touring france



Originally posted by mark taylor
Hi, velo tourists! Has anyone out there toured the Luberon area of France? Or Provence in general? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Mark

My husband and I did our honeymoon cycle touring Provence last July. It was great! We went with Discover France Tours. We also did L'Alpe d'Huez and Mt. Ventoux. The tour company is very flexible and it all depends on what you want to spend. We were fully supported for the two climbs but did almost a week of self guided touring in between. The scenery is beautiful - rolling hills, vineyards - a lot like the California wine country. We have our photos on a web site if you are interested in seeing what it was like. Just let me know.
 
Originally posted by J Pugh
My husband and I did our honeymoon cycle touring Provence last July. It was great! We went with Discover France Tours. We also did L'Alpe d'Huez and Mt. Ventoux. The tour company is very flexible and it all depends on what you want to spend. We were fully supported for the two climbs but did almost a week of self guided touring in between. The scenery is beautiful - rolling hills, vineyards - a lot like the California wine country. We have our photos on a web site if you are interested in seeing what it was like. Just let me know.

Hi J Pugh - I would love to see your website photos - they may help us make a final decision as to our plans.

Thanks,
Kathy
 
Originally posted by Kathy Glover
Hi J Pugh - I would love to see your website photos - they may help us make a final decision as to our plans.

Thanks,
Kathy

Hi Kathy,

You will have a blast. We would do it again in a flash! Not just because it was our honeymoon, either! Here is the web site - my husband did all the work on it -
http://www.csulb.edu/~jostrow/tour/

Jean
 
Originally posted by J Pugh
Hi Kathy,

You will have a blast. We would do it again in a flash! Not just because it was our honeymoon, either! Here is the web site - my husband did all the work on it -
http://www.csulb.edu/~jostrow/tour/

Jean

Hi Jean

Thanks for the link - you must have had a great time! Your pics are great and I like you husbands arty site. I can't wait till our holiday starts now :)

Kathy
 
Originally posted by Kathy Glover
Hi Jean

Thanks for the link - you must have had a great time! Your pics are great and I like you husbands arty site. I can't wait till our holiday starts now :)

Kathy

Hi Kathy,

You'll have to let us know where you decide to go and how wonderful it was! Have a great time!

Jean
 
Hi, velo tourists! Has anyone out there toured the Luberon area of France? Or Provence in general? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

I have cycled in the Luberon. Yes, its "hilly" in the sense that in order to view the hill towns one has to go, well, up a hill. Its really not that bad, I was not in great shape when I went and didn't find anything terribly difficult. However, I did not climb Mt. Ventoux which is included in many itineraries. I hear that is a tough climb so you may want to avoid it if you are concerned about your fitness level.

The luberon is great if you like small hilltown villages. Plenty of restaurants and vineyards if you are a gourmand as long as money is no object (I found restaurants quite expensive). I highly recommend visiting Avignon and Arles if you want to incorporate larger cities into your itinerary.

If you are doing it self-supported then have a look at the following site. Its really excellent - covers a lot of routes in France and has detailed suggested itineraries including kms and roads to take. I cribbed my entire itinerary from this site. Lonely planet also has a book entirely about cycling in France.

http://www.mayq.com/Best_european_trips/Provence/Provence_Luberon_Azur.htm

As far as trains:
With TGV you must have a housse or bike bag to carry your bike with you. I believe with the Intercity and regional system you can take it on any train with a bike symbol OR on any train as long as it is outside peak hours.
 
Hi from France itself

In general you can't take bikes, other than in boxes or bags, on the fastest trains, including all the TGVs that I know about. You can, however, take a bike on many other trains although they are by definition slower. A benefit of that is that they stop at more stations, so it's more likely you can get on or off closer to where you want.

The main SNCF web site doesn't list trains that will take bikes. But there is a site for regional trains that does. Go to http://www.ter-sncf.com/, select the region you want and then the line, and up will come a timetable. On that timetable will be little bicycle symbols where appropriate.

