cycling in brittany - any recommendations ?

[walshtimothy]

Hi all ,

my wife and I are intending to do some cycling around Brittany in late May - early June and were wondering if anyone can recommend some good cycle paths , can be anything from trails to nice stretches of tarmac.

Ive had a look at the extensive network of routes online and theres far to many to attempt in the 2 weeks we are there ...

all suggestions welcome , best regards , Tim

[JJF]

This subject was touched on on this board on 30 March. Title "Britanny-Voies Vertes."
I listed some tow paths and former railway tracks. I would recommend any of the paths mentioned. However they would only provide a small part of a two week tour.
JJF

[Mattie]

Hello Tim

I did a mini tour in Brittany over Easter.

Started in St Malo went to Mont Dol, Le Mont St Michel, Rennes, Paimpont, Dinan, Cancales, St Malo, using Michelin map 512.

There are a few pictures and details on my little website: http://www.xt660travels.com

Regards
Matt

[frank9755]

We did a nice circuit from Roscoff last September on our tandem which took us round the northern bit of Finisterre. I got the route from a book called Cycle Touring France, or similar, which I found on Amazon. From Roscoff it goes west, right round the tip of France, then loops back along the coast to Brest. Then a ferry across Brest harbour and back east, before cutting north to Morlaix and back to Roscoff. We tweaked the route slightly to miss out a leg which goes up to Huelgoat, and cut through a series of villages with enclosed parishes - essentially a type of church but which are a big thing in that part of the world - and that day ended up being the highlight so would recommend it as a variation.

Good bits
Nice little towns with good hotels and great restaurants, pleasant roads with little traffic, interesting but not too hilly. Courteous drivers - only one car came too close in 200 miles.

Less good
Sparsely populated, hence few / no shops to stock up on food in some areas. Brest not great - would just stay down by the port if I were ever to decide to do that route again.

[simonineaston]

We tweaked the route slightly to miss out a leg which goes up to Huelgoat, and cut through a series of villages with enclosed parishes - essentially a type of church but which are a big thing in that part of the world - and that day ended up being the highlight so would recommend it as a variation.

Good bits
Nice little towns with good hotels and great restaurants, pleasant roads with little traffic, interesting but not too hilly. Courteous drivers - only one car came too close in 200 miles.

Less good
Sparsely populated, hence few / no shops to stock up on food in some areas. Brest not great - would just stay down by the port if I were ever to decide to do that route again.

Completely agree with previous poster - but would like to discuss the assertion, "few / no shops to stock up on food in some areas..." I've done several trips since around '02 when some chums bought a cottage over there, 1/2 way between Roscoff & St Malo and my experience has been that the distance between small towns / villages is small - 4-6 kms at the most, so my problem has been resisting the tempatation to stop and eat at every place I cycle through My trips have been mostly north of the N12, and as far west as you can go without getting wet, and as far east as St Briuec, so we may be talking about slightly different areas. As far as I can tell, if a place is big enough to have a church, it'll have a bakery, stuffed full of fresh bread, fruit tarts, Breton far (local custard/prune cake - nicer than it sounds ), chocolate eclairs etc.etc.
My two top tips for you are:
1) Nantes to Brest Canal - very lovely, easy to cycle / navigate, but my tip is - it's bit boring for touring cyclists, 'cos it's too flat... 1/2 a day on it, and you'll be wishing you could shift gear.
2) Menu Ouvrier - if you're really hungry at lunch time, look out for unassuming cafes in small towns. If you spot one offering a menu ouvrier, AND there's lots of white vans parked in the town square, you have struck gold. The menu ouvrier is aimed at hungry workers, and the white vans will have contained all the nearby plasterers, electricians and so on, who know a foodie bargain. For about 10/12 Euros you'll get 3 courses, and cheese and coffee and a carafe of cidre ou vin. No such deal exists in the UK...
Oh, and the "enclosed parishes" are worth a look too - Have Fun

[simonineaston]

my experience has been that the distance between small towns / villages is small - 4-6 kms at the most,

I've just been planning my own summer cycling trip to Brittany, and having perused my 1:25k maps, I'll revise my estimate to "5-10 kms"

[walshtimothy]

WOW !!

thanks everyone , hadnt checked my post in a couple of days and now with all your replies I'll be able to make a start on the old route planning

were sailing into Roscoff ( with the car unfortunately ) so we'll be setting up base West of Roscoff and will hopefully get a good bit of touring done on road and bridleway , cant wait , especially know I know theres so many bakeries nearby Might be the only cycling holiday where I've put weight on !!

thanks for the help everyone , I'll post pictures when I get back and any good / bad bits we encounter

Best regards, Tim.

