Ireland 2011

My experience during and after the French trip suggests that our next tour could be a little less intensive with perhaps 3 days of cycling about 50 to 60 miles and then a rest day doing something different before another 3 days of cycling. I have visited much of both Northern Ireland and Eire over the last 10 years and it is all very cyclable. I suspect the cheapest/quickest way there is by air and there are a variety of cheap carriers serving the main airports (Cork, Dublin, Belfast) as well as less well known places like Shannon, Galway and Knock. There are ferries from Fishguard, Holyhead and Liverpool to Dublin (or Dun Laoghaire) and Stranraer to Belfast. I believe there is also an overnight boat from Swansea to Cork. It would make sense to begin and end the tour near an airport town - most airlines quote single fares so the start and end need not be the same and it is possible to get by train, boat and train or bus to most places which have an airport. Being a sensible country, Ireland integrates its rail and road systems and, even better, the long distance coaches take bikes.
There are 185 tours of different lengths and degress of difficulty on the Discover Ireland website so we should, as suggested, be able to select a number of tours which integrate. We may be able thus to stop in the same place for more than 1 day and do circular trips. There are 26 Youth Hostels in Eire (An Oige is the organisation), scattered around the cities and touristy areas. There does not seem to be a formal organisation in Northern Ireland but there are independant Hostels available. There is also, as one would expect, plenty of B&B accomodation but the Euro exchange rate makes it a tad expensive. Last time I went (2009) I was paying about 50 Euros a night for a single room. If we are to visit Northern Ireland then the area of Eire we could cover is limited to the northern counties unless we transferred by train or bus - both time consuming and expensive.
I have the 4 1:250,000 maps of the island, plus a number of OS 1:50,000 maps for different areas and also most of the Sustrans series for  Northern Ireland (Belfast to Ballshannon, The Kingfisher Trail, The Loughshore Trail and The Sperrins.)
Given time, perhaps I could look through the tours on the Discover Ireland website plus those on the N. Ireland equivalent and come up with a suggested itinerary?
Maybe Keith has some ideas as a result of his presumably numerous visits to relatives there?

Hotel de la Gare, Thouars

I have posted a review of this Hotel on TripAdvisor.

Martins Cold

Anyone else aquired Martin's cold from our trip?

Thanks Martin! I hope you're better now.

I also have tingling fingers (Ring and Pinky on both hands) which I have self diagnosed as Ulna Nerve Compression (checked out on Google!! ) at the wrist from holding the flat bars in one position for too long. A week or two off the bike looms. How will I manage the withdrawal symptoms?

Photos now on Facebook!

Check out my facebook homepage for a collection of Photos from 'le Parcours'

I have even included a special album of 'Panneaux de Routiere' pour vrai anoraks seulement.

Enjoy

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220077&id=525612872&saved#!/shawn.brotherhood

Further musing on 'Le Parcours Mystere'

We started out from Caen not knowing how hard this ride might be with permenant blue skies and a gentle easterly breeze to cool us as we sped along. From Maldwyn the 'tour virigin' to Martin who suffered both 'La grippe' and was delayed by 'un greve' (something about anaesthetists on the line in Paris Monpanasse) we were all confident we get to Grignols by Monday evening.

The sun continued to shine and it got a little hotter each day, the hills continued to roll and the countryside was a real highlight.

We met many friendly & helpful french people along the way aswell as the odd surly waitress and agressive petrolhead as at home. Keith in particular enjoyed charming the beautiful ladies, of which there were many,both French and English. It must be the relaxed way of life that brings out the elegant charms and the 'joie de vivre'.

The accomodation in the F1's was as expected 'Functional,clean and when you could find them at the back of the Z.I. constantly consistent. The Hotel de la Gare in Thouars was a real highlight..a family welcome, wonderful tapas and rose wine exotic ladies(!)asking us for a light on the terrace,trapped in the showers but best of all beautifully clean and dry kit delivered in the morning after unprompted offers by our wonderfiul hostess the night before.

Back to the cycling, long days in the saddle with relentless climbs followed by adrenaline fuel descents- one region was even known as 'little Switzerland'- lead us ever onwards to our ultimate Goal -Clyde and Sylvies charming place dans la foret in Grignols,Dordogne. The relief and self congraulatory glow that came over us as we transversed a rough forest track for one last time will remain 'un souvenir' for always.

