots) but not bad and completely traffic free. We saw countless families riding on it. There are LOADS of cycle paths randomly scattered about the south of France and you'll generally find that the quieter back roads are fairly traffic free and the vast majority of drivers are very courteous. There's also a long distance cycle path down the Loire valley but that's got a fair bit of road in it by the looks of it. In 700 miles this summer i cna only really think of one instance where a driver pee'd me off and he was spanish anyway.