A lap of France..... a possible suggestion

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I am lucky enough to be planning some extra time off next summer, when a friend retires, to make (another) lap of France. I thought that bods might be interested to see it and hear how I created it perhaps.

To start with, I cheated as that is easiest. As I have lapped France before, choosing the roads to ride from maps, I thought I would do something different this time and let a third party algorithm choose the roads for me. I started by putting towns somewhat roughly but sequentially into Kurviger, to give me one single route A to B, St Malo anti-clockwise, to Calais. My friend hadn’t mentioned anything about the south east French Mediterranean coast, so I left it out. This was the result:

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A 2,300 mile loop which took maybe 5 minutes to create on an iPad, it really was that simple. I then pinged it over to my friend as a suggestion. He then set about giving me where he wanted to stop each night, so inevitably the route changed, losing Verdun in the process and giving us a longish 300 mile run from Avallon at the top of the Morvan to a final hotel near Calais. I am going to persuade him to put Verdun back in, perhaps.

I then created a revised Kurviger route, plonking in just the overnight stopping places my friend had selected. This took maybe another five minutes, again on nothing more than an iPad. I then sent the Kurviger track (not the route) to BaseCamp on my Mac. This gave me the algorithm generated road-by-road directions to take. By using a mixture of BaseCamp, Open Street Maps and Google I then found the location for each of the campsites he’d chosen. I then created waypoints for each. This gave me a track (from Kurviger) and the waypoints. Then came the fun bit....

I first of all changed the colour of the track, only so it stood out. If Kurviger has one fault it is that it will sometimes select silly little detours just to put in a ‘twist’ when staying on a straighter road is actually more sensible. I needed to get rid of these. To do so I did nothing more than ask BaseCamp to give me for example a single line route A to B, St Malo to my friend’s chosen stopping of point on the coast near Quiberon. This it did. I then very easily dragged (using the route shaping tool only) the BaseCamp magenta line over the Kurviger track, missing out any little oddities that Kurviger threw up. Easy, it took maybe 10 minutes with some zooming in and out, married to some imagination as to what a French D road might well be like.

So far I have not touched a paper map at all. I have used nothing more than Kurviger and Garmin’s BaseCamp software.

I continued doing this as far as near enough Pau. My friend wanted to ride along the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean coast near Perpignan. Kurviger had given me the track across but instead I wanted to use ADAC’s suggestion of a way to go (see the sticky) I therefore looked at the ADAC map suggested route A to B and simply recreated it in BaseCamp. Bingo, one ADAC route A to B, west to east across some of the area’s most famous cols. Easy, again; maybe 10 minutes. I repeated this process across France as far as the French alps at Chambery before the run up to Avallon at the top of the Morvan. Again, Kurviger had given me its algorithm track A to B, Chambery to Avallon but, as I knew the area pretty well, I knew that there is a lot of maybe needless buggering about just to avoid motorways for the sake of it and to cross the Rhône river valley. I therefore ignored much of Kurviger’s track, simply taking the motorway instead, past Lyon and then northwards, until turning left to pick up the Kurviger trac up through the Morvan and on to Avallon. This was the first time when just a little local knowledge came in handy. Other than the ADAC map, I still haven’t touched a Michelin paper map. It has all been done for me, near enough.

This brought me all the way back to Calais, job (sort of) done; maybe an hour spent, of which much was taken up with pinpointing nothing more than the campsites. The result is:

Go to post 18, as I later amended the rote to include Verdun.

Is it finished? No. Will it be changed? Yes, as we don’t leave until mid-August 2020. Was it easy? Yes, I guess so. Did it take hours? Certainly not. Could I have done it with paper maps, instead of Kurviger’s algorithms? Yes, of course. But what I wanted to show here was that if I can do it, with nothing more than a iPad, some help from Kurviger, an ADAC sticky from UKGSer, mixed with a bit of imagination (to avoid goat tracks and buggering around on D roads by Lyon) and some help from Google plus Open Street Maps to pinpoint campsites, all in BaseCamp, anyone can. In short, the tools are all out there, anyone can give it a go. Has it missed some classic, “Mate, you have to do the D123 from A to B. 3 miles of the dog’s nuts”? Of course it has but it’s probably found some more, too. Give it a go, you really can’t break things.

I’ll put some further posts up as things develop. Next is to cheat again.... choosing some day out excursions by using the RiDE magazine ideas and some from Michelin’s 100 vires routes, all from sticky links on UKGSer. Who knows, for the first time in my life, I might not touch a Michelin map at all? I probably will, though ;)

Richard
 
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Hi Richard,

I didn't know you could use basecamp on an iPad so if nothing else I've learned something. Off to the app store to have a look...

Dave
 
Splendid that Richard.

Thank you for sharing. I must try Kurviger myself. Keep hearing/reading about it but seem to completely forget to use it when plotting my trips.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi Richard,

I didn't know you could use basecamp on an iPad so if nothing else I've learned something. Off to the app store to have a look...

Dave

Hi Dave, I think you’ve missed a sentence here


“I then sent the Kurviger track (not the route) to BaseCamp on my Mac.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
by ignoring the SE corner, you seem to be missing some of the most spectacular scenery!
 
A lap of France, a work in progress....

by ignoring the SE corner, you seem to be missing some of the most spectacular scenery!

My friend chose the points he wanted to visit. I had assumed (wrongly) that he’d want to do the SE corner but apparently not. I had an earlier version which included a run down into Nice or thereabouts but when he didn’t mention it, I dropped it out. It may reappear... Still we are having a few days in Provence, so it’s not all bad and he’ll probably change his mind.


