Me and the GF are planning a little road trip to the Pyrenees in August, we are planning to take a leisurely couple of days over the drive down France - just wondering if anyone can recommend a nice town/area to stop off in that's roughly halfway from Calais to the Pyrenees?
Cheers.
think you'll have to provide the clue of your route. france is a mahoosive place and there are loads of places inbetween.
A10, A20 or A75?
Heading for Luchon initially so was planning to go through Limoges/Toulouse on the A20. Google maps suggests going through Paris though which seems like a bad idea? I am open to suggestions on the route as well as places to stop.
Cheers.
Cahors is a nice town but over half way along your route.
Sancerre is also a pleasant stop over if you come round paris on the east/south side and then jump across to the A20.
Staying with Stratobiker is definitely to be recommended if you fancy having your legs ripped off on his home trails around Limoges. 🙂
Im typing this reply from my wheelchair actually 😉
Thanks Stoner. Stopping off and having my legs ripped off sounds tempting. 😯
Stratobiker, you out there? 🙂
What's Limoges like? I see la Brenne and Perigord-Limousin national parks are also quite near my route - anyone been to either?
We've been heading down that way for a few years now. You have to make a really big diversion to justify not going through Paris (and it's not that bad really - avoid weekday rush hours, have a satnav, and it's fine) - the only time we did was when we went to the Ardeche first.
Easy enough to do "Etap hotel just north of Paris" to the Spanish border in a day with a decent lunch stop so can't help on the other but interested :-).
Thanks Simon, I just tried some google map alternatives round Paris and they did seem to add a lot to the journey time - good to know it's not that bad.
If you fancy stopping and riding, then have a look at staying around les monts de blond (there's a Logis in Cieux). Strato kindly took me out for a ride one day. There's a vtt centre at Les Mas above Vaulry that can sort you out with route maps etc in the absence of a strato.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monts_de_Blond
I drove Bradford-Perigeux a few years back. Missed Paris by going Calais-Rouen-Dreux and stayed overnight in Dreux. Next day went to Perigeux via Limoges. Return trip via Chartres, which has a nice church if you're into that kind of thing. Dordogne area was very nice
We used to stay in a little village somewhere near Chateauroux, something like avignon something or other. but can't remember the name. The campsite was next to a river that you could fish in and there was a good swimming pool with diving boards.
When are you going Grum? We're going in late Sept. I'm flying to Limoges and getting picked up by sis and bro-in-law. We might possibly be interested in a stratobiker route around limoges. Then staying in Foix, I think we're planning Luchon at weekends, due to lifts being closed during week in late sept. Otherwise, we're looking for routes around Foix.
A few years ago, Sis and B-i-L did exactly what you're planning,ie DIY in the Pyrenees around Luchon, I'll point him towards this thread, if he doesn't spot it.
Cheers everyone, some good ideas here. B.A.Nana - going in mid August. Any pointers from your folks would be great.
Planning to spend a few days around Luchon then head over to Andorra. Planning to do a bit of walking/easy mountaineering if possible too.
Highly recommend getting some guiding from AQR in Luchon. I think you'd struggle to find the best riding alone as the marked VTT routes are really not that interesting.
I was going to suggest Cahors, too. Nice old city. Probably about 3/4 of the way which is a nice split IMHO. There's some fantastic walking around Luchon. I thoroughly recommend walking up to lac d'oo for a swim. From there you can walk up to a refuge or there's a path back to Luchon, a good day walk.
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The route to take around Paris is this Calis e402 (a16) abberville-amiens-l'lsle-Adam-cergy-poissy-versailles-trappes-rambouillet-ablis then pick up signs for e5(a10) & south bound you go from lsle-adam to ablis less than 90 mins if you need more detailed info PM me & i can send more info
Cheers simon - looks like we will get a day or two of guiding from AQR hopefully, sweet.
nick - looks lovely, will def put that on the list.
Thanks rangeroy, that's really useful - I will email you for some more info if that's ok.
To miss out Paris take the N104 just after Charles de Gaulles and head towards Creteil etc. This is a sort of outer ring road "la francilliene" and misses out a lot of the traffic through Paris. Its a bit longer in distance but quicker and less stress.
Bourge is quite nice as a stop over.
Will be in andorra last week August till the lifts close and then Les Angles for a bit after riding in the mountains (weather permitting). Anyone who is around and needs someone to ride with let me know.
Cheers ianv
Do you have an email? Can't see it in your profile. Ta
Also - anyone have an opinion on whether the chunnel the best option for getting the car across? I'm hoping it's not all booked up already. 😯
i just checked out the eurotunnel to get across and its well expensive compared to ferry i checked. dover - dunkirk followed by dover calais was cheapest i could find, if anyone knows of cheaper ways then let me know...
really anoying that anywhere from portsmouth was silly expensive as i live in soton
Cheers dobo, just checked out dover-dunkirk - seems pretty cheap.
