A couple of weeks ago I took my bike on the TGV to Bordeaux to do (parts of) Le Gironde à Vélo and Vélodyssée.
Started in Bordeaux and followed the Gironde up to Royan. This little city is a dream if you like modernist and brutalist architecture. Followed the coast after, down to Hossegor. From there I headed back to Bordeaux.
Did 775km in 9 riding days, with 1 restday. The route is very easy, anyone could do this, on any bike. It has some very beautiful parts, but it did get monotone at times. A lot of the route was on arrowstraight, flat, paved cyclepaths. I’ve tried to make it more interesting by going offroad, but rideable gravelroads are few and far between in this region. Most of the times it resulted in a loose sand dead-end. Loose sand everywhere, so much loose sand.
If I’d do it again I’d skip the whole part after Arcachon and Dune de Pilat, since the coast after that is a lot more of the same. I’d start off by going to La Rochelle first, in hope of having a little bit more variety in landscapes. Landes and Gironde is mostly (planted) pinetree forests and more pinetree forests, with roads just going straight through them. Not the most stimulating things to ride through.
by pervertedpapaya
1 Comment
…but did you sandboard down the Dune de Pilat?