Link to my photos of epic ride!

Dear all I have posted my pictures on Picassa under the following link- sorry if 150 are too many to go through but I think there are some fantastic memories recorded- the weather made every shot a picture- so I couldn't cut out many. Let me know what you think and download or swap any you like and share your memories of a fantastic weeks ride. I spent monday on the beach and visiting the Nature reserve at Portiragne Plage. What a lovely place even though the warm mistral wind ensured I got sandblasted as I topped up the tan. I even earned myself a free beer for proof reading an english menu in a bar in Portiragne village. English cream is now 'custard' and megot is translated as 'cigarette butt' and one bar owner made happy. I look forward to seeing your pictures at some point and hope we can all catch up soon and plan 'Dragon ride V - England?Scotland. a bientot!


https://picasaweb.google.com/101875583746637889849/DragonRide2012EntreDeuxMers?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOTlsLGi5KfHiQE&feat=directlink

Some details for Day 1

I suggest that we meet at this hotel-restaurant. I'll be there, sipping a G&T! In fact, the car park might be more appropriate, after looking at the website! (see below) Start assembling from 10:00 but let me know if that's going to be difficult for anyone (Shawn?) I think we ought to climb the 107 metres of the Dune - hard work from memory, in the fine sand, but the views are awesome! Then we dip our wheels in the Atlantic, then set off eastwards any time after 11 (more likely 12) with a huge tail-wind! I suppose it would be an idea to bring sandwiches? Look forward to a pizza in the evening! (there's a pizzeria opposite the campsite, apparently)
Hôtel Restaurant La Corniche

46 Avenue Louis Gaume Pyla

33115 Pyla sur Mer

Itinéraire

lacoorniche-pyla.com

The plan is to access the Aquitaine Coastal Greenway D804 which runs parallel to the main road D259 to La-Teste-de-Buch, then continue on this GW to "Kid Parc", where my IGN map shows it fizzling out. Then a minor road northwards (Ave de Césarée) to Gujan-Mestras, where I'm hoping we can quickly find the GW which passes through the Le Teich Ornithological Park  http://www.af3v.org/-Fiche-VVV-.html?voie=70 (6 km long according to AF3V). After this, the map shows another short stretch of D804 going towards Facture. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to avoid a short bit of the D650 but, from there, there is a 4.5 km link, including a new footbridge over the M-way, to Mios and the ex-railway GW which we use all the way to St-Symphorien. Any questions?!
plus d'infosAdresse :

Incorrect ? Afficher toutes les modifications Incorrect ?

Le positionnement sur la carte est approximatif. ‎

Ride to the Garonne Canal – just to whet your appetites!

Less than three weeks to go, folks!

I had my longest ride so far this year – 132 km. Passing through Seyches (belltower/arched entrance to the village, next to the church), I arrived at the canal (La Gaulette Lock) and sought out the two B&Bs near Lagruère where we shall be staying. One was quite tricky to find, so I’m glad I made the effort. Note the diseased trees; there was hardly one that was not affected. A shame! Note also the British narrow boats – brought by low loader, I guess, unless one of them featured in the book ‘Narrow Dog to Carcassonne.’ Suspension bridge over the River Garonne, to La Réole (oldest town hall in France, built by Richard the LH) and La Réole itself on the river, reminiscent of Chateau Gontier 2 years ago. I don’t know if we’ll have time to go there – maybe the faster of us might manage a diversion! (but that lets me out!) I may have remarked somewhere else that from Arcachon to Bazas we will be riding bits of greenway which will one day be all joined up under a departmental road number, D804 (at least in the Gironde). Now I see that the Garonne Canal towpath also has a number, D809! In all, I covered 36 km of the canal – all tarmacked, of course.

And now an apology. A spreadsheet I sent out after I found those two B&Bs contains two errors. The distance from Lagruère to Agen is not 73 km as stated, but only 43 km, making Day 2 our shortest. That’s the good news! More good news is that there is no error overall, as far as I am aware. It follows, however, that there is a mistake elsewhere: in fact, Agen to Toulouse will be in the region of 109 km, not 81 km. Sorry about that, but not a huge distance to do, given the terrain and the wind (we hope!) On that subject, the wind today was blowing from the SE – we can do without that, thanks!!! (but it wasn’t strong) It was also quite hot today: 26 C was predicted and I’d guess it reached that!

