Cycling UK Forum

I've just returned from riding along a section of the Eurovelo route 6 - Atlantic to the Black Sea. Last year I started the trip by riding from Nantes to Nevers and continued going east last week by commencing at Nevers.
However, a word of warning. After taking the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Caen I then needed to take the train from Caen to Nevers via Tours. Easy ? Not likely! There are about seven trains leaving Caen daily to Tours but not one would take bikes.
Eventually, after arriving in Caen at 08.30 from the ferry, I had to wait until 16.00 to take a bike carrying train to Le Mans then another train to Tours by which time I needed an hotel for the night. The following day required a train to Bourges then another to Nevers.
Maybe someone had it in for me but I spent the week riding 500k of which only 250k actually continued along the route, the other 250k were the dreaded 'Deviations' which took me to parts of France that cyclists probably never see or want to see.
Perhaps it was a bit too early in the year but it definitely wasn't easy finding hotels open for business, particularly around the deviations.
I feel I should sign off as a Grumpy Old Man but if this small missive helps someone then it all hasn't been in vain.
Cheers, Richard Bates

You don't sound at all like a grumpy old man. I found last week - cycling down the Loire and following the "Loire a velo" route - that many campsites were not open, that some restaurants were not open, that there was a holiday on the Saturday (VE Day), the Sunday (cos it's Sunday) and Monday (cos lots of businesses don't open on a Monday) and also again on the Thursday (VE Day again) and we came home on the Saturday. So any supermarket that was open was an oasis in a desert. We had to carry 24 hours of food with us all the time. And many campsites were not yet open for the season.
As for the trains - we researched it thoroughly and I made a "housse" for the bike. The n you can take the bike on any train at all, no problem apart from carrying it.

I did a tour on the western part of Eurovelo 6 in the first half of May.
If you look up www.voyages-sncf.com you will find in advance those trains which carry bikes. They have a bike symbol.
My train journey was from St Malo to Nantes. Like MarkW I had a certain amount of time hanging about but I knew about it in advance so planned my first night accommodation accordingly.

I also found shop closures a bit of a problem. I didn't know that 8 May (Saturday) was a Jour Ferie until I came across roads closed for a round town bike race. The following Thursday was not, as MartinB thought, a second VE day. It was Ascension Thursday but the effect was more or less the same. ie shops closed. Although only the Thursday is a Jour Ferie, lots of people take the Friday off to make a long weekend. Finding accommodation can be a problem.