can anyone recommend an area in france for quiet cycling, away from major roads, road bikes only, for the new to cycling, nothing high and alpine, rolling and pictuesque would be ideal, staying in French equivalent to B&B's so an area with a proliferation of those would be great too
The west coast between Nantes and The Gironde is great for that sort of thing. My parents spent a few weeks poodling around on the miles of tarmac 'piste cyclables' between various b and bs.
GB
brittany. fantastic area for quiet simple pootleing.
The Dordogne should suit your needs
The champagne region is really nice (did that 2 years ago).
Brittany can be quite hilly and super bust in July and Aug (I love the place but that is based in the numerous harbours and dramatic coastline). Around the Gironde is lovely but can be hilly as you go further inland (vines grow best on hillsides !). Vendee is quite flat, lovely salt flats around La Baule. Flat lands in Normandy, cider regions etc. Around La Rochelle and Ile de Re is lovely and quiet away from peak season crush.
I think you need to say what time of year for how busy / how hot it will be.
Also I've found French don't really do the B&B thing, either consider an assisted riding holiday (where they transport your stuff) or find a location with a nice small hotel or a Gites you can rent and base yourself out of.
unfortunately the OH is a teacher, so it'll be between july-september. supported sounds good, any companies i should look at?
French [u]do[/u] do B&B. [url= http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/france.html?gclid=CJjwztac9LECFQFItAodo1QA_A ]About a thousand here.[/url]
If you're a bit poncy (as we are), Alistair Sawday does a good book of French B&Bs too.
TBH absolutely anywhere would be good but having just done the Loire that would get my vote
Did masses of quiet flat road miles with non cyclist GF and kids (small-ish)
If you officially want no cars check out the Voie Vertes
http://www.voiesvertes.com/
Enjoy!
saladdodger is clued up on french backroad cycling ...
well not realy but there is a route called "route de cour de lion" which follows the supposed route of Richard the lion heart.
Nice area well I have to say that realy 😉 not pan flat but a gently rolling easy riding area
linky thing
http://www.routerichardcoeurdelion.com/
I have a load of maps of the St Mathieu ( haute Vienne) area if you want to have a look
Lonely Planet's Cycling France book is a good guide. Routes are all well described in terms of their ease / difficulty with gradient profiles and strung together in to 3 - 4 day tours many of which are grouped so they can be added together to make longer tours.
The book can also be downloaded from Lonely Planet either whole or in individual regions
Probably the first route you should consider, if only to do the 1st 40K
[url= http://www.donaldhirsch.com/dieppeparis.html ]London To Paris[/url]
Where in the country are you.
If you can get yourself to Newhaven, it's a blast
I once spent a great week in Normandy based in Lisieux (sp?) after getting the ferry to Caen. Good riding (but avoid the Suisse Normande) and good food.
I've just been in Rochechouart - saladdodger's Richard the Lionheart route goes right through it. Sounds like exactly what you're after - really lovely rural countryside with rolling hills and incredibly quiet when we were there. There were quite a few fetes and things going on but generally not many people about at all.
We went out on bikes for several hours most days and would generally only see one or two cars on the back roads. They all seemed in pretty good nick as well.
stratobiker off here lives around there and knows the area very well. He sorted me out a nice little gite to stay in too. 🙂
By contrast we went to Normandy for a few days afterwards (near Coutances) and it seemed really really busy in comparison.
The Auvergne and central regions have miles of great cycling on quiet and scenic back roads.
great stuff, lots of help thanks guys, grum do u have more details on the gite? if you could send them to rocketdoguk(at)gmail(dot)com please it'd be great cheers
Grum you missed the night market at Rochechouart last week was a good night loads of food and beer 😀
Alas I drove back on sunday 😕
BTW i will be back there end of October hopefully with a snot green X
+1 for the Loire.