A lovely first cycling adventure in this beautiful area of France

In May 2025 Kate and I did a cycle camping tour in the Auvergne. It was, of course fabulous… In fact it was so good I thought I’d share the route and a few notes and pictures here. The ride took 10 days and we based it around between 20 and 35 miles per day. That doesn’t seem much but this is inevitably a hilly route with several days involving 600+m of climbing and the high point being at 1300m. It’s all on quiet to deserted roads and no heroics needed with most climbs being around the 6% mark with the occasional 10% ‘push’ needed for short sections. The campsites were all excellent and ranged between 14 and 20€ a night for two of us in our little tent. It of course covers only a tiny section of this huge area, but would be a great first tour in the area.

Read more: Cycle camping holiday route in the Auvergne

Get off those French cyclepaths!!!

Every week there seems to be a new cycle-path opening up – a repurposed railway track, canal towpath, a section of lane opened up just for cyclists. How lucky are we – miles of safe, traffic free cycling, generally on the flat or easy slopes.

But… but… There’s a downside. For 35 years we’ve been running cycling holidays in France – mostly in Brittany – and the majority of our routes don’t use cycle-paths. That seems counter-intuitive. True 35 years ago cycle-paths were far fewer, but it’s more than that.

Read more: Try country lanes for your Cycling Holiday here in France

I love cycling, I love mountains, I love France, but a holiday combining all three? - Really?

I’m not talking about those ‘holidays’ in France where top cyclists live in hotels and get bussed to mountains before climbing them on some sliver of carbon then get bussed home to get their legs shaved…

No – I’m talking about cycle-tourists on holiday who take on the great mountain ranges of France and elsewhere in Europe for the fun of it. In this article I’ll concentrate on the most extreme/lunatic form which is cycle-camping, where the rider carries their entire home and chattels thousands of metres into the sky, but it also applies to those who want to take the slightly easier option of doing it Hotel based – DON’T STOP READING HERE!

Read more: A cycling holiday climbing mountains in France – are you mad?

What Electric Bicycle is best for a Cycling holiday?

Introduction

Over the last few years I've been staggered by the increase in the number of electric bikes touring in France. Last year (2019) I guess that perhaps 50% of the bikes that stayed at our campsite – either touring through, or on the back of camper-vans - were electric and at Breton Bikes we've had more and more demand for them.

Read more: Central vs Hub motors on an E-Bike for cycle touring

A perfect first cycling holiday in France (with cheats!)

The Vélodyssée (Eurovelo 1 or EV1) is the major cycleroute down the West coast of France. Surprisingly it begins in the UK rather than France, in Cornwall and Devon, for those wanting to trace the whole route, and finishes on the French – Spanish border after 1200 kms. Unlike some of the Eurovelo in France the vast majority is on dedicated cycleroutes and also relatively flat being based on canal towpaths, old train routes and the flat West coast beyond Nantes. Read on!

Read more: The Vélodyssée in Brittany

Holy Grail or Fool's Gold?

About 30 years ago as we set up our cycling holidays company in France I was looking to have my first custom touring frame built. Of course I wanted the best and was taken by an article in one of the Cycling Magazines about a new Steel frame tubing made by 'Reynolds'. The article was headlined - “What's Stiff and has Purple stickers on it?'” Apart from the rather pathetic phnar, phnar attempt at humour the article persuaded me to have my new frame built of Reynolds 653 tubing – the subject of the magazine article.

Read more: Stiffness in bicycle frames

An undiscovered paradise for cycling.

When you think of Brittany it's the spectacular coast that springs to mind – and rightly so. With a longer and more varied coastline than the rest of France put together, it manages to fill an entire episode of the BBC's 'Coast' series. This is the area that gets the publicity, where the vast majority of tourism takes place and which inevitably features on just about every Brittany postcard.

The result is that inland Brittany has been largely ignored by the holiday feature writers – and yet what a mistake! For the heart of Brittany is one of the best places in France to take a cycle-tour.

Read more: The Heart of Brittany

Review of Carradice 'Carradry' Handlebar bag

Manufacturers website - https://www.carradice.co.uk/bags/handlebar-bags/carradry-handlebar-bag
Cost £50

Introduction

For those not familiar with these reviews I run a company doing cycling holidays in France called Breton Bikes. I generally only review equipment that I've bought several sets of and used in our hire fleet. Why? - Sample size. Just because you've bought an item and it fails badly doesn't mean that every other example isn't absolutely perfect – if you've had a great experience that too means little if loads of people have had something fail. In the case of the Carradice Carradry frontbags I bought 20 and used them in the hire fleet – what follows are my, and my customers views on how they performed...

Read more: Carradice bar-bag - perfect for cycling holidays in France?