adam

Three of us are looking to fly over to France for a week in the mountains next July and are looking for options both in locations, route suggestions, etc.

We're considering climbing L'Alpe and doing 100-140 km routes for six or seven days. We may have access to someone who will drive as well, so we are considering a point-to-point route.

Any suggestions?!?

and1homer

I don't know a lot, have been to Europe plenty but not much as a rider.

That said, did a 2 week trip this year, including L'Alpe, and it rocked. We stayed 5 days in Alpe D'Huez, and from there we rode Telepgraphe, Galibier, and of course the Alpe. I assume from your post that you like to climb, and there are a load of really beautiful and challenging rides in the Isere valley and the Hautes Alpes generally, including Izoarde, Agnel, Lautaret. You are also not far from iconic TdF stage locations like Gap and Grenoble, so you could certainly achieve your '100-140km for 6-7 days' goal just by doing that.

We also spent a week in the Luberon, and it was great. About a 4-5 hour drive from Isere, and some beautiful hilltops all around (like Gault), but the only really big iconic climb is Mont Ventoux - an awesome ride in itself, and you can do it via any of 3 different routes, but still just a single mountain.

Wherever you go, hope you have a blast. What a great adventure!

Ron Harry

I did the 'route de Napolean' exiting from Marsailles up to Gernoble and then on to Geneva some years back...and I remember the 'mountains' coming off the mediterranean were very steep [actually not mountains yet, but foothills leading into]. It was actually rougher riding then than later on when passing several Alp passes through Gap and...into Grenoble. It's just a memory now, but I always remember those first days coming out of Marsailles as very hard climbing. Wow, I really envy you; how so much I'd like to return some day. I watch the tour every July and try to see if I see anything I can recognize, ha [if they pass where I rode...which they usually do cross into the alps at some point]. Something else I remember in those mountains...we could not find a hot shower anywhere, ha [all cold water]...but then, we were camping and hosteling. You might be going with better accomodations. Good luck and post back on your experiences.

Ron Harry

Uh...see, my memory is going. It was out of NICE we found the hills so steep. Sorry. We stayed on the mediterranean starting in Marseilles and moseying on over to Nice where we started our 'route de Napolean' venture.

revchuck 

A while back, VeloNews had a special edition about dream rides in Europe and the US, and it included an interview of photographer Graham Watson (who did the majority of now-iconic TdF photos) in which he recommended Logis de France hotel-restaurants for cyclists. They're not a chain, but a network of smaller places that are reasonably priced and showcase local cuisine. I've never tried them, just throwing this out there for consideration. Link: https://www.logishotels.com/en/map-search.html

scirocco

I did a six-day north-south trip in the Alps this year which was a century or metric century every day with 12,000 plus feet of climbing on a couple of days. Hard but not ridiculously so if you're prepared and have gearing you can handle. You couldn't do it unsupported, though (well, I couldn't anyway). (Main climbs listed in brackets: )

Day 1 Lake Geneva to Cluses (Morzine)
Day 2 Cluses to St-Jean-de-Maurienne (Colombiere, Aravis, Madeleine)
Day 3 St-Jean-de-Maurienne to Bourg d'Oisans (Croix de Fer, Alpe d'Huez)
Day 4 Bourg-d'Oisans to Embrun (Lauteret, Galibier, Izoard)
Day 5 Embrun to Sisteron (Maure/Labouret)
Day 6 Sisteron to Carpentras (Mont Ventoux)

Sounds like you are thinking Alps rather than Pyrenees but there are plenty of Raid Pyrennean itineraries around if the Tourmalet is on your agenda to do.

deepakvrao

Wife and I are planning a very similar trip. Will follow this thread.

dgasmd

I went to France on my own just to ride last year for 2 weeks. Had a great time. First thing you need to do is define a few things for you that will limit or define the rest of the trip:

-make your own arrangements or "tour company" type of trip
-Cheap or not. Budget will make or break your trip and expectations. Goes along with luxury expectations
-Expectations and/or goals for the trip. Cycling vs sight seeing vs both (likely not to work at all)
-solo or group of people you know. How many will make a huge difference
-take your bike or rent while there. Do you have a case?
-do you know french at all? The least of the variables that will make a real and significant difference!

adam

This sounds ideal! We are looking to have someone come along as a sag wagon as well. A great itinerary.

adam

All good points dgasmd:

- we'll be making our own arrangements
- we will be doing this on the more expensive side vs. cheap. We're not doing camping / hostels / etc. - but more budget hotels and potentially B&Bs
- goals of the trip are all cycling focused. I've lived in Europe before so I'm not looking to sight-see per se, just from the bike. We want lots of miles in over big climbs
- there will be three of us riding and one potential driving a sag wagon. The driver will probably ride a bit as well
- we'll be taking bikes with us and if we have to rent/buy cases ahead of time, we will
- French - just a little.... but enough to be dangerous.

adam

Keep in touch in the coming months - would be good to bounce ideas off one another. We're looking to do it the third week of July.

smoke

i'll second this. i did something similar to this two years ago, although not as many climbs in a day. you can't go wrong with this lineup

RJM

I am subscribing to this thread, I would like to take a nice bike trip to France too.

I have been to France numerous times and can tell you that the food is awesome, the wine is awesome, the roads are good and the people were nice on my previous trips...don't forget the camera.