[frank9755]

"few / no shops to stock up on food in some areas..."

You're right, there's plenty to eat in most places!

I'm thinking of one of the places we stayed right out on the Western edge - a village called Kersaint. We were actually in a very nice, family run hotel where we were to have a wonderful dinner in the evening and the best croissants we had ever experienced for the following breakfast. However, just after checking in, we went out to find a shop for some basic provisions. We expected to see something round the corner, but cycled for a couple of miles seeing nothing. Eventually I asked someone if there was a shop nearby, and received a very emphatic 'aucun!" in reply. It became one of the things we joked about through the trip, but I mustn't give the false impression that it is harder than it is to find provisions; we didn't have problems anywhere else.

[PW]

Most of the secondary road network is good cycling. Unlike a previous poster we don't miss out Huelgoat - the Monts D'Arree aren't particularly mountainous, even by Peak District standards and there are a lot of nice places to visit. The local churches are interesting & there are a huge number of megalithic remains, not just limited to the well known standing stones at Carnac.
On the North Coast there are good and quiet beaches in the area around Brignogan and Kerlouen. The local motorists are civilised. If you get carved up the culprit will be English.

[walshtimothy]

Great stuff ....

Thanks to all for all the advice , so many routes to choose from ... cant wait

Best regards , Tim.

[pj76]

i rode from roscoff to crozon in april, on some fairly busy roads, explored the presque-ile - beautiful, right down to cap de la chevre. also went inland to chateualin, morgat is lovely too. le faou, quimper - pretty part of the world. will be going back.

[maxbike]

I'm thinking of one of the places we stayed right out on the Western edge - a village called Kersaint.
We were actually in a very nice, family run hotel where we were to have a wonderful dinner in the evening and the best croissants we had ever experienced for the following breakfast.

I'm trying to find this hotel in Kersaint, has anyone visited it and can give me a reference...? Thanks.

[ChrisF]

That's an eight-year old post you're asking about, so the hotel might not still be there! I was riding around that part of Brittany this summer and there was a depressing number of closed-down businesses.
The only hotels that Google shows in Kersaint are http://www.hostellerie-du-castel.com/ and http://www.demeure-oceane.fr/

[frank9755]

I'm thinking of one of the places we stayed right out on the Western edge - a village called Kersaint.
We were actually in a very nice, family run hotel where we were to have a wonderful dinner in the evening and the best croissants we had ever experienced for the following breakfast.

I'm trying to find this hotel in Kersaint, has anyone visited it and can give me a reference...? Thanks.

Just looked it up and I reckon it was this one:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Hostellerie+du+Castel/@48.549352,-4.707067,17z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x4816ae25056be66d:0x40ca5cd36e56b20!2sKersaint-Plabennec,+France!3b1!8m2!3d48.472186!4d-4.373712!3m4!1s0x48169eaec6cbc315:0xbbdebb19f1990f56!8m2!3d48.5491005!4d-4.7066291?dcr=0

It was pleasant back in August 2008. I recall that the guy carried our tandem inside when it was raining. It had a wheel lock on, so it must have been awkward. But things change in 10 years!

[bretonbikes]

Small hotels in Brittany and elsewhere are being killed off by legislation. The safety requirements for a 5 bed hotel in a village are much the same as for a 100 bed place in Paris - fire doors, fire escapes, alarms etc. The depressing fact is that over the last 10 years many of the hotels we've used for our business have shut down - the pattern is always the same. Hotel gets a visit from the 'inspector' - presented with a 200,000 € bill to come up to standard or be shut down. Hotel shuts down...

The saving grace is that these places are being replaced by the network of B&B's - (Chambre D'hotes) which can have up to 5 rooms (and is what some small hotels transmogrify into). The standard is very high and I'd thoroughly recommend them.

To give you an idea of the extent of the problem I wrote this route four years ago for the free use of people coming to Roscoff. Since it was written the hotels at St-Michel-en-greve and Bon Repos have closed for exactly the reasons mentioned above. There are B&B alternatives right there, but it shows the nature of the problem and how quickly it has changed. It's not at all because the demand wasn't there.

http://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cyc ... ng-holiday