Cycling Through France This Summer

[Graham]

Go into a newsagents or a Tabac and buy a phone card. You can then use all the phone boxes.

Even cheaper to buy a card (often just a printed slip of paper) from 'La Poste', which enables you to use a code to call the UK very cheaply indeed. Explain that it is for calls from France to the UK.

Depends what you intend using your phone for. Texts (Fr. call them SMS) are cheap enough, but I always buy a card/coded slip and use a call box if I want to natter; you can talk for 20 mins for a few pence - far cheaper than a mobile. Many/most campsites have a call box.

Ray

Is it this one ??

Although it is possible to buy french mobile SIMs in supermarkets, etc. they will all require proof of your french residential address ( even for PAYG ).

How about using WiFi hotspots . . . . VoIP? etc., etc. . . . . .. ??

[Ray]

Is it this one ??

Interesting, thanks. Haven't actually seen one of those. It looks like an updated version of what I've used, with the possibility of using it with a mobile - the older type was restricted to cabines telephoniques. Use with a mobile would probably cost more, but may well be worth it for some people.

Ray

[nirakaro]

If you use Vodafone (I only know about PAYG), you can sign up free for their 'Passport' option, which lets you make calls from Europe for the same price as UK calls, plus 75p per call: you can chat for half an hour for a pound or two.

[robgul]

Although it is possible to buy french mobile SIMs in supermarkets, etc. they will all require proof of your french residential address ( even for PAYG ).

You sure about that - I forgot the power lead from my phone (that has an unusual plug) last time I cycled in France (late 2008) so I bought a cheapest possible unlocked phone (with French SIM on SFR) from "le Warehouse de Carphone" in Reims - plugged my own SIM in and used the phone. No questions whatsoever at the purchase point - just paid with a credit card.

Rob

[DaveP]

The Canal du Midi is very popular with cycle tourists, but it's a pretty choppy surface until you get about 40km from Toulouse. Thereafter it's all smooth tarmac... ...Best to have a bike with off-road tyres.

Can anyone add a little more detail to this comment?
We are planning to ride Toulouse to the coast as the return leg of our loop and were expecting to be pootling along on our Marathons not switching to knobblies!
Poor surfaces can slow you down, especially if you have inexperienced riders along (which we will) but we do have to meet a coach at the end so any help to make sure that we dont underestimate would be appreciated.

[Graham]

Although it is possible to buy french mobile SIMs in supermarkets, etc. they will all require proof of your french residential address ( even for PAYG ).

You sure about that . . . . . . . I bought a cheapest possible unlocked phone (with French SIM on SFR) from "le Warehouse de Carphone" in Reims - plugged my own SIM in and used the phone. No questions whatsoever at the purchase point - just paid with a credit card.Rob

No, not sure. It was a conclusion I arrived at after doing some research in France.
Your experience is very interesting to me. Thanks I will restart my quest for a french mobile next time I'm over there.
( Bearing in mind that the french, within-country, mobile charges appear to be significantly above UK, within-country, mobile charges. )

[Paul A]

The Canal du Midi is very popular with cycle tourists, but it's a pretty choppy surface until you get about 40km from Toulouse. Thereafter it's all smooth tarmac... ...Best to have a bike with off-road tyres.

Can anyone add a little more detail to this comment?
We are planning to ride Toulouse to the coast as the return leg of our loop and were expecting to be pootling along on our Marathons not switching to knobblies!
Poor surfaces can slow you down, especially if you have inexperienced riders along (which we will) but we do have to meet a coach at the end so any help to make sure that we dont underestimate would be appreciated.

Take a look at my website at http://www.francecoast2coast.co.uk containing the stories of my two French trips; Le Havre to Montpellier and St Malo to Narbonne.
There's lots of hard won experience and advise contained in them.

I used the Canal du Midi on the second trip, the bad surface is on the Med side of Toulouse.

HTH

Paul.

[DaveP]

Cripes!
That'll be knobbly tyres and a machete then
The discrepancies between personal reports and the only guidebook I've seen so far are quite worrying. (And in case that seems ambiguous. I'm inclined to favour personal accounts!)

Has anyone been along there since 2007?
On Google earth there appears to be a road alongside the canal. Is that in addition to the towpath?

I know we need to equip ourself with maps and guides etc, and so we will! It's just the usual problem - When I have the time to do some thinking, the map shop's shut...

[Paul A]

Dave,

I wouldn't worry about the crap surface of the canal's towpath at the Med end, there are loads of little white wiggly roads that run in a similar direction on the Michelin map. Canals take advantage of level terrain and follow contours, road engineers do the same for similar reasons.
Anyway, after a few miles on the towpath you begin to go ecluse and plane tree crazy. It's brain-out navigation and totally flat but it can get really boring as you cycle past all those nice little villages instead of cycling through them.

My canal advise is to use the canal to traverse towns and cities or if the only alternative is a busy Route National. Otherwise I'd go for the little white departmental roads every time. The same goes for voie vert, safe and easy to navigate but you miss the same things as on the canal.

With hidsight, on my past trips I think I made 'off road riding' too much of a priority.

Paul.

http://www.francecoast2coast.co.uk

[Paul A]

Hello, It's me again.

Maps. I would go for the Michelin 1:200 000 road atlas every time. Normally less than 20 pages removed from it will cover even the longest trip through France. A similar number of IGN maps would cost a fortune and they're really cluttered and difficult to read anyway.

