between St. Malo and Cognac???

[LiquidLAN]

Is there anything interesting???


Heading down to Portugal next month for WSB and currently trying to plan the route. having read various stuff here and having a vauge idea of what we want to see in France we've got the outline of a route planned.

hoping to hit Cognac, Toulouse in the south and head over the Pyranees via Sort and then make our way through Spain partly along the south coast, partly cutting through the interior, but.......

the big question is, is there anything note worthy or of interest between St Malo and Congac? All the roads looks pretty straight, I know we're crossing the Loire Valley, but is there anything else we should look out for or do we just bang the miles out to get to the interesting stuff further south?

 

[LiquidLAN]

Really??? Can't anyone think of anything interesting to suggest between St. Malo and Cognac? Not even as a funny????

 

[Wapping]

Only you know how long you have got, what you might find interesting en-route or indeed even why you want to go to the town of Cognac itself.

But, never mind.

Possible things to see of interest:

Le Mans museum, at the race track?

U2 submarine hangers at St Nazaire?

Assorted chateaus on the Loire river?

Oradour-sur-Glane?

Cave paintings / underground passages around Sarlat etc?

Volcanic hills?

Take in a rugby match, it's the right area for it and the season is underway.

The best bet is to get a copy of the Green Michelin guide. It will tell you everything you need to know and more and then some.

As to a possible route? Follow the Bis routes up and down, perhaps? Have a look at: http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136891

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197540

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199753

 

[ChasMill]

Take in a rugby match, it's the right area for it and the season is underway.

+1 I did this a few years back - Toulouse in a championship game. It was about this time of year as well. Top quality rugby and a large proportion of the French squad on show. We had pitch side seats behind the dug out. When Fabien Pelous (who was captain of France at the time) stood up from the bench, I thought someone had turned the lights out he was so huge.

 

[Sergeant Pluck]

I just got back from Majorca and took a similar route ( St. Malo - Bordeaux - Pyrenees - Spain etc ). I would say crack through it as quick as you can and get to the Pyrenees, it's mostly flat and boring. Get to the mountains and there are some good passes on excellent and empty roads

 

[Wapping]

Decided on anything yet?

 

[Martyn B]

On your route...

Have just got back from our treck across France (St Malo - Colmar in the Alsace)and will do a seperate topic sometime but like what Mr Wapping said, it depends on how much time you have and where your interest lies. Yes, there are a lot of straight roads but all it takes is a map and some planning and you can have a very entertaining ride as long as you are prepared to sacrifice some time getting down there.

I know the east of Brittany/North Western Normandy very well but like most people, you'll probably want to get some miles under your belt rather than exploring the early part of your route. The areas around the forests of Broceliande have some great roads but they are relatively close to St Malo - you'll still be in "disembarkment mode" as they chuck you off the Ferry at 0730 BST, 0830 local. I can recommend Paimpont as an interesting place for a first coffee stop near Rennes (you'll have to leave the N137 to get there if you are heading down that way).

However, if you are interested in staying in some interesting towns en route, I enjoyed the old part of Tours, the city of Angers is worth a visit and Saumur on the Loire is a must (look out for the troglodyte caves).

Riding along the banks of the Loire gave some interesting riding but be prepared to do some bank-hopping as the views disappear with monotonous regularity!

As for the Bordeaux region, IMHO, just go through it as quickly as possible!

Let us know what you are going to do/did.

 

[LiquidLAN]

Decided on anything yet?

Sorry, been away and just got back from Sudan, kind of sorted a route before hand, but it was pretty much just from south of Cognac, it just seemed to be a hac getting down there. We are looking at between three and four days to get to Portimao and yep, it's all very much a case of "what you're interested in" but it seemed like a pretty big chunk of country to just blat through.

One of the things I'd kind of thought of going to see was the Calypso as it was in La Rochelle at one point, but I think they've moved it to the north coast now shame really as I dived Conshelf II in Sudan and it would have been pretty neat to have seen Calypso, but it was a different era of diving back then...

I/we want to get to see some of the war mamorials up in the north, don't know why, but it seems important to me. I think we toured around the Loire when I was a kid, but I can't remember too much about it - long trips towing a caravan when I was 5 or 6 as far as I can remember. It would be nice to see some of that area again. Valcanic mountains and Cave paintings might be pretty spectacular too, but I think I'll have more lucky getting the the other guys to agree to the U2 pens

Cheers for the suggestions guys, I'll do some more research and add some stickies to me maps

 

[LiquidLAN]

Thanks for the help and suggestions on this one guys, I got back yesterday after a great 10 day trip...

picked a route down via St Nazaire, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Toulouse and stopped just short of Foix on the first day. Managed to find some slightly more interesting roads on the way down, but sadly didnt really get time to see anything on the first day (shitty weather, distances we wanted to cover, time lost to changing a front tyre... dont ask)

From Foix we went through Andorra and over to Sort, weather was pretty bad up in the mountains, but that route across is definately worth taking - in good weather it must be amazing, but for us it seemed to get us out of the bad weather and on to the other side of the hills and weather fronts.

Spain has some truely amazing roads!

I can't promise anything spectacular, but I'll post a riders report later and try and show some of the routes we did.

Needless to say I've had an excellent trip and didnt want it to end

 

[Wapping]

Thanks for the help and suggestions on this one guys, I got back yesterday after a great 10 day trip...

picked a route down via St Nazaire, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Toulouse and stopped just short of Foix on the first day. Managed to find some slightly more interesting roads on the way down, but sadly didnt really get time to see anything on the first day (shitty weather, distances we wanted to cover, time lost to changing a front tyre... dont ask)

From Foix we went through Andorra and over to Sort, weather was pretty bad up in the mountains, but that route across is definately worth taking - in good weather it must be amazing, but for us it seemed to get us out of the bad weather and on to the other side of the hills and weather fronts.

Spain has some truely amazing roads!

I can't promise anything spectacular, but I'll post a riders report later and try and show some of the routes we did.

Needless to say I've had an excellent trip and didnt want it to end

Splendido, indeedo.

Great if you can ping up your routes etc.

You observation about how much longer it took... weather, puncture and distances, all go together to part answer the: "How long will it take, mister?", question

 

[LiquidLAN]

Splendido, indeedo.

Great if you can ping up your routes etc.

You observation about how much longer it took... weather, puncture and distances, all go together to part answer the: "How long will it take, mister?", question

as promised... ride report

 

[Wapping]

as promised... ride report

Good man!

 

[(RIP) orbit]

Lucky with the wreckless driving , 1 month ban and six points if you had been a local

 

[LiquidLAN]

Lucky with the wreckless driving , 1 month ban and six points if you had been a local

lol... yes lucky indeed

not sure a little sub 3 inch wheelie that the officer couldnt work out who actually did really counts as wreckless, but I guess it depends which end of the gun you stand and if you're names Charlie Boorman or not