Sylvie, notre hotesse charmant et gentil, then provided us with the best meal of the week, a real treat of pork loin cooked in milk on 'le casserole' with fine wine from 'Le Ventoux' (how appropriate) with a night under the stars on a spectacularly clear night awaiting Peter and I.

A memorable end to a memorable week.

Felicitations a tous de nous

A bientot

Shawn

First Drink of the Day

Well done us!

Happy its all over, you bet we were!

But theres no getting over that it was a memorable experience for one and all. I am adding the highlights of my pictures (including all those signs-for serious anoraks only!)to my facebook page if you are interested. I hope you all got back OK (nice 1hour flight despite 3 hr wait in a hanger and hairy ride into Bristol on A38 for me) will see you again very soon I hope. More ramblins to come soon

8 jours..800km..80F in the shade..C'etait une vie dure!

Less than three days to go

Is anyone still reading this rubbish?
The weather down here is getting better on the whole: warmer certainly, and drier. I did a circular around Issigeac today of 40 km and it didn't rain at all. Wind was light to moderate and from the NW. It rained later in the evening but only for a few minutes, and not hard. While out, I saw a hoopoe and a jay, and heard a few cuckoos and some croaking frogs.
The other day a ferret ran across the road in front of our car, with a mouse in its mouth. I took this to be a good omen: we shall seize the French greenway system by its throat and arrive at the end of our ride triumphant!

More on the weather

According to Yahoo France, there could be some rain around next week, in the form of averses éparses (scattered showers) predicted with quite low probabilities, and that seems to be the forecast for all towns I checked on. The wettest day will be Wednesday (60% chance at Laval at the moment) but, of course, all this could change - extended forecasts are notoriously unreliable! Temperatures are going up throughout the week with 22 C expected at Thouars on the Friday, and 25 C the same day at Grignols (but no info as yet for any day after that).
I did some training this afternoon: a ride from St Astier to Issigeac (65 km), calling in at Bergerac to get some more maps. It was rather grey, but dry, when I set off but soon became sunny. A N wind was behind me all the way!

It snowed in the Périgord yesterday!

Check out this website.

http://www.sudouest.fr/2010/05/06/il-a-neige-hier-sur-le-perigord-83996-4625.php

New French website

I've just discovered a new French greenways website. Not sure how useful this will be be, but I notice that it links very often to the AF3V website. For those who like to play with sort of thing, it is www.voies-vertes.info/index.php
Another discovery is that maps have started to appear on the AF3V website (unless the one I have found has always been there).
Try http://www.af3v.org/-Fiche-VVV-.html?voie=35 which is a greenway on the Mediterranean coast. Unfortunately, so far, I haven't found a map for any of the greenways that we shall be using (but maybe will appear soon?)
Finally, I note that that the 'Big Figure of Eight of the Charente' (le grand huit charentais) has disappeared from the AF3V site. I wonder why.

Home Safe and on time!

Don't let people tell you its impossible to get back from Foreign climes with rubbish airlines like Ryanair. I did it yesterday by demanding I be flown back on my cancelled and reinstated flight when we had given up our seats for a sunday flight to Bournmouth. If you stand your ground and prepared to enjoy the 'crac' with Michael O'Leary's Nephew then you can fly were no man has gone before, at least for the last 7 days. Did anyone notice a greying middled aged man in a cycle jacket in the background of the BBC news bulletin from EM airport when the 1st flight arrived back yesterday. Yes twas me!

If same happens next month I might have turn around and pedal home halfway through our trip alone as lights/flights cannot be guaranteed to fly twice!

Costs of two hotels

You asked at me at last Monday's meeting to remind you of the costs of the two hotels I booked. They are:
Oasis, Villaine-la-Juhel 180 euros for 3 twin rooms;
Hotel de la Gare, Thouars 160 euros ditto.
Websites: http://www.eurobookings.com/villaines-la-juhel-hotels-fr/hotel-oasis.html?label=gg_en_bh_55495-france-villaines-la-juhel-hotel-oasis&gclid=CLT61p2rmKECFVKZ2AodWH2eOw and
http://www.hotel-de-la-gare79.com/
Above: a picture from the Flower Pot on Monday.