Admittedly Michelin maps don't have contours but, if you apply a bit of common sense it doesn't matter.
For instance: Water towers are marked on Michelin maps - water towers are invariably on the tops of hills.
If a stream crosses a road you can expect a dip or a small valley.
If you look closely at a Michelin map you'll notice at intervals along a road that there's a black dot with a number alongside it. This is the road's height in metres above sea level at that point. If the figures don't vary too much you'll know that the terrian is reasonably flat - and so on.

hth. Paul.

http://www.francecoast2coast.co.uk

[psmiffy]

Cripes!
That'll be knobbly tyres and a machete then
The discrepancies between personal reports and the only guidebook I've seen so far are quite worrying. (And in case that seems ambiguous. I'm inclined to favour personal accounts!)

Has anyone been along there since 2007?
On Google earth there appears to be a road alongside the canal. Is that in addition to the towpath?

I know we need to equip ourself with maps and guides etc, and so we will! It's just the usual problem - When I have the time to do some thinking, the map shop's shut...

I have cycled along the Gironne/Midi from the Altlantic to the med or vice versa on a number of occasions the last being in 2009. See http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/psmiffyontour2009 for my account - wrong way but never mind.

The midi path along the canal is definitely the best way to enter Toulouse going west along the Midi - the path is excellent going west from around where the canal reaches its highest point near Le Segula.

From the Med I would take small roads to Carcassonne and Castelnaudry and pick up the canal around Le Segula

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=le+segala&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sll=43.325427,1.84124&sspn=0.087165,0.206337&rq=1&ev=zi&split=1&radius=6.23&hq=le+segala&hnear=&ll=43.321181,1.871452&spn=0.087171,0.206337&z=13

- west of Castelnaudry - following the canal is more trouble than its worth up to that point (and can be a little monotonous).

At the Atlantic end the cycle path from Bordeaux to Lacanau Ocean to is excellent – however it is extremely boring and unless you really have an ambition to cycle Locanau to Royan on the Velo verte (in the not very interesting trees) it is much more interesting to follow the Gironne Estuary – north or south of it - it does not matter – through the vineyards to Royan and the coast or North to Rochefort through some very pretty countryside.

As to maps as someone said the 1:200k Michelin are the best for cycling in France – It does not take long or much practice to be able to interpret the topography and the likely traffic conditions from them.

[b1ke]

The midi path along the canal is definitely the best way to enter Toulouse going west along the Midi

I wrote the original post about the Canal du Midi and agree with the quote. I'm not sure whether you're going west to east or vice versa, but if coming from the west, the route is smooth tarmac until Toulouse. We were there July 2010. A common misconception seems to be that it starts in Bordeaux. It doesn't. I forget the precise starting point from the west (perhaps someone else can remember), but I think it's about 60km from Bordeaux. You can cross Toulouse (pretty much) along the canal and keep going for about 40km before it gets messy. We encountered a couple of cyclists with problems - broken mech hanger (tree root) and split rim. A lot of cyclists on this route use a mountain bike and Bob Yak trailer mix. Not really suited to road tyres or tandems (as we discovered).

[psmiffy]

The midi path along the canal is definitely the best way to enter Toulouse going west along the Midi

A common misconception seems to be that it starts in Bordeaux. It doesn't. I forget the precise starting point from the west (perhaps someone else can remember), but I think it's about 60km from Bordeaux.

Starts from Castets en Dorthe on the Girrone - http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Castets-en-Dorthe&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=Castets-en-Dorthe&hnear=Castets-en-Dorthe,+33210+Castets-en-Dorthe,+Gironde,+Aquitania,+France&ll=44.648139,-0.174408&spn=0.681952,1.650696&z=10

last year when I went that way they had been improving the path by surface dressing it - bit soft and tarry at the time - but would be well nice by now

[vernon]

Dave,

I wouldn't worry about the crap surface of the canal's towpath at the Med end, there are loads of little white wiggly roads that run in a similar direction on the Michelin map. Canals take advantage of level terrain and follow contours, road engineers do the same for similar reasons.
Anyway, after a few miles on the towpath you begin to go ecluse and plane tree crazy. It's brain-out navigation and totally flat but it can get really boring as you cycle past all those nice little villages instead of cycling through them.

My canal advise is to use the canal to traverse towns and cities or if the only alternative is a busy Route National. Otherwise I'd go for the little white departmental roads every time. The same goes for voie vert, safe and easy to navigate but you miss the same things as on the canal.

With hidsight, on my past trips I think I made 'off road riding' too much of a priority.

Hurrah!!!

Someone else that breaks free from the tyranny of canal navigation. The villages have so much more to offer than the canals in terms of visual interest. Eurovelo 6 cycle route uses quite a lot of canal side and Loire embankment as part of the route. It's fine if you like to be beside water most of the day but there's much more to be discovered than sandbanks and lock keepers houses. I have a colleague who will not cycle on anything other than Radwegs, voies verte and canla tow paths. He doesn't know what he's missing.

[psmiffy]

I have to admit I am not particulaly crazy about canal cycling/cycle paths - tend to use the Midi as a bit of a transit corridor - my experience in France and other parts of Europe is the cycle routes are very nice - but - often bypass the interesting things and food sources/cafes and are often in trees - nice enough for a while but tends to get a bit boring