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!