West coast of France

[Den]

As part of our world tour of France, we are heading down the west coast from St Nazaire to La Rochelle.
The obvious idea is to hug the coast, but the Michy maps dont show any 'green' roads.
Anybody got any good tip for this leg.

And before you all remind me that Im on the 'less good' side of the country, Im giving mountains a miss this year.

Thanks for any advice. DEN

 

[The pater]

Inbetween St Nazaire and La Rochelle, there isn't much to see....


I would just advise to go North of St Nazaire, to do a short trip to Guérande and buy good salt espacialy the "fleur de sel".

Then, each time I go to St Nazaire, I always go to the habour where they build big ship. I like it espacially at night.
It's no far from the "U boot" bunker.


Then on the way down, you should go to Pornic, town center to have one of the best ice creams at a shop called la Fraiseraie.

Underneath Pornic, you should go to Noirmoutier and the "Passage du Grois" which is a road that you can go on if tide is low only.

below that, I do not remeber any interesting things to see.....


Honestly, there are other regions.....

 

[Marty Gutenfart]

Don't do it Den. There isn't much to see and the traffic's abysmal.

 

[Devon]

Start off early one day and take the N137 to Bordeaux (lots of vinyards and quite a nice road) take the ring road around Bordeaux and head off on the
A63 then the A660 to Arcachon for lunch then down the coast a little to the Dune de Pilat (biggest sand dune in Europe) don't go into the tourist car park for the dune, head into the town and turn left to ride up to the free car park with steps down to the beach and short walk to the start of the dune. We took a cheap room for the night before heading back to La Rochelle last year, it was excellent.
If you don't want to travel that far south the national park just north of La Rochelle is worth a day or two exploring

 

[JohnnyOldBoy]

Airbus Tour at St Nazaire

Den,

I did this trip a couple of weeks ago and agree with the general view that the roads are pretty ordinary and lots of traffic. Nantes is best avoided at rush hour.

The Airbus factory Tour at St Nazaire was interesting.

In the end we were pleased to get to La Rochelle which we enjoyed. Take a trip to St Martin-de-Re on the Ile-de-Re, very nice with lots of resturants.

Johnny

 

[Wapping]

Hugging the western coast line of France is, in short, a crap idea. The roads are nothing special, as the map shows.

Looking at the Michelin 1:200,000 scale map you can pick up some D roads back eastwards from the coast which, by-and-large, run parallel to the coast road. But these run out as you reach the flat (reclaimed) land to the north of La Rochelle. They are not scenic, mostly as the land is flat. The road I am looking at runs roughly:

St Nazaire
St Pere-en-Retz
Chauve
Bourgneuf
Machecoul
Touvois
Lege
Palluau
Aizenay
la Mothe-Achard
Talmont-St Hilaire
Tghen main road to Lucon
La Rochelle


Better by far perhaps to move eastwards inland, along a line running broadly south from Saumur, south of Le Mans. Loads of good roads south.

You can carry on south until your reach the Med / Spain or hang a left into the Massif Central or a right to the western coast.

 

[Devon]

IMHO the west coast starts to get interesting from La Rochelle down. The vin yards north of Bordeaux are nice to visit. Avoid Bordeaux the city, then the coast from Archachon as far as Biarritz is nice.
I have fond memories of the west coast of France as it was the first place I toured abroad on a m/c (GS850 suzuki) in 1984. I took my then girlfriend Cuddly Lorraine (My then mates nicknamed her Lumpy Lorraine: I put this down to jealousy at the time, as they could only get thin girl friends ).
Happy Days

 

[mr moto]

i did this route in april, i agree with what the others have said . it is not what you could call a scenic route . u-boat bases were what i was most interested in.
and be warned if you are thinking of going all the way down into spain, we wanted to go to san sebastian, but once over the spanish border the traffic was a nightmare , as they were building a new road system through two new tunnels through the mountains ,and as a result there were temporary road diversions everybloodywhere ,endless lines of hgv,s from all over europe backed up for miles, we gave up and crossed back into france .

 

[Tim Cullis]

Try the ultimate ford, the Passage du Gois, see http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89244

Tim

 

[Den]

All information gratefully received.
Got wee gite booked in Montignac, right from Bordeaux.
A week down ... a week in the wee hoos and a week to get back
And best of all ... a week till it starts.

 

[madman]

If that is the Montignac on the river Vezere, then you will be about 6 miles away from my house. Drop me an email on bikesindordogne(at)yahoo.co.uk and I'll give you a contact number should you want to pop over for a glass of red, or if you want a ride out.
We are here till 2nd September, and back on 25th of September.
Bob
http://bikesindordogne.blogspot.com/

 

[spot]

If you are looking for a place to stop over on the west coast then I can recommend isle de re or the coast north of royan. Accomodation might be hard to find in august unless camping. I am of on a similar route to you going to limosin for a week with 3 days tootle either way setting off on 25th. Cant wait!