Possible Daily Expenditure in France

I asked Clyde for his thoughts on how much we might spend on food etc whilst in France. I give below his reply for your information:

"Breakfast has already been eaten. A lunch could cost as little as 3 euros for a sandwich or maybe up to 5 for a loaf and piece of cheese/fruit. Or again, for 12 euros you could get a many-coursed meal at a lot of restaurants, and this could include wine or coffee or both!


But we may not have the time to stop and eat it! Say 10 euros as an average. An evening meal would usually cost more than lunch in a resto, maybe 15 or 20, or more. But somewhere like Flunch or Buffalo Grill might serve up a 3-course 'formule' for as little as 12 euros. 20 would therefore be a sort of maximum. Say 10 + 20 = 30 and you would really have little need for any other food or drink during the ride. So 30/day is my last offer, with the likely outcome being somewhat lower than this on most days!"
 

Arrangements for the French trip

This is a summary of what I understood was agreed/stated last night:

Maldwyn, Keith and Shawn travel to Portsmouth for the overnight boat to Caen, arriving there in the early morning of Tuesday 18th May.
Martin travels via Eurostar and SNCF to Briouze, arriving there at 15:20 on Tuesday 18th
Peter travels via Eurostar and SNCF to Caen, arriving there at 16:57 on Monday 17th May and stopping overnight at the ETAP Hotel.
Clyde travels within France by SNCF to arrive in Caen at 13:57 on Monday 17th. He also stays at the ETAP Hotel.
On Tuesday 18th all except Martin will rdv somewhere in Caen and proceed towards the Hotel Oasis at La Sourderie - led by Clyde. The intent is to be in Briouze by 15:20 to collect Martin after disembarking from his train. 
On Wednesday 19th we ride La Sourderie to Laval, led by Maldwyn
On Thursday 20th the route is from Laval to Angers, led by Martin
On Friday 21st we reach Thouars, led by Keith.
On Saturday 22nd we go on to Poitiers, leader Shawn
On Sunday it is Poitiers to Angouleme, led by Peter
On Monday we reach our destination, led again by Clyde.

Most of the Hotel costs will balance out but any deficiencies are to be rectified during the trip south.
We will stoke up at breakfast time, snack at lunch and enjoy a meal in the evening where circumstances permit.
See you all in France. Bon Voyage!

Day 6, Poitiers Sud to Angouleme (Google Map)

Here it is

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104430919671343657639.0004835a394671b5d7fe1&ll=46.157005,0.219727&spn=0.846605,1.755066&z=9

There may be some further minor updates as I try to simplify the route. You can probably create your own Google Earth file from this but if you cant let me know and I will e-mail a copy. It is not all that useful, in my opinion.

Day 6, Poitiers Sud to Angouleme

I have begun a Google map to cover our likely route on day 6. So far I have (fairly crudely) traced the section from the Hotel to Aslonnes which measured out at 9.93 miles. Allowing for some corner cutting this corresponds fairly well with Clyde's estimated 18km (11.2 miles). I shall continue to produce the remainder of the day's ride and then save the result as a Google Earth file which I will distribute.

Mark Beaumont (cycled around the world) in Derby in May

Anyone fancy a little bit of inspiration just ahead of our little French trip?

Mark Beaumont fastest man around the world on a bicycle and recently completed the Americas End to End is currently touring the UK with his slide show(!) and anecdotes from his adventures. Anyone fancy a night at the Assembly rooms on the Friday before our trip let me know on the 12th April at our meeting at the Flowerpot.

See Link http://www.derbylive.co.uk/Public_Event.aspx?ID=735

I would like to go but the Missus is not too keen so am lookin for bikemad company I thought of you Guys. Wonder why?

Tour Leaders?

With a little help from us, Clyde has done a magnificent job in planning/replanning and rescheduling the ride in May to take into account availablity of overnight stops and the discovery of new bits of greenway/VV. It would seem only fair that we should take our turn in actually leading for some part of the ride. With 6 of us, this works out at a day each with Clyde perhaps taking one of the first 6 days then the last one which is likely to be "on home turf".
Perhaps we can give this some thought and come to a conclusion on 12/4.

