Canal riding in the Loire?

[edaly]

Hello,

My father and I are planning a two-week cycling trip to France around late August / early September. The current plan is to generally follow two rides described in the Lonely Planet Cycling France guide, one in the Loire Valley and one in Burgundy.

However, another book we picked up extolled the virtues of canal riding. Unfortunately the maps weren't very good and it wasn't clear whether you could ride on canals from town to town or just on short stretches.

Has anyone here done any canal riding in the Loire?

If so, are you able to do a multi-day tour (say 5-7 days) riding mostly canals?

What is the pedestrian traffic like on the canal routes? Can you maintain a moderately high speed?

thanks for any help,

edaly

 

[MadDaze]

I see from the post date that your ride was to happen last year. Did you ride along any canals and how did it work out?

I and a bike buddy just did the two canals that run across southern France from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The towpaths were rugged in places, especially for someone who had never been off-road before.

Harvey the White Rabbit

 

[edaly]

I see from the post date that your ride was to happen last year. Did you ride along any canals and how did it work out?

I and a bike buddy just did the two canals that run across southern France from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The towpaths were rugged in places, especially for someone who had never been off-road before.

Harvey the White Rabbit

Yeah we did do some canals, but in the the Burgundy region instead of the Loire. The "Canal du Nivernais", most notably, which starts in Auxerre and is very well paved (for a while) and extremely pleasant to ride. We only stayed on it for about 20km or so if I recall before moving on to the Burgundy tour route specified by our guidebook.

However we liked the canal riding so much that we actually bailed on the mountain rides about 3/4 the way to Dijon and went back to Auxerre to pick up the canals again.

Unfortunately, like you said the towpaths get very rugged so we were unable to keep riding on them indefinitely as we would have liked to. My father and I were both riding touring bikes with slicks and the bumpy towpaths were a bit too much to take over extended distances with no suspension.

Of the the canals you rode, what % were paved vs. rugged? Do you recall the names of the canals you rode? What kind of bikes were you riding on?


edaly

 

[MadDaze]

Of the the canals you rode, what % were paved vs. rugged? Do you recall the names of the canals you rode? What kind of bikes were you riding on?
edaly

Unfortunately I lost my cyclocomputer somewhere along the way (bounced out due to vibrations), so I have only approximations to give you.

Let me describe briefly our ride. We started in Bordeaux and rode to Castets-en-Dorthe, where the Canal de Garonne, formerly the Canal latéreal à la Garonne, empties into the Garonne, perhaps 80km. We then rode, mostly on towpaths, along the Canal de Garonne to Toulouse, where we switched to the Canal du Midi. We followed that to the Canal de la Robine which we then followed to Port La Nouvelle on the Mediterranean. Total distance from Bordeaux to the Med: about 520 km. Of that about 90 km where proper bike paths -- from 20 km before Toulouse to 70 km after Toulouse. Otherwise it was towpaths in various states of repair and disrepair -- from hard-packed dirt on which you could ride at 20 km/hr or better to large, sharp rocks on which you were lucky to make 10 km/hr. The worst problem, other than the 2-3 km where the agency that looks after canals had repaired the canal bank and virtually rendered the towpath unridable with large rocks, were the large tree roots across the paths from the old trees that hold the canal banks in place. There were also loose gravel, occasional mudholes, kilometers of narrow tracks in high grass, etc.

Having said that, let me hasten to add it was a lovely ride. The canals are so peaceful, the surrounding countryside is so pretty, pretty-as-a-postcard villages everywhere, etc. We stopped a couple of times to pick cherries out of trees growing wild next to the canal. The worst traffic was the large tractors with mowers on arms that were cutting the grass along the canals.

As for bikes, we both had cyclo-cross bikes with fat tires and no suspension. Mine is a 1974 Jamis Nova with different gearing for the hills in France. His is a LaPierre whose model I don't know.

Hope that helps,
Harvey the White Rabbit