Quite fancy a bike tour down to the med and back – anyone been is it as nice as pictures suggest, just looking for a 20-40 mile a day tour with lots of drinking and cheese.

Any info welcome

Thanks

Plum

You bastid 😉

No idea what it's like but I'd love to find out

I've been on bits of it in a boat. It is indeed very pretty and lots of wine and cheese are readily available.

It's kinda flat though 🙂

Did Edward Enfield (Harry's dad) not write a book about it?

I'm ok with flat for this trip, I may branch out to different areas when I get there….or not

Cheers

Plum

have a read of 'narrow dog to carcassonne' by terry darlington..

Just did a bit of Googling and online mappery. I'm definitely going to do Bordeaux to the med one day – 240 miles over 5 or 6 days, finding hotels along the way and eating and drinking the restaurants dry sounds like my sort of holiday.

Thanks, Plumber, for posting this.

I've had a couple of days gentle walking along it with the missus and it is chuffing lovely. Also you wouldn't be the only one on there as I was stepping aside every half an hour or so for entire families riding along it normally with a father puffing and panting with full camping gear in a rucksack and front and rear panniers whilst the kids were zooming along loving it.

I cycled close to this on a touring bike a few years ago. It's a nice area. Lots of sunflowers! Wine too, obviously. Also, the canal seems to be perfect midge breeding ground, so lots of deet wouldn't go amiss! (They do bite)

Would have thought it was less from Bordeaux to the Med, I did it in about three / four (a very leisurely pace)… It's quite fast given it's all flat 🙂
We cycled along the canal on our roady bikes for a while, but got off it as it was faster and less midgey on the nearby roads.

It'd be a lovely trip, do it!

If you want lots of wine and cheese don't go out of season. Me and Mrs Bangin On pedalled from Toulose to Agde (and beyond) on our hoony moon in November 2007 and there was next to nothing open on the actual canal side. Absolutely fantastic time and a really lovely tour, we left the canal for a day or two in the hills. Take a wee stove and basic foody stuff for brews etc if you're going outside of season. If you're in Toulose try and find 'le May's' it was the best meal we had the whole tour, packed out with locals and the waitress/bar staff were singing african jazz and gave us free drinks after the meal. At the other end we ate at 'Lou Pescadou's in Agde which is an awesome experience – a set menu of amazing quality and quantity – 5 courses- fish soup, the biggest bowl of mussels in ratatouille, pate and garlic, a whole fish or a big steak followed by crepe suzette – it was also the cheapest meeal we ate. Formidable…..

For trails I'd suggest the area around Nime (where we went after), from the roads it looked awesome and the bike shops all seemed pretty well stocked and pretty friendly with their advice. We were loaded up and stayed on tarmac but you could see plenty of good stuff was happening all around the place.

i cycled between toulouse and carcassonne on the canal a few years back. it was really pretty, but i was unlucky and had the mother of all head winds! i was trying to get to the coast that day, and had to give up and get the train because my average speed was pitiful. avoid that time of year if you can (october) unless you're going westward that is…

i was actually on my way down to barcelona. from the coast around perpignan down the costa brava the is some pretty amazing cycling. reasonably hilly for a cycle-tour but really really good roads, and off peak it was very quiet

Spent a week south of Carcassonne a few years back. Beautiful area and sooooo quiet, good roads passing vineyards and through sleepy villages.

Do it 🙂

We got that headwind too….. We pedalled for 3 days along the beaches of the med and raised cycle paths into the mother of all headwinds. I had to push the missus pretty much the whole way. I think it's called the mistral and happens Oct/Nov. We watched some amazing kite surfing tho :o)

Some good advice there, thank you everyone.

I read up about the wind and now I'm sure I will miss it anyway

Thanks again

Plum

The wind there is called the tramontane and blows along the corridor between the Pyrenees and the Massif centrale reaching its strongest as it hits the med.

If you got a headwind heading south, you were seriously unlucky, it doesnt happen often.

Aye that's the one.

It only got us as we got to the med and started along the coast and up inland agian towards Nimes. Ah the memories….. The Mrs will never let me forget and I doubt we'll ever go cycle touring again :o(

Been down the midi on a boat, absolutely amazing scenery but but be disciplined as there is a culture of wine/bbq/chillaxin that is very addictive; life moves at 4 miles per hour and litres of good local wine for 2 euro don't help. Enjoy