Day 6 - Angouleme

Reservations have been made for 3 rooms at the F1 Hotel on the northern outskirts of Angouleme for Sunday 23rd May. Total cost was 123 euros. At todays rate that equates to £111.13 or £18.52 each including breakfast but by May, who knows!
I think that completes all the 6 days?

Train Journeys on Monday 17th May to Portsmouth

Times and costs are now available for your likely journeys.
Keith and Maldwyn, who will use either Derby, Nottingham, Long Eaton or East Mids Parkway have little option but to route through London. It is not a long or particularly hazardous trip across London from St Pancras to Waterloo if you know the way (I can provide a route). There is a snag:
Your trip from London Waterloo to Portsmouth must begin before 16:45 or after 19:00.
If the former, you can leave Derby or Notts around 14:00 and arrive into Portsmouth a little after 18:00. The cost is £20.
Alternatively you can wait until about 17:00 from Derby/Notts to get to Pompy around 21:00 for £23.
From Burton on Trent the standard route is via Derby and London while from Birmingham there are a number of routes.
You can catch the 13:10 or 14:10 to London Euston thence over to Waterloo for a train to Portsmouth. Cost £12. This gets you to Portsmouth for about 17:00 or 18:00.
You can catch the 13:03 or 14:03 to Southampton Central and change there for a direct train to Portsmouth. This will cost £19
You can catch the 14:33 or the 18:33 to Reading, then to Guildford and finally to Portsmouth, also for £19.
These costs would be inflated by whatever it cost to get to Brum.
Alternatively, Shawn, I think I would consider asking Mrs B very nicely to take you to Derby or Leicester. Leicester costs are as Derby.
One other idea which has occurred for travel on East Midlands Trains and South West Trains which do the journey from us to London and from London to Portsmouth respectively. Both are owned by Stagecoach so you could look at the www.megatrain.com website to see if you can get any cheap tickets that day. You can book now for 17/5.
Any questions or doubts, ring me or e-mail me or raise the problem at our meet on 12/4.

Anyone need anything while I'm in France?

I'm off to France in a few minutes. If you want me to get anything or check something out, let me know by email/blog/text (07855804451)/phone (0033547770082). See you in April!

Aprils Meeting Date change proposed

Hi All

Can we consider changing the date of our April meeting as I am planning a short break with the wife from April 15th in Murcia. Last minute arrangement so I have only just realised the clash. Can we move the meeting forward to a night earlier that week or the week before say 8th April or perhaps sunday 11th or Monday 12th. I should be able to make each of these dates at the Flowerpot. Once confirmed we can post the date on the blog. Has everyone booked hotels for their nominated nights? Shall we square up on costs at the April meeting? I have not yet booked the ferry as there doesn't seem to be any urgency and I am waiting for Keith & Maldwyn to confirm they are to travel on the overnight crossing from Portsmouth to Caen on the 17th May. The cost of a cabin,3passengers+3 bikes comes out at around £190 in total or £64 each. No discounts seem to be available.

Please reply with suggested alternate dates for April meeting, sorry for disrupting our plans but I sure you all realise its important to keep the good lady sweet and onside!

Regards to all

Shawn

Martin's Schedule

Tuesday 18 May 2010:

8.02 St. Pancras - Paris Gard du Nord 11.17

13.16 Paris Montparnasse - Briouze 15.20

If I am not on the train don't wait for me because the next train from Paris does not get to Briouze until 19.44. I will try to work out some contingency plans before our next meeting!

Wednesday 26 May 2010:

8.43 St. Astier - Bordeaux 9.57

11.25 Bordeaux - Paris Montparnasse 14.40

18.13 Paris Gard du Nord - St. Pancras 19.34

Martin

Poitiers Booked for 22/05/2010

I have booked the Hotel F1 in Poitiers Sud for saturday 22nd May along with my return flight for the 25th. Still need to book trains and Ferry crossing.

Maldwyn and Keith I assume we are still travelling together from Portsmouth on the night crossing on the 17th May with cabin facilties to arrive refreshed!

If you will confirm this is the case then I am happy to book online this crosssing for the 3 of us + bikes. I will look again for discounts on single crossings but am having no luck to date.