Accommodation is generally, and on the newest trains is always, alongside one or two of the passenger doors, according to the length of the trains. Look for a bicycle symbol on the side of the carriage. At small rural stations there will be so few passengers that station staff or the conductor are likely at least to identify the carriage.

There will be about four bike spaces per train. They can't be booked and it's first come first served. On the other hand, I have never been anything but the only cyclist (other than my wife) on any train that we have taken, with the exception of a train from the Semaine Fédérale at Aurillac last summer. But given that there are 13 000 cyclists at the Sem Fed, that's not surprising.

Even then, we were allowed just to prop oour bikes in the door space and take a seat. If you're nice to the conductor, remember to say Merci and S'il vous plaît and to call him Monsieur (which sounds a lot more formal than it is), your chances are much increased.

I hope that helps. If I can tell you any more, just say. Oh - bikes go free, by the way.

les woodland
st-maurin, france
 
Originally posted by les woodland
Hi from France itself

In general you can't take bikes, other than in boxes or bags, on the fastest trains, including all the TGVs that I know about. You can, however, take a bike on many other trains although they are by definition slower. A benefit of that is that they stop at more stations, so it's more likely you can get on or off closer to where you want.

The main SNCF web site doesn't list trains that will take bikes. But there is a site for regional trains that does. Go to http://www.ter-sncf.com/, select the region you want and then the line, and up will come a timetable. On that timetable will be little bicycle symbols where appropriate.

Accommodation is generally, and on the newest trains is always, alongside one or two of the passenger doors, according to the length of the trains. Look for a bicycle symbol on the side of the carriage. At small rural stations there will be so few passengers that station staff or the conductor are likely at least to identify the carriage.

There will be about four bike spaces per train. They can't be booked and it's first come first served. On the other hand, I have never been anything but the only cyclist (other than my wife) on any train that we have taken, with the exception of a train from the Semaine Fédérale at Aurillac last summer. But given that there are 13 000 cyclists at the Sem Fed, that's not surprising.

Even then, we were allowed just to prop oour bikes in the door space and take a seat. If you're nice to the conductor, remember to say Merci and S'il vous plaît and to call him Monsieur (which sounds a lot more formal than it is), your chances are much increased.

I hope that helps. If I can tell you any more, just say. Oh - bikes go free, by the way.

les woodland
st-maurin, france

Dear Les

Thank you, Thank you , Thank you! That is exactly what I needed to know.

Kathy
 
Les,
Thanks for the info regarding bicycles on trains in France. An added difficulty for us is that our bike is a tandem, so I'm worried it may not fit in the spaces provided. However, on the good side, we plan on riding just about everywhere we go once we get to Provence so we won't be getting on and off very many trains. So the main difficulty will be getting from Paris, or wherever we land to Provence (and back). I'm wondering if we might be better off buying an airline ticket with a destination of Avignon for example, rather than having to transport our bikes from Paris though it would cost several hundred dollars more that way. I wonder if there is a way to ship our bike directly to our first lodgings in Provence, and fly in to Paris ourselves, then take the TGV to Provence, which would give us the opportunity of visiting Paris without the hassle of the bike. Any further thoughts you have would be much appreciated.
Merci

Mark Taylor
Seattle Washington



In general you can't take bikes, other than in boxes or bags, on the fastest trains, including all the TGVs that I know about. You can, however, take a bike on many other trains although they are by definition slower. A benefit of that is that they stop at more stations, so it's more likely you can get on or off closer to where you want.

The main SNCF web site doesn't list trains that will take bikes. But there is a site for regional trains that does. Go to http://www.ter-sncf.com/, select the region you want and then the line, and up will come a timetable. On that timetable will be little bicycle symbols where appropriate.

Accommodation is generally, and on the newest trains is always, alongside one or two of the passenger doors, according to the length of the trains. Look for a bicycle symbol on the side of the carriage. At small rural stations there will be so few passengers that station staff or the conductor are likely at least to identify the carriage.