The main purpose of the thread is for bods to hopefully see how it’s easy, with just a few simple tools, to create a quite lengthy trip even without a map. Then to fine tune it again a couple of times. It might help those that appeal: “Me an’ me six mates, we is off Tuesday n we need routes from home to there an back no motorways becaus they is shit an we need places to stay as is safe”. The key to it is the application of the Kurviger tool, it really is very good. Purists, can then trace out the route on say a Michelin map and / or into BaseCamp and go from there. It will even give virtual versions in other maps....

3f2f8e7b9126cfdaa2f64f4be66104fa.png
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There was a report on the Kurviger site that they were teaming up with Michelin so that punters could display the routes against a Michelin map. That seems to have died a death. A pity as Michelin maps are very good, better than IGN I think. But some people like IGN.... and some don’t have a map at all.
 
Great way to plan a trip IMHO. I generally do similar by looking at what appear to be interesting roads thru quieter areas and just setting off. Not been disappointed yet.
 
That didn’t take long, we are now going from Avallon to Verdun and then to our hotel near Calais for the last night. This is instead of going straight from Avallon to the Calais coast. wonder if I can persuade him that Italy would be better......???

Anyway, I’ll amend the route to include the campsite at Verdun and, now that I know it, an airB&B he’s booked on the Mediterranean coast, near Perpignan. Happy days.
 
Between your first and second way point of day one (between Lorient and Vannes, on the way to Angers), you will find Atelier JHP. He is an artisan knife maker. The area is a 'wet land' and sunk below the surface are fossilised oak trees. He goes to great effort to dig these up, and uses them to make the scales (handles to you Trixie) of the knives that he creates.

You are to visit, and buy yourself a knife with history and meaning, that you can forever take with you on your bike adventures for lunchtime picnics. :thumb2 :D


https://couteaux-morta.com/?locale=en_US
 
A lap of France, a work in progress....

Between your first and second way point of day one (between Lorient and Vannes, on the way to Angers), you will not find Atelier JHP. But if you head further down towards St Nazaire your may get lucky


https://couteaux-morta.com/?locale=en_US

Fixed !! And here’s a little map to aid the confused/constabulary.....

6a9fbcde062740cac0fee1c9233b2879.jpg



Richard,

Looks like you’ll go right past my place on day 1,about 70 minutes out of St Malo.
Let me know when you’re going as might be there.Pop in for a brew on the way.
 
Sorry ... between Vannes and Nantes. A small detour for him, but it would be worth it. Experiences on your journey, make the journey! He is a fan of picnic lunches on the go, and what better way to cut your fresh bread than with something that has a personal story / journey behind it. :thumb2
 
Sorry ... between Vannes and Nantes. A small detour for him, but it would be worth it. Experiences on your journey, make the journey! He is a fan of picnic lunches on the go, and what better way to cut your fresh bread than with something that has a personal story / journey behind it. :thumb2

Might pop down there myself as only about 90 minutes from my place.Wouldn’t know what to buy though. The biggest one ? :)
 
Might pop down there myself as only about 90 minutes from my place.Wouldn’t know what to buy though. The biggest one ? :)

No! The smallest one! I'd go mini morta brut de forge with three little ivory inlays!
 
Excellent. Thank you.

If you contact them before hand and let them know you're coming, I'm sure they'd let you in the workshop and see the knives being made! A nice touch would be if you could punch an 'RN' or the like on the blade and then purchase!!
 
(Thats Right Numpty if you were wondering ...... :thumb)
 
Now updated to bring in Verdun.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/52fjgfi5wz588es/France2020(DB&RN)-WIP.GPX?dl=0

01. 108 miles - Starting in St Malo to La Trinite

02. 186 miles to Saumur

03. 219 miles to St Leon

04. 189 miles to Lourdes

05. 121 miles to Bagneres du Luchon

06. 206 miles to Argeles sur Mer (this one along to top of the Pyrenees)

07. 175 miles to Millau

08. 187 miles to Roussillon

09. 198 miles to Chambery

10. 239 miles to Avallon (a chunk is on motorways)

11. 174 miles to Verdun

12. 244 miles to Ferme du Verte

13. 15 miles to Calais

Total mileage 2,261

Nothing over 250 miles, which is OK

13 moving days = 173 miles a day average over the time away, which looks OK

Thing to do now.... Add in any excursions, but they can wait for a bit.
 
Fingers crossed, it looks like this jaunt (which we have been looking forward to for longer than is reasonable) may well be on. The campsites and hotels are reconfirming that they plan on being open. The ferry to St Malo seems to be saying they'll be be operational and the Chunnel is running. Providing we get no bloody spike or that idiot in no. 10 doesn't decide to ban people from France, it looks a much more likely prospect than it did in April, May or even earlier in June. Roll on early August, by when the mercury should be boiling.

I am just tidying-up the routes (again) which I'll share with bods here.
 
No! The smallest one! I'd go mini morta brut de forge with three little ivory inlays!

https://couteaux-morta.com/morta-brut-de-forge-en-us/#InlayBlue

Though the Damas, with the inlays is calling.....


If you contact them before hand and let them know you're coming, I'm sure they'd let you in the workshop and see the knives being made! A nice touch would be if you could punch an 'RN' or the like on the blade and then purchase!!

I have pinged an email to the fellow, asking if he plans to be open and allowing in visitors.... with a view to buying.
 


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