When I cycled my ‘Grand Tour’ around Europe back in 2022, I made use of several of the French named routes that have been developped by France Vélo Toursime in recent years; La Velomaritime, L’Avenue Verte, La Vélodyssée, La Via Rhôna plus a couple of others. They are generally excellent and a real effort has been made by the authorities across France to put infrastructure in place to make for easy route finding on predominantly off-road paths. Each of the routes has a dedicayed website with GPS tracks, tourist information and accommodation options etc…
An email arrived this week from Nick Gilford. He is a podcast listener and has taken a particular interest in the podcasts that have featured France. He wrote the following:
Back in late September / early October we cycled the newly created La Régalante cycle route running from Le Mont-Saint- Michel to Nantes, in fact we enjoyed it so much we rode it twice!
The 275 km route goes through parts of Normandy, Brittany & Pays de Loire passing through varied countryside and interesting towns such as, Fougères, Vitré & Châtaubriant with their spectacular castles & plenty of charming villages.
Over 50% of the route is on dedicated “Voie Vertes” many of which are repurposed disused railway lines, total car free and some stretches do run uninterrupted for over 25 km. The surfaces range from tarmac to decent gravel with a few short sections of single track. The remainder of the route is on quiet roads or on cycle lanes, often segregated from traffic. Route signage is very clear, in fact each turn is marked either with a physical sign or a on road marking.
Our tour commenced in Saint Malo & we followed EuroVelo 4 to Le Mont-Saint-Michel where we joined La Régalante taking 3 ½ days to cycle to Nantes. On arrival we reviewed our plans and taking into account the weather forecast and the sights we had not made time to appreciate on the way we decided to change our plans and rather than head to Bilbao we would ride La Régalante [again] north bound. We spent whole days in Nantes, Fougres & at Le Mont-Saint-Michel plus taking some detours along the way. The return ride taking a more leisurely 9 days. Whilst parts of the route are on former railway tracks it is not flat by any means. We saw plenty of wildlife including Red Squirrels and birds including Great Egrets & Woodpeckers.
I would thoroughly recommend La Régalante & it could be used to link up with other routes such as the Loire Valley Cycle route (which we cycled short sections of) & La Vélodyssée. (Which we have ridden previously).
So, if you are thinking of cycling in France, another route to seriously consider adding to your itinerary. Thank-you to Nick for sharing his thoughts.
Here is the link to the official website; the pictures are from that website.
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