Suggestions for a 10 day tour around Brittany.

[PhilB]

I'm starting to plan a 10 - 12 day tour around Brittany for next May. Me and my better half will be taking our Bromptons and camping. I'm looking to get there on the train so I will probably start at Rennes. I'm in the early stages so not to bothered about making it a circular route or trying to head towards a different destination and heading home from there. I'm hoping to navigate mainly the Greenways to flatten the route and save our legs. Our last Brompton tour was around Belgium and we found 40 miles a day was a nice pace. Any suggestions from the cycle tour hive mind would be greatly appreciated

[slowster]

If you search the forum you will find plenty of information, some of it from Breton Bikes, which has a campsite in Brittany and hires bikes for self-led cycle touring holidays. See also https://www.bretonbikes.com/camping/camping-routes

[Jdsk]

One happy family cycling trip a couple of decades ago. Lots of quiet lanes and lots of little ferries.

Cycled on Île-de-Bréhat in the early 1970s. No motorised traffic allowed. I don't know how you'd get there if you're not sailing.

Lots of prehistoric interest, and Carnac is one of the most interesting places... in the world.

Great seafood.

Jonathan

[bohrsatom]

My experience of cycling in Brittany is that the ups and downs can be relentless, so look at the elevation profile of your chosen route to avoid any surprises when on the road

Lovely place though. Galettes and breton cider drunk out of teacups are a lasting memory.

[PhilB]

The Bretonbikes website looks interesting. I will definitely look at elevations as we only have 6 gears to play with.

[MrsHJ]

Bit worried at the combo of Brittany and flat as a request! There are flatter parts though- the canals and parts of the southern coast also sections of eastern Brittany.

Easy option is the Nantes Brest canal (there is a hook up along a gentle voie verte to Morlaix if you want to make it one way and catch the ferry home from roscoff. Another one is the Ille et Rance canal. I did Nantes to Roscoff as part of a longer trip this summer. It was very nice, I took some short cuts and did some extra climbing. Maybe start at Saint malo, head for dinard and Rennes then Redon, up the canal to Brest, back to Carhaix Plouguer and the voie verte to Morlaix then roscoff and a couple of days on the coast and home on the ferry.

I confirm the route profile is ok even if it looks hilly- thats because of the way the spot heights work I think that don’t always take into account cuttings for the canal. There’s a bit of climbing into Carhaix Plouguer but I think I cut off a corner there anyway so the recommended route might be better, CH to Morlaix is in an old railway line although the surface is unsealed but ok (.photo with the horse). Overall many of the surfaces are unsealed on this route but fine with road bike tyres.

[PhilB]

We will be starting in Rennes so following the Canal d'Ille Rance would make sense to keep the elevation low. It looks like mainly packed gravel so we should be ok with our 16" wheels. I hope to visit Carnac as it's on my bucket list and then after that who knows. Thanks for the input, the pictures makes me want to go now.

[al_yrpal]

I have done a 10 day tour in Brittany a couple of times and visit by ferry every year. Lots of interesting places. The hills arent really challenging. Things to avoid...

Voies Verte - boring
Canal - can get boring
Churches - a bit grim

Interesting places....

Valley of the Saints
Huelgoat
Carnac etc

Al

[MrsHJ]

I do kind of know what Al means but I’m not sure there’s that much difference between a rural French road and a canal path (unless you want a faster sealed surface) given they both tend to be very quiet with the occasional village/nice view etc but I guess it’s all in the eyes of the beholder- it would be fair to say that variety is good and canals /voie vertes can get very samey but also can be nice and sheltered on a hot day as many of them are tree lined. Have included a boring church and a couple of those road v canal path photos. The bridge one is a bit further south than you are planning on going unless you go south of nantes- it is close to Marans where I couldn’t be bothered to follow the velodysee around the coast and instead hit some quiet roads inland.

[PhilB]

I would never get bored of a church. For me a great cycling holiday is quite roads, cycle paths away from cars and a chance to chat to my wife. Nice food and relaxing into a daily routine that's very different to my hectic days at work. I tend to follow canals or rivers because they are easy to navigate. Each to their own though.

[plancashire]

...
Lovely place though. Galettes and breton cider drunk out of teacups are a lasting memory.

If that's all you want you could come to Düsseldorf and eat galettes and drink cider out of cups while looking at a map and pictures of Bretagne on the wall of the Erminig restaurant. My wife and I are regulars.

Back in Brittany: The bocage landscape reminded me of Devon and Cornwall. Lots of winding lanes going up and down. Don't meet a milk tanker.

[djb]

I would never get bored of a church. For me a great cycling holiday is quite roads, cycle paths away from cars and a chance to chat to my wife. Nice food and relaxing into a daily routine that's very different to my hectic days at work. I tend to follow canals or rivers because they are easy to navigate. Each to their own though.

My wife and I have done the eurovelo 6 so can only speak for that--generally very quiet roads, lanes, bike routes and canal stuff--so yes, relaxing and sounds just like what you are looking for.
Looking at elevation stuff would be worth it given the 6 spd bikes and probably not very low gearing.

[Rob D]

Could you get down to Vannes and the Gulf of Morbihan? We did a fabulous 3 week trip at the end of September, anticlockwise from Roscoff. Down to Quiberon and Belle Ile - wonderful. But it's quite an expensive crossing and you'd probably want 3 nights there minimum. From Vannes, took a day out to Ile d'Arz, really nice.

There's a really nice tarmaced old railway route heading SW from Ploermel, hardly a soul on it.

Used Cycletravel, v good at finding quiet backroads.

I was surprised that someone said Brittany is hilly. There are hills, of course, but nothing too awful. We were carrying full camping gear - and we're not young...

[MrsHJ]

Could you get down to Vannes and the Gulf of Morbihan? We did a fabulous 3 week trip at the end of September, anticlockwise from Roscoff. Down to Quiberon and Belle Ile - wonderful. But it's quite an expensive crossing and you'd probably want 3 nights there minimum. From Vannes, took a day out to Ile d'Arz, really nice.

There's a really nice tarmaced old railway route heading SW from Ploermel, hardly a soul on it.

Used Cycletravel, v good at finding quiet backroads.

I was surprised that someone said Brittany is hilly. There are hills, of course, but nothing too awful. We were carrying full camping gear - and we're not young...

That looks nice. I think it must be the one annotated as route V3 and it looks like an alternative route from north to south coast at the eastern end of Brittany. Could probably be done using Saint malo as a port and making it a loop with the canal de rance, Something like this. https://cycle.travel/map/journey/514889

https://en.francevelotourisme.com/cycle ... n-brittany

[Rob D]

Re Nantes Brest Canal: the first time we cycled part of it, we got bored, same old scenery, km after km, glad to get off it. But subsequently, on a different part, loved it. The section which climbs over the highest part, north of Glomel is really nice. When we cycled it in May 2018, could go for hours and not see anyone.
The canalised R Blavet from Hennebont is lovely, joins the NBC in Pontivy, a beautiful town. But then almost all towns and villages in Brittany are beautiful, it's one of the delights of the area.
Note the NBC is severed by the Lac de Guerledan, a reservoir, but you can pick it up again further west. There are voie vertes in between, in parts - but these can get boring as you're stuck in a corridor with strips of dense trees either side, very limited views.
We stayed twice at Breton Bikes' lovely campsite in Gouarec. In October 2021, it was closed but we used their lock-keepers cottage nearby. Really nice too.