Travel to/from France

I am now booked on the 10:25 Eurostar service from London to Paris on Monday 17th May, travelling standard class. I should arrive in Caen late afternoon and will meet Clyde there. We are staying overnight in one of the Caen Formula1 Hotels there. I expect we shall ride to meet Keith, Shawn and Maldwyn on the 18th somewhere on the Greenway from Ouistreham. Dont be TOO early, chaps so that we can enjoy our eat-all you-can buffet breakfast!
My return trip is 19:13 from Gare du Nord on Tuesday 25th (First Class so a meal and lots of wine). That should make for a comfortable start from Grignols.

3rd Night Angers

3 rooms booked for night of 20 May 2010 at Formule 1 Angers ouest - the one nearest the Greenway at Bouchemaine.

34.30 Eur per room (non-refundable) including breakfast at 3.70 Eur per person:

"Eat as much as you like Buffet breakfast"

Martin

Return booked

We are all returning from Clyde and Sylvie's house in La Clairiere after our tour in different ways. Euro Star for Peter and Martin, flight to Bristol for Shawn, Clyde is staying put ? I think
and now me and Maldwyn have booked the European Bike Express for our return.


We will hopefully board the bus at Bordeaux at about 7.40pm on the 27/05/10 and arrive at
Trowell Services, Notts 3.00pm 28/05/10.


Its kind of door to door but we are hoping we will see still more of France whilst returning through the window of the coach but able to relax and let the driver worry about all other matters.

2nd Night - Laval

I have reserved 3 rooms at the Formule 1 hotel in Laval for the 19th May @£27.73 per room.

Maldwyn

Hotel Booking updates Formula One

UPDATE on F1 hotels

Please note that if you book 30 days in advance one receives a 10% discount on room and brekkie tariff. It seems however it is only possible to book 2 rooms in one name so how do we organize booking the 3rd room in Laval,Angouleme and Poitiers if we are to go with F1?
Just to confirm

Maldwyn to book F1 in Laval
Shawn to book F1 in Poitiers
Peter to book F1 in Angouleme
Who is to book F1 in Angers ? Martin

If anyone can check if 3 rooms can be booked at discount price then let us all know otherwise we can nominate someone to book the 3rd room each night! Please feedback on the blog if you like aswell as e-mail so we can all see what others are doing..we don't want to book too many rooms as I think these prices are not refundable.

Got it! Phew I am confusing myself

Grand Huit Charentais

Here is the link to the Grand Huit Charentais
http://www.lacharente.com/layout/set/popupcarte?calque%5B%5D=VRVV
You can resize the maps and identify the roads that it runs over. I have transferred the route to an IGN map and then used old technology (a little wheel and a dial calibrated in cm; years ago we used to call them pedometers but that can't be right - a pedometer is obviously something quite different. Anyone know the correct name?) to calculate some distances. Photo above is of spreadsheet using these distances.

Brittany Ferries Update - Return cheaper than single!

FTA 3 guys on a boat to France

I have noticed that if we were to book a cheap day return going out on the boat we had arranged at 22.45 on monday 17th May and returning the next day at 15.15 we can book the trip for £105 rather than £192 a saving of £87! This includes our cabin for 4 with ensuite.

Anyone see any problem with this? If we are in agreement I will go ahead and book it know as the offer may not last forever.

Day 2 Laval 19th May

Thank you for your comments. I will go ahead and reserve rooms at the formule 1 when I get back from skiing (end of next week) - 3 rooms £13.87 per person. I believe there is no cancellation fee up until the day before arrival - so no risk if anything changes. The breakfast is £3.21 and can be reserved at the time of booking - Do you want me book this at the same time? Can you let me know before the end of next week if you require this.

Maldwyn

Saturday 22nd May - Day 5 - POITIERS

Proposed Accomodation for Saturday night the 22nd May is just to the South of Poitiers -perhaps 4km from the start of the greenway adjacent to the D741- is you guessed it Hotel Formula 1 Poiters Sud (code 2353). 30euro for a double room (2 single beds) and 3euro70 for all you can eat (!)buffet breakfast sounds familiar but as always temptingly cheap place to crash after a long day in the saddle.

Or alternatively there is an Ibis in the same area at the tempting price of £39 per double room with own bathroom ! Breakfast is £6.50 pp but may be more substancial than the F1.

