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Loire tandem holiday

Christopher Yates2025-03-02 08:54:15
Hi, has anyone any tips for tandemming along the Loire? Information about routes and use of trains for a 5 day break would be gratefully received. Thank you.
Deon Bothma2025-03-02 09:52:05
Hi, if it helps, we went up the Rhone and down the Loire in 2016.  https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/boxofchocolates 

No trains I am afraid. We also spent a few days around Blois a few years later. Good cycling looking at castles. 

Kind Regards

Deon

Peter Mynors2025-03-02 10:15:11

We've visited the Loire with our Pino, most recently just before covid. 

We originally rode along the Loire as part of Eurovelo 6 from the coast at Pornic to Budapest, which we did in 5 sections, returning to the UK by train at the end of each section and going back to the same point the next year to continue the ride.

To get to the Loire an easy route is to take the overnight ferry to St Malo or Caen – see attached map.  The local TER train south from St Malo to Nantes via Rennes has plenty of space for a tandem.  Alternatively, there is an excellent network of off-road cycle routes (“voies vertes”) in Brittany, partly along disused railways and partly along the Nantes to Brest canal.  The canal was built in the early 1800s, at a time when the British were blockading the main Brittany seaports including Brest.  Napoleon decided to provide an inland route between the ports, but the canal was not completed until the 1830s.  By that time railways were beginning to appear on the scene, so the canal had relatively little use and the areas through which it runs remain unspoilt.  The canal became unusable in 1923 when the Guerlédan hydroelectric scheme severed the connection between Brest and Nantes.  By then the railways had also mostly been overtaken by road transport.  But now the tourism potential has been recognised, and the towpaths have been brought back to a good rideable standard. 

The cycle route from Caen to Angers is generally good.  The southern half runs alongside the river Mayenne.  When we did it in 2019 there was a missing stretch through La Suisse Normande, but by now the disused railway conversion may be complete.

All the best with your planning

Peter