Inpd

Hi,

The Loire Velo is the famous bicycle path that goes along the Loire Valley for many hundreds of miles. Its part of a 10 country wide bike path.

I'm staying in Orleans (and have a car) and wanted to rent a reasonable road bike (or mountain bike if need be) for a day or two.

Anyone had any direct EXPERIENCE with vendors that are:

i) Reasonable
ii) Speak English well
iii) Won't asked for unreasonable requests such as turning over passport etc.

K.Katso

No experience since I bring my own bike everywhere, but have you looked here?

Where to rent a bike? - Organise your stay - Loire à Vélo trail

just enter the city for pick-up/drop-off and give a few places a call. Most likely they will speak English since they cater to tourists. I doubt anyone would ask to hold your passport, but they may want to make a copy of it and/or take a swipe of your credit card before you take off with one of their bikes.

metz1295

Shooting from the hip here, but I don't think anyone is allowed to hold your passport unless you are under arrest or under investigation and a court orders a hold. If you're travelling across borders won't you need it?

If you're already making the trip to France, the cost of a rental bike really isn't going to factor out to be all that much. For the bike trip of a lifetime, I would pay almost anything they ask.

mercator

I used these guys.
They meet all your requirements, and I would recommend them.

Inpd

Thanks. But according to their website "We provide free delivery to hotels or houses located within 5 kms of our shops in Bédoin or Agay. " and neither of those cities is within 200 miles of Orleans!

But they do look good if it wasn't for the distance I'd use them.

K.Katso

Not so long ago(up until about ~10 years ago), a lot of hotels would hold your passport when you check in. They don't do it so much anymore, but occasionally some tiny places out in the countryside in Italy and France still want to do it.

Inpd

Of course. Its not a price issue, just finding a place to rent out road bikes. Plenty of places will rent out single speed bikes but I want a proper road bike or at least a hybrid.

Any suggestions?

VNA

You should not expect the french to speak english even though a few if not many may speak it!
After all french people don't expect american to speak french when they come here to visit the U.S.!
So learning a little french can only be helpful to your vacation experience and they love it when you try and will be flattered and will try speaking english. Orleans is after all the country side and rather provincial!
The Loire valley is gorgeous like most if not all of France, but it can rain with nice thunderstorms in the summer.
By the way the least english speaking european country is France--interestingly enough and not so surprising!

VNA

No way absolutely not--I can only speak for France, although never encountered that in Italy either!

TrojanHorse

In Italy - they took our passports for roughly 15 min. or so (even the kids!) so they could scan us into their government database or whatever they were doing. It was definitely the government's requirement though, not the hotel, and they returned them quickly.

K.Katso

It used to be commonplace in Italy the early 2000s, last time for me was about 10 years ago. I actually have a photo somewhere of me negotiating to get my passport back from a little old lady that owned the hotel.

dangerd

France Bike Rentals is a great operation, I just came back from Provence where I rented from them. They will send bikes to you wherever you are in France or help to find something local for you. They have great high end road bikes.

You read this part: "We provide free delivery to hotels or houses located within 5 kms of our shops in Bédoin or Agay. " (this is free delivery)

But not this: "The cost of delivery depends on the location, please feel free to contact us for further details. We also can help you finding bikes for hire anywhere in France"

I would call them. Or email, they respond quickly.