Ill be happy to book either one if you all confirm your prefernce ...F1 or Ibis.

See links below: http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/reservation/multirates.jshtml or http://www.hotelformule1.com/gb/hotel-2353-formule-1-hotelf1-poitiers-sud/index.shtml

Day 6 - Sunday 23rd May - Angouleme

Our 3 Hotel Chains each have at least 1 hotel in Angouleme. Each of them have a hotel in an industrial estate to the north of the city centre which is accessible by a minor road (Rue L'Auvert according to Google) from Champniers which is on our itinerary. Our general direction on the Monday is South East and we could skirt the easten edge of the city rather than blast through the centre to get to Torsac. All offer Breakfast (price unknown) and the option of up to 3 persons per room. Current prices are:

IBIS    43 Euros
ETAP  42 Euros
F1        33 Euros

There are other Hotels in Angouleme but none of them have any obvious advantage in price or quality
As we have no knowledge of any of these Hotels I would be inclined to book 3 rooms at the F1. Any disagree?

DragonRide 2010 - Train Journey Information

Details of train fares are only held for 12 weeks in the National Rail Database. I could provide journey timings for 17th May but not the cost and a little investigation confirms that price varies considerably according to forecast demand. As an example, Derby to Portsmouth via London on 5th April (a Monday) would be £81 but a week later would only be £23.
Applicable detail will be posted on this site in early March.

The new route Ouistreham to Grignols

Here are 3 pics of the spreadsheet I sent out earlier, together giving the full route for May 2010. Don't forget to click on them to enlarge them - I think you'll find them readable.

CTC discount & Euopean Bike Bus cost/availiblity

No discount on Brittany Ferries for you CTC members but it is available on Sea France Ferries.
The European Bike Bus does have a pick-up in Bordeaux at 19.40 on the 27th May and will arrive at Trowell Services, Notts at 15.00 28th. The cost is £129 if booked on the website www.bike-express.co.uk (the times may be slightly effected as its the first altlantic route date of the year but the ticket when bought will reflect the modified times if any).
I still favour travelling back this way (door to door nearly), its likely the train costs + ferry will be similar.
As Maldwyn as said we need to book this as early as possible when we are all agreed on our personal preferences, ie train/boat, bike bus, plane, air balloon or rocket.

Keith

Day 4: Angers to Thouars

On a de la chance, mes amis! (We are in luck.) We are booked into the Hotel de la Gare, Thouars: 3 twin rooms for a total of 160 euros (60 + 2 x 50). He says that they 'adhere to the Thouarsais cyclists' welcome charter', whatever that is.) I know I still haven't released the final draft of the route but I make Day 4 come to 108 km. Day 5 would consist of following this GW southwards to Parthenay and then turning more or less due E to Poitiers - 121 km - although, if the going got tough, we could simply strike out roughly SE (at almost any point along the GW) to Poitiers, cutting off the corner and getting there quicker (if that makes sense.)

Hotels at Laval - 2nd night 19th May

Details of two possible hotels at Laval: One hotel is located in Bonchamp-les-Laval, which is, as far as I can tell is near the Greenway that passes on the east side of Laval (Greenways are not shown on my map, but looks to be close - can you confirm Clyde). It is a ETAP hotel and the rate is £36.40 per room and it reckons to sleep upto 3 adults per room, although cheap enough to have 3 rooms - see pic. "If we decide to go for this I bag the top bunk"!! The address is 2, Rue Bernard Palissy, Bonchamp-les-Laval.

The other hotel that is in the area is a Formule 1- Boulevard de Buffon, Laval (one that Clyde mentioned as a possible - not sure if it is closer to our route or not). It has the same rooms as the ETAP i.e upto 3 in a room and a bit cheaper £27.73 per room.

There are a few other cheap hotels in the area but the reviews were not good.

Your comments please

Maldwyn

Return Journey - Bike-Bus

With regard to Keith's info on the Bike-Bus. The cost £129 for the return journey does seem high, but the Flight and Train from Bristol would be almost as much (assuming Rynair continues not to fly to East Mids). With the convenience of the Bus (once your bike is loaded you can forget it until you arrive at Trowell) this would seem a good option.

