Cycling La Vélo Francette, France, August 2025

By Andrew on September 7, 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Before setting off to France to cycle the length of La Vélo Francette from Ouistreham to La Rochelle, I posted a few pieces to the website about my plans. In two key ways this cycle was going to be a little different. Firstly, I was cycling with someone else. All of my previous tours have been done solo with just the occasional day or few hours spent cycling with another cyclist. The other aspect of this tour that was different was that I didn’t post updates to CyclingEurope.org as I have done in the past. Cycling with someone else made this difficult; I simply didn’t seem to have the time to do so. I did post a few pictures to Instagram (@CyclingEurope) which in turn were posted to the Facebook pages but there was no detailed description of what had happened each day.

Coming soon: La Velo francette podcast and la velo francette film

So here is this story of cycling La Vélofrancette. I’m not going to drag out the narrative. Just a few comments about each day from memory, some pictures and the GPS track as posted to Strava. So here goes…

12.8.25 – Day 0: Poole / Cherbourg to Asnelles

Tim, my cycling companion, lives in Somerset so setting off from Poole seemed appropriate but did require us to travel to Ouistreham before starting to cycle La Vélo Francette. It was a train from Cherbourg to Bayeux and then a relatively short cycle to Asnelles, just to the west of Arromanches and within a stone’s throw of Ouistreham.

Listen to the pre-trip podcast in which andrew sykes and tim sanders discuss the pros and cons of solo cycling versus cycling with a friend

13.8.25 – DaY 1: Asnelles to Le Hom (Via Ouistreham)

It was actually 35km from Asnelles to Ouistreham and the start of La Vélo Francette (perhaps more than a stone’s throw…). We were following the route of La Vélomaritime / EuroVelo 4 for this part of the cycle (a route I had cycled, in part, elsewhere in northern France in 2022 and to which I would return at the end of this trip). Once at Ouistreham we started cycling south along La Vélo Francette. Our first campsite was full – even to cyclists! – so we continued cycling in the light drizzle to a second which turned out to be a great place to stay overnight.

14.8.25 – Day 2: Le Hom to Domfront

I’d been looking forward to returning to Domfront and its campsite for quite some time and it didn’t disappoint. (The price for staying as a cyclist has rocketed from €4 in 2022 to €5 in 2025!) What did disappoint was out ability to follow the correct route and the most spectacular parts of La Suisse Normande were missed. A shame but a rectifying lurch to the east compensated in part and we were following the correct route for the second part of the day again. It was mainly disused railway line to Domfront.

15.8.25 – Day 3: Domfront to Mayenne

Continuing south to Mayenne (a somewhat disappointing town) it was a case of more disused railways but venturing into open countryside at one point we stumbled upon a festival that provided lunchtime entertainment courtesy of old tractors, Irish music and a car rally. Worth the €6 we paid to continue cycling through the village. The evening was marred by an open-air cinema event taking place near the tents. Not fun after a long day in the saddle!

16.8.25 – Day 4: Mayenne to Chateau-Gontier

The sun was shrouded behind a haze in the sky on day 4 and I have since been told this was due to forest fires in Spain. It gave the day its own Instagram filter as you might be able to see in some of the pictures. Mainly following the Mayenne river. Laval was nice and we had lunch in a large open square in the middle of the town. A vast field for independent travellers was our home for the evening at the municipal campsite. Chateau-Gontier itself was historic but a little run down with lots of abandoned shops.

17.8.25 – Day 5: Chateau Gontier to Angers (And Train to Saumur)

Continuing to follow the river Mayenne it was another towpath day. Sunday lunch was outside the local church in Le Lion d’Angers, serenaded by the local chanting priests. Once in Angers we took a train along the Loire to Saumur to make up time where we planned to take a day off from cycling.

18.8.25 – Day 6: Rest Day in Saumur

I spent a summer working in Saumur (way back in 1993!) so it’s a town I know well. It was looking good and it was a good choice of place to spend a day off the bike. I did get a bit of exercises in however by going for a 10k run on varied terrain, hence the slow time…

19.8.25 – Day 7: Saumur to Airvault

Continuing south via Thouars, we located a campsite in a small town called Airvault. It turned out to be a place run by a British couple. Quite busy with cyclists. This was deep, deep France…

20.8.25 – Day 8: Airvault to Poitiers (And train to Niort)

Tim was feeling the strain of long days in the saddle so I suggested we deviate away from the route of La Vélo Francette in the direction of Poitiers. We used the excellent Cycle.Travel for route finding and it didn’t disappoint. I’m not sure we could have done better even if we’d spent hours researching a route. Quiet farm roads and through a forest to the west of Poitiers. At Poitiers we caught a train to Niort where we stayed in a hotel overnight.

21.8.25 – Day 9: Niort to Maille

This was the day that would see use cross the very pretty Marais Poitevin. Our campsite was beside a canal and it put us within a few hours of La Rochelle.

22.8.25 – Day 10: Maille to La Rochelle

The final day along La Vélo Francette. A route I have cycled twice before and I was expecting a rough track to cycle along as we approached La Rochelle but… good news! The route have been invested in and is much improved. The towers at La Rochelle gave us something to aim for and we arrived in good time to enjoy the delights of the historic Atlantic city by the sea. We camped at the busy municipal campsite only a few minutes from the city centre.

23.8.25 – Trains from La Rochelle to Nantes and Nantes to Rennes

A stressful day of travel by trains. We had the tickets… but not reservations for our bikes. However, the good folk at SNCF were extremely accommodating and we arrived in Rennes earlier than expected! A slow evening wander around the city followed and we stayed overnight in the local IBIS hotel next to the prison!

24.8.25 – Train to Saint-Malo / Cycle Along the VeloMaritime

We did have bike reservations for this final journey so could sit back and relax. Arriving in La Rochelle around lunchtime, I set off on a journey following the Vélomaritime down and then up the Rance estuary. I even had a short swim in the sea at Dinard. An early ferry the following morning – the bank holiday Monday of August – ensured we were back in the UK by mid-afternoon… only for me to get caught up in traffic on the M6 north after an accident further ahead. I eventually arrived home very late in the evening.

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Le Grand Tour on a Bike Called Wanda, was published in May 2024 and recounts Andrew P. Sykes’ journey around France, into the Alps and down the Rhine in the summer of 2022. It is available as a paperback and as and eBook from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com (and other international Amazon sites). The paperback is also available from Waterstones or Foyles and the eBook from Apple iBooks.

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