Some details on the route

Greetings from the Lot-et-Garonne (47, Martin). I attach here the map from Julien Savary’s first booklet which covers the latter part of our journey and shows the bits of the Canal du Midi towpath which are ‘voie verte cyclable revêtue’ (surfaced greenway – red on the map!) and those which are ‘itinéraire cyclable non revêtu’ (non-surfaced cyclable route - orange). Just to recap, the various greenways from the Dune du Pyla to the Garonne Canal are all tarmacked, as is the towpath to Toulouse – so no problems there. After Toulouse, the towpath is surfaced as far as Port Lauragais. Then there are small red stretches as follows: through Castelnaudary; through Carcassonne; from Béziers towards Agde for a few km. The rest is orange. There are also a few exclamation marks, which the booklet describes as ‘difficultés’. The majority of these seem to be in the region of Sallèles-d’Aude, Argeliers, Capestang, Poilhès, but there are some around Carcassonne as well, which I will try to research. I will also ascertain which IGN maps are relevant and attempt to transfer the information concerning the towpath surface onto them and hence find alternative roads. More on all this later ... 
May I lead for the first day? I'm looking forward to finding our way through the initial twists and turns to Mios and onto the ex-railway line to Bazas. I hope the weather will be kind to us. Here it has been rubbish recently, with showers and temperatures of only 12 C max, altho at last things are beginning to change: temperature today is 15 C.

A final final meeting?

.. or an excuse for a taste of one or more of the Flower Pot ales?? We had previously mooted the idea of this possible meeting to cross the "t"s and dot the "i"s for our French trip. Assuming a Thursday we have 19/4, 26/4, 3/5 and 10/5 as possibles provided that Clyde is at his winter palace (ie UK based). We could cover:

Accomodation, where and what for each day.
Maps, what have we, do we need any additional ones
Ride leading - perhaps most important to/from the chemin d'halage to our nightly stops or to avoid those bits of towpath (if any) which are not rideable.

Can Clyde confirm which of these dates are feasible and then everyone indicate which of those is convenient.   

More Bookings

Bookings have been made for Agen (30th May) and Toulouse (31st May) In each case it is in a F1 Hotel and I have booked 3 duo rooms. I shall take the solitary option. I accept that it will cost me a little more but at least I shall not have to be concerned that I shall wake people up when I make my nightly visits.
Room cost at Agen is 40.90 euros which includes a buffet style "eat all you can" breakfast for both occupants and at Toulouse it is 42.90 euros (well sombody has to pay for Airbus). Thats 20.95 per person average which at current rates is about £17.50.
I also have a booking in Bordeaux on 27/5 for Martin and me as we travel on the same train (and in the same coach) from Paris.
I am assuming we go our separate ways from the Grau d'Agde and will be making a reservation (dont know where yet) for me for the 3rd and 4th June prior to travelling back on 5th.  Maybe my English friends might put me up????

Carcassonne youth hostel

When I booked this hostel, there were a number of options. I went for 5 beds in a normal dormitory for 115 euros (inc sheets and breakfast, etc) but there was also the possibility of a private room with 5 beds, costing 87.90 euros (all included too). I went ahead with the former because it seemed the more straightforward, I thought there must be something I hadn't understood (and Sylvie wasn't around at the time!) and maybe time was against me. But at the same time I emailed the hostel asking them to explain this anomaly. The guy who replied said it was a family promotion and there was no catch - altho I still wouldn't pretend to understand it fully. So there you are: it's now 17.58 each, altho we will have to join the hostels association. If we do it on arrival, it's 7 euros, but I'm not sure what that might extend to: it could just be the equivalent of the £3 extra per night in the UK, or it might last a whole year in France, but it's unlikely to be for the whole year anywhere in the world, since that costs £14.35 in the UK! So absolute total is 24.58 euros, not bad when you consider that we will be in the heart of the citadel and therefore extremely well-positioned for sight-seeing!