Ben FR

Highly recommend:
https://www.thomsonbiketours.com

chas58

need to map out the ride on google maps (or similar) and share it with us!

dgasmd

Sounds like you are doing this sort of the way I did it too. A few comments to get you started:

Airfare:
Obviously will depend on where you are landing. I was planning on starting north on the Alps and making my way south to the coast. I found that flying into Milan from where I was is substantially cheaper than the other choices I had. Also, renting a car there was equally cheaper for some reason, but involved coming back to Milan to drop off the car and to depart. You might want to bypass this option as you have less days to work with. Look online not only at sites like expedia, travelocity, etc, but also at the websites for the airlines themselves as often times they have better prices themselves. Regardless of airline, you are likely to have to pay a "bike case fee" of anywhere between $150-200 each way! Consider yourself the chosen son of the messiah if you don't have to pay it!

Accommodations:
I'm personally not too demanding of hotels, so my advice reflects that. All I need are a clean room, a bathroom to shower in and "facilities" make some deposits, and a comfortable clean bed. Anything else is unnecessary stuff I won't care for or even notice. The chain of Logis hotels is awesome. Look up their website and have them send you their free booklet that lists all their hotels in every town and city in France. I used that. It also tells you if they have AC, wifi, accept pets, etc. You would want to stay in a valley if possible (AC is a must in summer there and some places won't have it- Again, look in the Logis book) to avoid having to climb to the hotel after the end of your ride. Also, those are more expensive. I actually did not do any reservations in my trip. Simply drove into town, looked for the Logis places, and asked if they had rooms. With a larger group of people, you may want to make reservations.

Despite your trip being cycling focused only, I suggest you make a trip to a local supermarket daily and get some stuff like wine and other foods there rather than waste money in restaurants daily. Plus, that gets old quickly as well. Besides, you can get to eat what you prefer outside of the big meals rather than just having what is available at cafes and such. Avoid the dinner at hotels where you stay as they are usually overpriced and not the best food you can get for the money in smaller towns.

Routes/Rides:


Too many to point out. Look up Route of the Alps. It is a website that has all the Cols on the Alps lined up in a route often used by motorcyclist. It starts Switzerland and ends in the mediterranean sea. Then, based on where and which you want to ride, you can go to places like mapmyride or bikeroutetoaster.com and plot your own route. Look up some there as well to give you some ideas. Garmin Connect forum is another place where you can find tons of them already done. You could take those, modify them, or simply make your own from there. I would highly suggest you put a few easier rides in between the nasty long and hard ones as they look in paper much easier to accomplish than it is in reality despite of your abilities.

Arrangements:

I have found that 4-5 people max in your group is about the best number to make such a trip. It is the highest number to divide costs to a maximum, but it is not too many people that require you to have to upgrade things like vehicle size and hotel accommodations that will cost significantly more. You can rent a van. That will easily accommodate all of you and the bikes, luggage, cases (maybe-more below). If by all means you have the time, go and drive the route for the next day in the evening. I personally don't like surprises, so I made the habit of doing this. It also shows you what to expect and prepares you for things you may not anticipate otherwise. It is an investment of time though sitting in the car for 1-2 hr after riding for several more. Not the end of the world if you don't either.
Car rental site is an awesome site for car rentals cheaply in other countries.

Bike cases:

Look through the review thread I posted last year. Link below.
Case review thread

I posted the same here, but I have not redone the picture links to it. Read some of the comments on it though as I think they are helpful.
Another

I just came back from a 3 week trip to Italy and took my bike there to ride with a BikePro case. I bought one from someone used that is about 4" less tall (floor to top) than the one in the pictures in the thread. You could hardly tell the difference though. The issue with cases remain 3 in my mind/opinion at least:

-The fee. I still hate this and bothers me more than anything else. Especially when I see stupid fat guys with beer bellies dragging their golf club bags and they don't have to pay for it.
-What to do with the case once you land until you are ready to depart. If you are arriving and departing from the same city, you could talk the hotel people to allow you to leave it there, even if you have to pay them something to do so. Much easier than carrying it around. Ultimately, you might have to be prepared to carry it around with you.
-Which to get. Given all the cases I've seen and have been able to get my hands on, I would still put the BikePro well above the rest. The PIKA soft case could maybe be modified to "make it" my top choice, but I have not had the energy to invest the time into it. Especially for something I may get to use once/year at most.

Hope this helps. Ask more specific questions if you have them.

adam

Absolutely fantastic info everyone - thanks a tonne. We're in the planning stages now - will definitely post our plans as we go along...

dgasmd

Heck, I wished I could find another 2-3 people in the same mind set as me as far as accommodations and such to fly to Italy again next year, spend 8 days riding around northern Italy, do day 9 as the Maratona Dles Dolomites, and fly back on day 10. Would be awesome, but I'm not finding luck enlisting the locals I know!!

karenashg

Check the various airline policies--my husband and I just flew Air France to Europe, and they don't charge for bikes. There are of course some catches--the bike counts as your one free piece of checked luggage so you'll pay to check more, it has to be below the weight limit, within certain dimensions, etc, and you need to let them know ahead of time that you're bringing a bike.

Make sure you check the weight of your bike+case--many of the cases are pretty heavy, and the overweight fees are not pretty. We got a cardboard bike box from the LBS and it worked great, lightweight and cheap.

Have fun--we're hoping to do something similar in a few years!

ibis_ti

La Route des Grandes Alpes:

https://www.grande-traversee-alpes.co...lps-trail.html

SlimRider

Hey there Adam!

I've been to France twice for 2 weeks each time.

All I can say for advice is...


"L E A R N ___ F R E N C H !"

PS.
Whatever time you having remaining prior to the trip. Learn all the French you can!

The French can be very nasty towards foreigners who can't at least understand French - They expect immediate comprehension!

eja_ bottecchia

Learn French!