Shawn, I am happy if you want go to ahead and book  at Orleans. The HotelF1 is about a  15 min ride from the station, so I am ok with that.

Orleans Accommodation Plan

As we will all being starting out from Orleans on monday morning is anyone looking into accommodation for Sunday night? Are Malydwyn and I making our own arrangements as we are arriving late? What travel plans do Clyde,Pete and Martin have for arrival in Orleans on sunday. Maldwyn I can look into hotels in the vicinity of the Railway station as the nearest F1 is over 4km away.

I have booked and prepaid for 3 twin rooms at hotelF1 (Tours Sud) Total cost €97.20. This works out at €19.44 each inc breakfast.

Dates of Birth Please ! Saumur Accomodation

To book the eurocamp mobile home at Saumur I will need everyone's DOB's !
Moment of truth I know but if you can post it as a comment or if you prefer email me if you rather it not be in the public domain!

Please can you do it this sunday if possible so that I can book the bigger van at the preferred price.

I have booked flights and trains. To confirm:

: Flight - Sun 25 May - Stansted (15.00) - Tours  (17.20)
: Train -  Sun 25 May - Tours (19.03) - Orleans (20.19)
: Train -  Fri 30 May -  Nantes (17.01) - La Rochelle (18.57)
: Flight - Sat 31 May - La Rochelle (09.35) - East Mids (10.00)

linen or for Saumur please

 Can all confirm  sheets, yes or no for mobile home in Saumur. I will then book this weekend. Pete I have noticed your request.

Flights/Trains

Shawn, I will now book my flights for Sunday and the following Saturday. Probably easier if we book our own train journeys as well, for Sunday & return on Saturday.

Hotel du Bellay, Blois, France

A 5 bed room (en suite) has been booked at the above for Monday 26th May. The cost is £15 each excluding breakfast - a continental breakfast is available 08:00 to 10:00 but I have no details of cost. The hotel is about 1km from the Loire and fairly near the Gare if Shawn and Maldwyn elect to join us there instead of Orleans. Arrival time is limited to 17:00 to 21:00 unless special arrangements are made and I have said tentatively that we will book in at 19:00. We can always find a restaurant first, if need be.

Angers or La Possonière

I had hoped to avoid this town, but what seems to be one of the best deals that I could find is Ethic-Etapes, Lac de Maine, right in the heart of Angers. I've provisionally booked 5 bunk beds in 2 rooms, at 23 euros each, including breakfast. Click here for the website. On the other hand, I have also been offered 5 beds in one room on a Loire barge, for 22 euros each, including breakfast! It's at La Possonière-Port, right on the route, west of Bouchemaine and well placed for setting off on the last leg of our journey. Click here for details of this. A minus point is that we cannot board until 20:00. I suppose the boat is actually sailing on the river till then! We could have our supper in the village while waiting to board - the guy has just told me there is a restaurant there, but we must book early. (Maybe if we asked nicely, the captain could take us to Nantes the next day - I've heard that some Dragon riders are not averse to cadging lifts!) Let me know which you prefer.

Trains Orleans/Blois - Hotel Tours

Shawn, I have been having a look at trains from Tours to Orleans on Sunday -

The Flight arrives at Tours at 17.20. It is about 4.5 mile ride to Tours station and we could catch the  19.03 to Orleans with gets in at 20.19.  The cost is £17.50. We would then be able to do the full ride.

Alternatively flying out on the Monday(15.30 - 17.50) and catching the 19.03 at Tours and arriving at Blois at 19.39. Cost £9.50

Shawn your Thoughts?

All

F1 Hotel at Tours (F1 Tours South) around £25 for twin room per night. I think it about 4/5km from our route - comments?

Mobile Home accommodation near Saumur for £60 total!

Domaine de la Breche (2nd result on page) - Mobile Home sleeps 5 

One idea for accommodation  approximately 5km Tours side of Saumur(so is not in town) is this Eurocamp special at only £60 for 1 night. Its very easy to book online. Only problem might be only has blankets so pack own sleeping bag liner or hire.  Nice swimming pool and other facilities.

http://www.eurocamp.co.uk/book/bookonline/searchResults.cfm

Comments? I am happy to book if acceptable.

