Hi All
Me and Mrs Shin will be at a wedding in Renne in a few weeks and are planning to drive and extend the trip a bit. Can anyone recomend some biking in roughly that area of France? Stuff that is well marked would be good as we won't have maps, and also no downhill as the missus is still new to this malarky. We were planning on driving around a bit and staying several difference places so anywhere in north west france is worth considering.
cheers
Mark
been 3 times in the last 2 years for a week at a time, there are lots off vtt trail centres all around france with between say 16 to 25 trails varying from 10 to 40k they are graded from blue to black and sometimes the only difference is the climbing sometimes its a french national cross country route,
the blue and green are all easy gentle strolls around beautifull farms and very quiet fields and lanes, they should be marked and most tourist offices will sell you a pack of maps for 5 quid,i would either go to domfront and bagnoles de l'orne and use them as a base they are 8 miles apart and criss crossed by 20 trails and a old converted railway line runing from domfront takes you out towards trails,domfront is a pretty good town with a fab pizza restaurant up the little steep hill from the main town and bagnoles is a spa tourist town so has more restaurants and cafes than most in the region
or base yourself around the swiss normandy, region at pont d ouilly , or at thiery harcourt, swiss normandy is quieter and hillier than the domfront region and has 22 trails 8 of which start from pont du oilly
i like the domfront region though
i am going away for next week but nearer the time if you are going that way e mail me and i will give any help i can mark4suzi@aol.com
Am with above on the Swisse Normand. Nice towns and villages marked trails with maps available from tourist offices. Thiery Harcourt, Mortain, Vire all good areas. Lots of quiet routes with usually good weather in the summer. Even a bit of good rock climbing if your into that. Have fun.
I'm lucky enough to have access to the in-laws cottage about 10k from Domfront 8) very nice bit of France as mentioned some good biking. I bought the map pack from bagnoles de l'orne on my last visit. If you decide thats the area you'll be visiting I'd be happy to scan you some of the route cards.
Flatback/Mark - Do you have any good routes in the area you can share with me? I'm heading back in 6 weeks and would like to go armed with some ideas. Also if you don't have the route pack from bagnoles let me know and I can give you more details.
Feel free to email if you prefer. stuart_home AT hotmail DOT com
Cheers Stuart
cheers for the info guys [heads to google maps] i'm sure i'll be back with a few questions once i work out where these places are!
Another nod for Suisse Normande. Excellent FFC marked trails.
wharfedale, i was there last september and it rained a lot so some of the trails on vtt pack were very slippery and muddy, but we enjoyed combining 17,18,19 and 21 for a ride and 15 and 16 in the forest was good fun,we stayed in champsecret right in the forest and riding through there was lots of trails everywhere
did 7 and 9 one day that was good, and 11 was nice but very muddy also a old converted railway line a voie verte goes about 20k north from the village of domfront,i liked lots of the trails in the area its mtb riding with some sight seeing and exploring thrown in not really hard core, just good trails with great bits of single track every now and then
in domfront go walk up the little hill from the town square fish and chip shop on the right and just past on the left is a great sit down pizza place
Cheers for the heads up Flatback/mark on the F&C + Pizza. Will try them in July when we head back.
Can't wait should have the new HT ready for the trip 😀