I checked the schedule on the Bike-Express web site and apart from the 27th there is one on the 26th May, and that's until the 8 June, so I guess we would have to book fairly quickly if we decide to use this service - I am thinking the Bus could get booked up quite a bit in advance (given the fairly irregular service).

What do you think?

Maldwyn

Day two: Villaines to Laval

Between Mayenne and Laval there are actually two greenways. Firstly, there is the Voie Verte du Chemin de Halage de Mayenne, which we can take as far as Daon, on Day 3 (85 km). Un chemin de halage is a towpath, and don't forget that the Mayenne is a river, as well as a town, so thIS GW should be pretty flat! Then there is also the Voie Verte de La Chapelle-Anthenaise à Ambrières-les-Vallées which starts to the north of Mayenne and runs southwards towards Laval, stopping a few km short of that town. It seems that for much of its length it runs parallel to a 'velorail', where you pedal yourself along in a special truck on the original railway track. Would this be an amusing diversion from our other pedallings?
So many ex-railways. Was there a Monsieur Beauchamp who wielded his hache back in the 'Sixties?

The first day

I have booked rooms at the Hotel Oasis for the night 18/19 May: 3 twin rooms for a total of 180 euros. I make the distance for the first day now 126 km - pah, not even 80 miles! I will be sending out the spreadsheet with corrections in due course, but briefly the route on the first day will be the same as originally planned as far as Javron, and then we take the N12 eastwards for just 3 km (I hope that's not too scary) to La Gare (so called because the old station is there), marking the start of the greenway (which used to be a railway line). Thus we take this greenway on our first day - as far as the outskirts of Villaines. Leaving the GW after 8 km, the D119 takes us in about 2.5 km straight to the hamlet La Sourderie, where our hotel is. You can see all this on the IGN map above. The GW is the dark red line. The hotel offers either a 'full continental breakfast' or a 'full English breakfast' for 7 euros.
Martin, there is some advice on the AF3V website on how to get to this GW from various SNCF stations. It mentions Briouze, trains to which from Paris-Montparnasse carry bikes, and which we pass through - so we could meet you en route.

Good meeting

Conventus bonus heri vespero habuimus! Vectiones gratae in viis viridibus velocipedibus nostris Maio prospicio!

Plans for Thursdays Meeting

Hi all

Is everyone prepared for Thursdays meeting?
What time are we meeting at The Flowerpot .. 7.30pm?
I will bring my newly traced Michelin route map as will others no doubt!

Some pictures of Ouistreham - and a bit of etymology

I have already put on various blogs some of pics I took last summer of the voie verte de Caen à Ouistreham. I've now dug out some more of the Ouistreham end. These were taken coming from Caen (top to bottom): interpretation board "The Ports of Ouistreham"; interpretation Board "Caen to Ouistreham Greenway"; police patrolling the greenway; cyclists leaving Ouistreham; coming into Ouistreham; ditto, with cyclists; boarding the Portsmouth ferry now; close-up of ferry; the greenway continues westwards along the coast.

How well-known is Westerham in Kent? It's not far from Croydon where I grew up. The placename is Anglo-Saxon and means 'western farm or homestead'. Interestingly, Ouistreham is cognate (comes from the same Germanic roots) and means exactly the same thing. It was a Saxon settlement, older than the Vikings who settled in Normandy in the 9th century and gave the duchy its name; the inhabitants of this farm were among those who didn't make it to Britain with Hengist and Horsa (no ferry in them days).

I am glad to see the snow did not put you off going out on your bike Clyde. As you are probably aware we have had a tad more snow here and I have left my bike tucked up in the shed. A few pics I have taken around Kings Mill Reservoir and a snow covered Robin Hood line.

I have a Michelin Atlas of France which I could photocopy the relevant pages of the route for the meeting. It could useful to look at the route in detail and checkout stopover locations. If anyone else as already done this let me know.

See you all on the 4th Feb.

Maldwyn

Eurovelo 6

The piece of greenway that we shall be following on Day 3, between Angers and Saumur, forms part of the 3653 km-long Eurovelo Route 6 which runs from St Nazaire, France on the Atlantic Ocean to Constanta, Romania on the Black Sea. Anybody doing anything in May 2012?
See http://www.eurovelo6.org/ for details.

