2015: Tour de France
Distance: 1401 km
Map
This trip follows the first third of the EV6 from St. Nazaire to Basel.
A tour across France from the west coast to corner of France-Switzerland-Germany.
The EV6 runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. This section (to Switzerland) is the first third of that journey. Many cyclists travelled this journey in either
direction.
The route follows the Loire, Saone and Doubs rivers. Alongside much of this path you also cycle along parallel canals providing quite easy cycling.
The Geography
We experienced lots of heat. This summer, Europe was in a heat wave and by 10am the temperature was (often) 36C with daytime highs reaching 43C. At night, the tent
was left open most nights since the temperatures didn't drop below the low 20s. Finally, on the second last day we had a nice morning rain ride - a ride we truly
enjoyed since it allowed for somewhat cooler temperatures. Unfortunately, after the rain came high temperatures and high humidity. However, all said, everything was
awesome!
Many rolling hills through the wheat fields, vineyards and sunflower fields - just like the Tour de France!
Travelling along the river/canal route has numerous easy cycling sections.
Roads are clean and generally in good shape although the Loire section had many miles of fine gravel (good cycling) as well as extended sections of
difficult course gravel (not so easy on skinny road tires). With all the varying terrain however, we had 0 flats, no tire issues and only one mis-shift → tumble each.
When we were on the road, drivers were extremely accommodating to cyclists. In fact, generally they will
not pass you until you allow them too. Incredible!
Recommendations
A couple of things if you go here:
1) Camping in France is great. The campgrounds are quite nice and cheap.
2) As was commented last year, the food in France is spectacular. Check out the Boulangeries and the Chacuteries.
3) A loop through the Black Forest was excellent and provided an incentive to plan the next trip!
Rating: 10
Another incredible holiday trip which I would do again in a heartbeat. We saw much of the French countryside and cycled along many canals. I should mention, the Swiss and German EV routes wind you through the towns and villages to the
old market squares. The EV6 (France portion) more often winds you around the village centers and you need to make the effort to side track to those destinations.
The elevations are quite easy with a slightly upward climb from the ocean to Switzerland. However, given prevailing winds, my preferred choice is west to east (although
many cyclists did the opposite).
There is no reason why anyone would not do this.
As last year, we met people under 10 and over 70 years old doing this trip. They may cycle shorter distances on the tougher stretches, but they were enjoying themselves.