The place we stayed as a kid was argenton sur creuse, just off the A20. Haven't been there for about 20 years but I remember it as being a nice little village with good camping and the municipal swimming pool was good.
2nd recommend for aqr,think i was there the same week as you and your girlfriend simon nicolai,on some fantastic camo paint scheme nicolai,s ,i was very envious 🙂
annetandianv at btinternet dot com. If you are in the area at the same time and fancy riding get in touch
Hi, B.A.nanas bro in law here.
We found using Google maps instructions and simply following the road numbers/towns was easy enough to get round Paris. Just don't expect an M25 style ring road, it involves plenty of slip roads.
We stopped in Limoges first (don't miss the martyred village at Oradour sur Glane) at the Ibis.
Then we camped just south of Castlenorde on route to see the castle at Carcasonne (if you get to the campsite, which might be called Le Chat? It's on your left, early enough then the campsite owner will deliver home made cassoulet to your tent! We were too late 🙁 )
This might be a detour for you as we then camped in Ax les Thermes for a few days before heading to Luchon.
We loved Luchon, it feels like a mountain biking version of Après Ski at the end of a day. Sipping Kronobourg Blonde after a days lift assisted riding is a little slice of heaven.
We camped at the campsite on the left ad you head out of town towards Superbagnerre. Nice people, I enjoyed my bizarre conversations with the old bloke that runs it. He don't do English and I'm defo pigeon French!
The lift accessed stuff is all marked out. Don't avoid the blue after the park bit, it's sweet. Do try the black (K bourre) it's a lesson in switchbacks but has one or two corners that I will never ever be able to ride 🙁
The routes that head over to the far right as you look at the mountain are really good fun.
As for the local XC stuff, i regret not hooking up with AQR. I exchanged a few emails with them and they were really accomodating but with a wife and dog to please it just didn't work out. You will not find the good stuff without them.
And second the walk up to Lac D'oo. Do yourself a favour and have duck confit and French fries at the bar/ restaurant near the car park. If it wasnt for the size of the hills you could think you were in Yorkshire!!
Cheers Pieface - looks like a nice spot.
mikey3 - looks like we are getting some guiding from AQR hopefully. 🙂
Thanks Mugboo, that's really helpful. How was Ax Les Thermes? Did you do any riding there? I also have a missus to please but thankfully she bikes too.
The trails off to the right, do you mean like no 10 on this map (you need to scroll down) -
Cheers! Yay getting very excited now. My only problem now is that my GF won't want to do anywhere near as much biking as I do. 😉
Edit: duck confit and frites?
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Oh yeah, and does anyone have any more nice pics from the Pyrenees?
grum, deffo check out stratobiker's hood. He showed me round on lovely day over Easter and it was fantastic. Completely empty rocky, fast natural trails. I loved it even though he nearly killed me on the climbs!
I think the thing to do is have a range of possible stop offs and then see how the roads and driving go. You can cover more distance than in the UK. Cahors is lovely, I seem to remember a very old bridge and a medieval part of town with no street lighting. I'm doind a similar drive to the other end of the Pyrenees and hoping to do much of it in a day from Calais. The cheap crossing I got was with SeaFrance, £70 return. Brittany Ferries were prohibitively expensive.
The lifts at Ax had closed so we rode the VTT routes on the plateau on the opposite hill. Very scenic but not very challenging. Although there is a really nice footpath out of the back of the village on your right as you head back to town.
As for Luchon I think it's the routes towards Castillon, they brought us out on to a road above the EDF plant. Not challenging but good fun. KBoure is the black KB on the left of the map.
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Lac Bouillouses near Font Romeau
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Above Les Angles
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Andorra from Valnord Bike Park
Note the good weather when it was pissing down in the alps around the same time!
Grum, are you also planning on Andorra area? like vallnord, grandvalira, Les Angles, la Molina or similar?.
I think the thing to do is have a range of possible stop offs and then see how the roads and driving go.
Yup, got quite a few good ideas now for places now - this thread rocks, thanks team! 🙂
Cheers Mugboo, and ianv for the pics.
B.A.Nana - yup, planning a few days at Vallnord/Grandvilara and maybe Les Angles too.
We need to put all this France info together somewhere!
All these Bike parks are bloody closed when we're there, I think only Luchon is open at weekends. 😥
All these Bike parks are bloody closed when we're there, I think only Luchon is open at weekends. 😥
B.A.Nana - getting the lift is cheating anyway (which I plan to do plenty of 😛 )
Found some threads by me when I was planning to do this last year but it never happened - some of you answered on them too. 😳
Definitely doing it this year though - I've just booked the ferry (Dover-Dunkirk - £70 return). 😀
Mugboo - STW Pyrenees/France wiki?
This thread has some good info in it too - http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/pyrenees-in-3-weeks-and-no-plan-yet
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the advice - we had an absolutely brilliant time, one of my best holidays ever really.
Will post some pics up soon. 😀
Can you add anything new to your own thread as I'm heading back down in Sept..