News from France

By the way, a bit late perhaps, but welcome to the blog, Maldwyn! Glad the journey through the Time-warp was painless. I've had one or two bruises going through black holes from time to time!
Like in Blighty, we have had quite a bit of snow over here but most of it has disappeared, now that the temperatures have started to rise again. I saw 10 C this afternoon. Much snow was washed away this morning by pouring rain, but later there were blue skies and the sun.
I have done a little training. I even went out yesterday on icy roads - and fell off once, but only once!
I've had email answers from a few - but not all - tourist offices that I wrote to. Mainly they refer me to web addresses which were on their websites anyway. So we will have to start from there. Maybe, if I managed to fix just one night up for all of us (once we have definitely firmed up the dates), we would be able to see how easy (or not) it is, and use the same techniques to fix all the others. I'd rather not wait till we are there: it would be not too bad to be told that we would need to go another 30 km - and in the wrong direction - if we were driving, but on a bike ... !
I also had one reply, from Riberac, telling me how we can get publicity from the local press and radio!
I let the af3v people know about our trip but haven't had a reply yet. Sustrans is not mega-keen on us using up all the good will that they can count on from their contacts abroad, it seems. Perish the thought that I might have been considering scrounging off fellow cyclists in France (in fact, that was precisely what I had in mind), but we mustn't push our luck - I suppose that there must be quite a few people planning similar trips. On the positive side, someone called Jon at photos@sustrans.org would be interested in pics of French greenways being used by ordinary people going about their daily lives.
And now here is something I've only just come across in the last few minutes: the 25th Festival of Bicycle Travel at St Denis this coming weekend. I think it might be under canvas! Anyone game for this? See http://www.eurovelo6.org/actualites/25e-festival-du-voyage-a-velo
Back on English soil on Sunday 17 Jan.

Time Stamps on articles and comments

Following Clyde's comment about time stamps (which I had previously been aware of) I have checked the settings and found that this blog was set to "Pacific Time" which is 8 hours behind GMT. It is now set, as it should be, on GMT so Clyde wont appear as if he is a night owl any longer. My clock says about 11:42 on 10th January as I post this.
It was my fault!!

What a co-incidence!

Readers will be aware of my minor travel restriction due to a long term commitment to look after our Grand daughter on a Wednesday. My wife is unable to cope single handed with the bundle of energy that she now is due to hip problems. It was with some delight, therefore, that I discovered today that we shall not be needed on Wed 19th May as our daughter and family will be on holiday in Devon. Hurrah!! By way of a change from cyclists and cycling related piccies here is our Grand daughter in her Christmas outfit, looking as if butter would not melt in the proverbial mouth.

Surfaced at last

Hi! all, flu gone and keen to get into the ' Parcours Mystere ' 2010. Superb organisation already in

swing and with the same enthusiam, its beginning to effect me at last. I particularly like the 17/05/2010 date as me/Carmel are hoping to go to Seoul, S Korea to stay with our Gareth/Rachel and family in mid June. No dates firmed-up but if its possible to book our bike ride early all the better.

I will be at the meeting ' Flowerpot ' 4/02/2010 and do something to earn my corn, as you have set it up for me, thank you !

Please tell me if I need to pay anybody - now.

The ride through France will be terrific and all the better for a greener route than my Lourdes trip, I kept to the 'D' roads, through Bagnoles, Sable-sur-Sarthe, Vihiers, Niort, St.Sauvant, Libourne and on to Lourdes. I really enjoyed-it and hopefully with goodish weather and certainly good company an even better ride.

Keith

My Schedule

At present I am planning to be away from 13 May to 18 May, so could not realistically start a new journey until 20 May. However,
with an early start, it does seem possible to get from Derby to most railway stations in France on the same day; so I could catch you later in the week. The meeting on 4 Feb is OK for me.

Clyde: I tried to add a comment about posting .doc but have lost track of which user name to use. Anyway, I think this blog likes .jpg but not .doc so I "photographed" the document. My printer options seem willing to turn a .doc into a .jpg.

Martin

Hi Folks,

Just trying out my first blog - It didn't hurt at all - in fact a totally painless experience!!

The dates and times for transport look pretty good to me. Hopefully we can firm everything up on the 4th Feb.

Maldwyn