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.
Start point.
This was the village of Vielle Brioude. 20Km south of Clermont Ferrande it’s just off the motorway so good access. Campsite ‘Camping de la Bageasse’ – https://www.terracamps.com/camping-nature/camping-la-bageasse. Excellent little campsite, quiet and tucked away (a couple of km from the village) and with a snack-bar and pool. They didn’t charge for us leaving our car for 10 days either.
Kate all packed up for the 'off' - note the green bike weighing 50 kg is NOT hers (which is hiding behind...)
Day 1 – Vielle Brioude to Prades. 45 km and 300m of climb.
What we didn’t realist was that our planned first day spent some time on the Via Allier cycleroute – https://www.via-allier.com/. Coming out of Vielle Brioud we were on a two-lane road – D585 all the way which proved very quiet and though a ‘valley’ road had quite a few ups and downs though none arduous – in fact perfect to warm you up and get you in the mood. Soon we passed Lavoute-Chileac, one of the ‘Most beautiful villages in France” which was indeed very pretty and afforded us the first coffee stop. Thence to Langeac where we ate a huge meal for pennies just before the town at the Auberge du Pont de Costet – our first cyclist sized meal.
A short afternoon to the tiny village of Prades and its cosy little campsite Les Escargots Bleus – https://larocheserviere-lesescargotsbleus.fr/. Ate out in the little bar I the village – great first day;-)
The first bun stop.
The first climb worthy of the name just before day's end.
Bar at Prades
Day 2 – Prades to Le Bouchet st Nicolas, 30 km and 700m climbing
Fair bit of climbing today and we weren’t yet sure of our legs so took it easy. In the end it was just lovely countryside and the net climb really didn’t effect us. The ride came out of the valley and up onto the Causses – flattish high moorland and pasture. The weather was closing in and so we decided to stop a little short (note keener cyclists could easily run this and the next day together).
Looking down to Prades
Crossing the Allier - the little tourist rail running parallel.
The campsite was the most primitive of the trip, classic ‘real’ Municipal with basic portacabin type loos that had seen better days. But zero complaints as the showers were very hot and one portacabin, obviously used by the football team, was left open for us to cook up in and was heated. We had a very convivial evening with a couple of walkers who’d almost done as much as we had on foot! They were knackered though and we weren’t. Good little shop in the village doing local stuff so had a feast…
Day 3 – Le Bouchet to Langogne – 40 km and 200m climbing but very much downhill overall.
Bit embarrassed at this one, it could easily be done in an afternoon tacked on to Day 2… Again lovely ride over highish moorland, very pretty and we got coffee and breakfast in the Auberge in Le Bouchet so no excuse for what followed… We arrived in Langogne at midday and hunted for somewhere to buy food but the Auberge by the lake was stupidly cheap so we ate there instead. We finished at 2.30 and staggered into the ‘closed’ town – it was Sunday – and rather than press on decided to return to the campsite run by the Auberge – which was lovely - Camping Les Terrasses du Lac (https://naussac.com) and have a blowout meal in the Auberge to celebrate our 35 years in France (the actual date was 25/04/1990). A lovely day where more time was spent eating than cycling…
Typical quiet climb from Le Bouchet
Bit wet and windy but lovely campsite
Then the sunset came...
Day 4 – Langogne to Villefort – 53 km and 660m of climbing
Easy ride again and easy route finding as we did almost the entire ride on the D906. This would seem a large road, but there was very little traffic and as experienced cycletourists will tell you it’s often nicer on a good, wide, well-surfaced road where people can see you and overtake easily. We had a stop for coffee in Le Bastide and bought some cheese and dried sausage which with bread makes a lovely picnic later in the hills… The last 20 km are corniche and downhill so very easy and some really lovely open views of the Ardeche, which was just as well as we were feeling a little ‘bloated’ after the excesses of the night before. We then rolled into the lovely village of Villefort and to the campsite. Unfortunately the campsite was ‘open’ but closed in that although their chalets were available we couldn’t actually camp there, the sort of subtlety that the campsite guide missed. But the nice lady insisted that there was a big storm coming and we’d be best off in their Gite D’Etape anyway. As we were at the foot of our first big climb we didn’t fancy going on so capitulated. The room was excellent, we cooked up some stuff we’d bought in the town and at 28€ a head the room very good value. Breakfast at 14€ a head was not – (https://camping-sedaries.com/).
Day 5 – Villefort to Le-Pont-de-Montvert – 45km and 700m climb
I’ve done this climb several times leading groups and it’s so lovely I wanted to share it with Kate. We tried it together 5 years ago but I caught a serious dose of what I suspect was covid and really struggled before ending up being taxied back to our car. This time Kate tried to poison me by giving me half cooked sausages the night before but I was still at 80% and far better than the previous attempt so managed the climb, mostly 6-7% without too much problem.
Our first col...