Garmin Route Plan - Tours to Blois

Just playing with this tool so this is in beta mode. Hopefully I can plot each days ride on the garmin connect website then upload to my trusty Garmin to help us navigate each day. Please feel free to comment on the start/end points, chosen route etc.I can edit each days route and update as appropriate. The illustrated route lets us visit 3 chateaus in one day Amboise, Chaumont and of course Blois.

If we want to take it in turns to lead each day as previously,then when we have accommodation sorted we can nominate days for leading.

Click on text in pale blue below for link to route.


Garmin Connect - Tours to Blois

Booking schedule

How does this look? Maldwyn, if you are doing Tours for you and Shawn for Sunday, you could maybe do it again for the Tuesday? I've taken on two and Peter has two. Is that OK?

Sun	25 May	Orleans: Martin, Peter, Clyde (Peter); Tours: Maldwyn, Shawn (Maldwyn)
Mon	26 May	Blois: all (Peter)
Tues	27 May	Tours: all (Maldwyn)
Wed	28 May	Saumur: all (Clyde)
Thur	29 May	La Possonière: all (Clyde)
Fri	30 May	Nantes: Martin, Peter, Clyde (Martin); La Rochelle: Shawn, Maldwyn (Shawn)

Just to repeat from elsewhere, I've sent a blanket email to loads of places in the Bouchemaine region, including one that Peter found. I await the replies!

New table of distances

Here you go!

Orléans - Blois	68	68
Blois - Tours	67	135
Tours - Saumur	85	220
Saumur - Bouchemaine	55	275
Bouchemaine - Nantes	97	372

Accomodation near Angers for Thursday 29th May

Here are two possibles:


http://lecloschevalier.info/


This is at St Jean des Mauvrets, south of the Loire and a little east of Angers.




http://www.le-bosquet.com/


This is nearer Angers and our likely route and is at Les Ponts-de-Ce.


Both are in French (quel surprise) so perhaps Clyde has the skill to interpret and make a decision (if one or both are suitable).

Alternative travel option

Possible French travel arrangements.

 A quick check of domestic timetables for Sun 25th May reveals that it will be nigh impossible  to get to London much before mid day so I shall probably stop over Saturday night with my daughter in Tower Hamlets. I could be in Paris for say 3pm local time and there are regular trains either to Orleans (about 1 hour journey) or Nantes (about 2 1/4 hours) from one terminus or another. In conclusion, I can be in Orleans or Nantes by Sunday night, 25th May ready for a start on the Monday. Similarly, I can get back from either town in a day. Maldwyn, it will depend on your final choice of ferry as to which way we go.

Reversed itineraries

Here is a new possible itinerary:

Orléans - Blois	68	68
Blois - Tours	67	135
Tours - Saumur	85	220
Saumur - Chalonnes	84	304
Chalonnes - Nantes	78	382

Chalonnes is not very important, so we might be lucky to find anything there, but who knows! Angers is much more important but provides us with a long ride on the last day ):

Orléans - Blois	68	68
Blois - Tours	67	135
Tours - Saumur	85	220
Saumur - Bouchemaine	65	285
Bouchemaine - Nantes	97	382

Notes: (1) I haven't found a way of reversing the Mapometer maps.
(2) I've used Bouchemaine which is close to Angers, but we would need to add on a few km extra. But it is do-able, isn't it? And, given that we'll have a place to stay at Nantes, it doesn't really matter what time we get there.
(3) The total distance has gone up! This is because my earlier Mapometer map for Blois to Orléans used main roads instead of the correct Loire à Vélo cycle route (I was getting tired by that point and I decided to take a short-cut!) Expect the real thing to come to over 400 km!

Musée du Campagnnage, Tours

Click here for the link to that museum in Tours that I mentioned. Well worth a visit if we have time. I thought it was amazing!