Calais or Dieppe to Nice Routefinding

[VinceLedge]

Myself and a pal are thinking of cycling to Nice, probably from Calais or Dieppe, going light and staying in accommodation rather than camping.
What is best way to research a cycle friendly (road) route for this, suggestions?

[Psamathe]

Myself and a pal are thinking of cycling to Nice, probably from Calais or Dieppe, going light and staying in accommodation rather than camping.
What is best way to research a cycle friendly (road) route for this, suggestions?

Not done that route but for my touring in France (and other EU countries) I use https://cycle.travel. Always find the routes good for cycling.

Ian

[Jdsk]

If a Normandy crossing is possible instead then I'd suggest the route from France en Velo.

Otherwise that would only start to be useful from when you climb up from the Rhône.

http://franceenvelo.cc

Jonathan

[simonhill]

As said above, cycle travel is excellent if you want a route plotted for you. Also look up Eurovelo routes to see if a any bits go your way.

Personally, I like to make up my own routes, sometimes from the yellow Michelin maps (very old school) or more likely nowadays using Goggle maps. Not the most popular mapping option, but available on all Android devices. I like it because I can ask them to plot a route, that I then fine tune (or change completely). Using Terrain mode you can see contours so see hillyness, you can also use Satellite mode and Street View to check out roads, signage etc. Once plotted you can then navigate using your phone.

[pq]

I always think that Caen (well Oestreheim) is the best channel port to sart a bike ride from, but Dieppe's OK.

I always do my routes manually because it's worth putting the time in to get the route you want. But starting with something like cycle travel is a good method, but I would always tweak it - making sure I go through reasonable sized settlements regularly and any roads which seem particularly appealing. I also tweak to go through regions I particularly want to visit. I'm not a fan of the long distance signed routes - they can be quite samey and I often feel like I'm on a tourist conveyor belt. To get the best out of France I think you need to get away from that, which is what you get if you do your own route. It's time consuming to do it well but worth it in my opinion.

[VinceLedge]

We will be coming from Scotland so easiest ports from the UK will be down the east coast, possibly even start from Ijmuiden.
The Cycle Travel site looks good.

[Jdsk]

Starting from IJmuiden I'd look at using EV15.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EV15_The_ ... ycle_Route

Jonathan

[PacoJones]

This site is good for routing you on cycleways/disused railway lines/etc, including what percentage of the route is bike-friendly. Click the My GPS tab on the left.
https://en.francevelotourisme.com/cycle-route

A combination of this, cycle.travel and Komoot should let you plan the right route for you.

[jimt]

I did something similar when I retired 11 years ago. Inspired by Rick Stein taking a boat trip from Calais to the Med, I plotted my route to follow wherever possible towpaths & rural lanes across northern France to the river Marne and joining the Saone south of Dijon.

I wasn’t sure how far I would manage each day so didn’t book accommodation in advance. I used my then new iPhone to book accommodation when I had had enough each day without problems. However I started at end of May so not French holiday season so booking ahead for August probably advisable.

I went as far as Arles down the Rhone Valley (I had a rest day there and cycled to Camargue to see flamingos) before striking off across country as far as Aix-en-Provence. I had to replan from there because I’d planned to go via a town called Draguinan which 2 days before had been devastated by serious floods. On my replanned route I crashed and friends came and took me to Antibes so I can’t say what the inland route from Aix to Nice is like, but up to that point no serious hills with exception of a climb up to Chemin des Dames north of Reims which is a detour well worth it for views.

I didn’t have any route planning tools then, so used Michelins online maps to plot cycle routes between towns which I then tweaked by inserting waypoints to either make stages more direct or to use preferred rural roads. Ironically Michelin maps show dedicated cycleways as red & white dashed routes, but their software didn’t use them!

I kept a Blog and maps if you’re interested.

[VinceLedge]

All useful advice, thanks, we are just looking at options for travel to the start, may well just fly back from Nice as direct flight to Edinburgh and £50 for the bike.
Could do Newcastle ferry or even the Bike Express to Calais and then back from Montpellier!