The village of Vailas half way up is a great stop with a little baker, bar and even restaurant if you want to split the climb. We then scoffed cheese and bread at the top. Then swooping down and the village is simply achingly pretty and we’d decided to stay at the campsite at its heart that night – right by the cascade of the river. Lovely spot… (https://www.pontdemontvert-sudmontlozere.fr/camping-municipal-du-gilliaou-48-)
The cascade
The 'Pont' at Le-Pont-de-Montvert
Day 6 – Le-Pont to St Enemie – 53km and 630m climbing.
A bit more of a ‘proper’ days ride with the climb up from Florac being as steep or steeper than the day before. But up on the plateau it’s easy and once you’ve cracked that early climb it’s pretty much downhill all the way. Very steep descent at times so be careful. St Enemie is a pretty and quite touristy spot, and the campsite just a km outside the village equally nice set right by the river - https://www.campingdesgorgesdutarn.fr/
Looking down on Le-Pont-de-Montvert
Climbing up from Florac
On the top
Coming down into the Tarn gorge
Day 7 – St Enemie to Chirac – 45km and 600m climb.
The switchback climb up out of St Enemie as you climb out of the Tarn Gorge is magnificent and the road deserted. It’s tough in places, maybe 10% but much of the climb is considerably less and you’ll be stopping to take pics all the time so will be well recovered… Once up on the ‘top’ you hit rolling moorland where the road gently follows the contours. Here we scoffed cheese, rye bread and dried sausage – so appropriate. The last section along the river Lot on the D809 would seem to be a large road, but looking at the map it seemed a newer, much larger road paralleled it and my instincts didn’t fail me as it proved to be deserted of almost all traffic as if followed the little railway line. Before we knew it we were at the little, basic (which we prefer) and pretty campsite at Chirac (no website) where there was also a shop selling local produce so we bought the place out and sat in the sunshine cooking up a big jar of Beuf-bourginon.
Climbing up from St Enemie (this bit circa 10%)
At the top of the Gorge
Kate gets to the top as well;-)
Cheese and sausage picnic...
Finally some downhill - Kate is the bike on the corner.
Making a mess in Chirac campsite.
While Kate snoozes...
Day 8 – Chirac to Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole – 42km and 650m climbing
A short day which begins by continuing on the D809 through Marvejois then turns off onto a tiny, tiny road climbing gently all the way out of the Gorge of the Lot – it’s so pretty you forget just how much you climb as almost all the day’s climb happens here, and before the real climb starts you can grab a second coffee at the bar in Saint-Léger-de-Peyre.
Tiny road marked as 'dangerous' on the Michelin map...
Where we didn't see a car for an hour...
Little tourist train just going over the top before us.
Once at the top you’re again on rolling moorland (Causses) and really the rest of the day is easy to St Alban. Nice supermarket on the outskirts helped us stock up then off to the campsite 2 km outside the village - Camping Le Galier (https://campinglozere.net/) - lovely campsite straddling the river and with an excellent swimming-pool, though by then our tans were so hysterically funny we didn’t dare strip off. Just one comment – it’s a three-star campsite catering for randonneurs amongst others and yet the covered area forbade any picnicking even if you bought stuff from the bar; that’s not really what a camper wants to hear when it’s chucking with rain (it wasn’t) – they also charged 50c to fill passing cyclists/walkers bottles. Why? Is it because the campsite needs the money? Is it because they want to discourage cyclists from asking? Just a bit mean-minded IMO.
Day – 9 – St Alban to Langeac – 53km 700m climb
A long haul out of St Alban to the highest point at just over 1300m. Again we stuck to largish but deserted roads (the sort that Google avoids when on ‘cycling’ mode but which cyclists love) starting on the D587. A lovely chap was waiting near the top with an old Estafet van selling coffee and crepes so we had to stop. Big crossing of the Santiago de Compostela route so loads of pilgrims (the Stevenson’s trail crosses much of our route too). The profile shows us losing over 1000m so the afternoon was very easy and a lovely ride back down to the Allier valley that we’d taken on Day 1.
Coffee and crepe van - what a nice surprise!
Our highest point 1310m (it said at the spot-height just after the col).
Campsite - Camping des Gorges de l'Allier (https://www.campinglangeac.com/) was huge and open and grassy and just a short walk from the town centre – really lovely, in May I think we were the only ones there…
Langeac campsite - storm brewing that broke in the middle of the night - thankfully!
Day 10 – Langeac to Vielle Brioude – 32 km and 210m climbing
Our last day – a gentle meander back the way we came. As always it looked completely different to the first day, surprisingly hilly but all the better for it. The end of a really great ride;-)
A gentle ride back
All the way back to Vielle Brioud.
I hope this will all help - just one word of advice. The google map above will give you the route, you can download it as a .gpx file and load it onto your phone. Please don't... Buy a map and follow it, mark it up in felt tip pen, pour over it every evening and morning and have your OWN adventure. The map will show all the places you miss just off our route, you may see things you just ahve to cycle to. The google map will have you slavishly following a line on a screen - it very subtly enslaves you - et a map and use it;-)