There will be about four bike spaces per train. They can't be booked and it's first come first served. On the other hand, I have never been anything but the only cyclist (other than my wife) on any train that we have taken, with the exception of a train from the Semaine Fédérale at Aurillac last summer. But given that there are 13 000 cyclists at the Sem Fed, that's not surprising.

Even then, we were allowed just to prop oour bikes in the door space and take a seat. If you're nice to the conductor, remember to say Merci and S'il vous plaît and to call him Monsieur (which sounds a lot more formal than it is), your chances are much increased.

I hope that helps. If I can tell you any more, just say. Oh - bikes go free, by the way.

les woodland
st-maurin, france [/B][/QUOTE]
 
Hi

I'ver never ridden a tandem so I have no first-hand knowledge. You could, however, contact a friend who is a leading light in the Tandem Club of France. Write to me personally at [email protected] and I'll give you his address.

It may be possible to take a tandem on a conventional train - one that's neither a TGV nor one of the small, often single-carriage local trains. But the small trains, I know, usually have hooks on which to hang bikes vertically and they, of course, won't be high enough to take a tandem.

You'd have to check with any airline, too, whether tandems are acceptable. But again, what you need is specialist advice from tandem people. Drop me a line.

happy days

les
 
Originally posted by mark taylor
Hi, velo tourists! Has anyone out there toured the Luberon area of France? Or Provence in general? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Mark

Hi Mark, Ive toured (and camped) twice. Both times I started in the Vercours down to the Luberon; then once I went via Arles & the Camargue to Cannes then back up to Gorges de Verdon. I liked the Luberon. I did the villages on the Southern slopes of the Western bits (Menerbes, Lacoste, Bonnieux) to Apt then back along the top - Superb paved (ish) track closed to motor vehicles. Great views both S&N.

Try and include the Gorges de Verdon too.
 
hanks for the info guys. im planning my first tour this summer from calais to argeles-sur-mer. gonna try and camp some of it. The route does miss out the hilliest parts but they just dont agree with me. if it all goes ok im planning to extend it to travel to alicante in spain. if the first 800k dont kill me that is.

Adam
 
didn't want to start a new thread. going to tour europe this spring/summer, starting and mainly riding in france. will be mostly camping and pulling a bob trailer.

is there a certain stove i should/should not use? i am currently leaning towards the trangia 28. mostly it will be used to make coffee. will i have any problems finding denatured alcohol?

like to drink cytomax when i tour. is cytomax sold in france? will i be able to find it in bike shops?

should i get a camping carnet?

any advice? any places people would/would not recommend? i plan on spending a lot of time in the french/swiss/italian alps, the pyrenees, and corsica. i want to watch as many stages of the tour as possible in the alps and pyrenees, and want to ride the famous cols of the tour like alpe d'huez.

i hear that there are a lot of internet cafes and there is some sort of internet available at libraries or post offices. internet addict that i am, i'd like to plug in every week or so and touch base with peoples and check mail and whatnot. bringing a laptop with wireless card.. should i bring a patch cable or anything?

i plan on getting a sim for my cell phone. are there any cellular services that also offer some sort of internet connection? i have a data cable for my cell phone, and used to have a (crappy) mobile internet service through t-mobile in the states.

more questions to come when i think of them. thanks!
 
make sure your SIM is unlocked before you leave. Most carriers will unlock a SIM after you have been on their plan a certain number of months. ALSO, be sure you know how to change your network settings to use 800/1800 MHz from the 1900 MHz used in the US. On most tri-band phones, e.g., the Motorola V66, the foreign SIM chip will appear to work, but you will have no signal strength bars, and cannot send or receive, if you don't manually change to the right network setting.

also, consider a GPS. I use a Teletype GPS with bluetooth to my PocketPC. I have never been lost in Europe since buying it, with the European map set. With a big SD card, you can load several weeks itinerary. This beats the head scratching you will get from the locals when you ask directions. If your pronunciation of the local lingo is off just a little, many (most?) people cannot make the leap to deduce what you are trying to say.