Inspiration please: three day tour in France (or elsewhere!)

[Christiian]

So, the last four years have seen me and some friends do a nice range of three day rides in SW France in mid September:
It's definitely my baby and each year I've devided on the route:
* Canal du Midi
* Canal du Garonne
* Bordeaux crcuit vineyards/Landes/Arcachon
* Toulouse to Perpignan, mostly quiet roads rather than the canal.
On all trips we fly out on a Thursday night, ride Friday - Sunday and fly back on a Monday, so Bordeaux and Toulouse have both worked well.

3 out of 4 trips have involved Toulouse where one of our gang lives - it's great and convenient having someone based there but it's geting a bit stale.

So, I could do with some inspiration for this year.
Key criteria would be:
* Quiet lanes and not too much cycle path: last two years we've more time on backroads and these have proved much more enjoyable than endless manicured cycle paths.
* Proximity to a decent airport or transport hub is pretty key, as we're all holding down jobs and families and want to get out and back as quickly as possible and with some flexibility. One year we did Eurostar/Paris/TGV and it's great fun but wipes a day out each end and it's not cheap!
* Not too hilly so my 76 year-old dad makes it back in one piece

Other than that we're staying in gites or B&Bs and we're riding proper bikes so don't need to be restricted to paved roads all the time.

Open to ideas outside France as well, but there's a comfort factor with France as three of us speak the lingo (and it is a rather nice place!).

Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions that spring to mind, whether safer bets or wild ideas.

Chris M

[Manu3172]

Hello!
I'm from Toulouse, so I may help you a little bit
Several areas, in SW France are quite nice:
- Le Lauraguais (around Castelnaudary) with lots of nice villages (and this is not too hilly), Carcassonne.
- Dordogne, Lot, etc. (but maybe a little more hills...), etc.
- A little further, not far from Marseille is La Camargue: it's entirely flat!

[chocjohn9]

Cycling along the Loire valley is lovely...
Not too steep but interesting none the less. There's a wide path that is glued to the river, little traffic, loads of places to stay, good food stops.
It is reasonable long, too. You can start at the sea and see how far you get...! I had a great time there...
There is a book about it, I think it is called - creatively - "Cycling in the Loire"...

[borisface]

Do the canal du midi as they are chopping down all the trees because the have a fungal infection. Do it now or you'll wait about a hundred years before it looks the same again.

[bigjim]

You'll need an MTB IMO for the Canal Du Mid.
I was on it in September and I got off as soon as possible. Really uncomfotable on a roadbike.
Canal de Garonne into Toulouse much nicer.

Tours down into the Bordeaux area is a nice ride.
La Rochelle to Biarritz is flat but may need to jump a train to do it in 3 days.

[BeeKeeper]

Why not fly to Nice then cycle west and then return by train? This page shows the route the train takes and it stops at all the towns so you can join it more or less anywhere. https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/pag ... 64415&v=3t We used it to return from Avignon but we took longer than 3 days so you would need a shorter route. It will be hilly but the French hills are well graded.

[goosegog]

i suggest the Tarn valley east of Albi along river to Millau ( "Under the Bridge") then exploring the 3 river valleys of the Causses.Climbing over one causse then down into the next valley. Also the bastide towns north of Albi e.g. Cordes de Ciel.

[Christiian]

Thanks to all for the suggestions: definitely a few things I hadn't considered, especially going west from Nice and getting the train back; that could work well. Also the "under the bridge" idea including Milau could be tempting. Will get the maps out and start looking!

Thanks borisface, we did the canal du midi completely 4 years ago (on MTBs) and skirted along it last year: they were already starting to fell the trees last year. Its a real shame, the tree lined towpaths are beautiful.

Thanks again to all.