Loire – 800km Cycle Route

With the completion of the 800km (500miles) cycle route along the Loire Valley comes a new website, a mobile site for use with your smartphone and a Facebook page.

Cleverly the French have produced an integrated approach to using the glorious Loire Valley as a tourist cycle route, enabling visitors to plan a route in detail (including hotels, restaurants, cycle shops etc) – details of access to the cycle route by car or public transport – maps, signposted cycleways, places to hire bikes and up-t0-date information via Facebook.

We know the French love cycle racing, but this is altogether a gentler matter – river valleys tend to be fairly level, and vehicular traffic can be avoided, so it should be family friendly.

And remember part of the Loire Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and amongst the many attractions is Orléans (2012 is the 600th anniversary of the birth of Joan of Arc (aka the Maid of Orleans), and Nantes continues to rock as a venue for extravagant modern art.

Not to mention Angers, Saumur and the rest

For more on the Loire Cycle route see Loire à Vélo, for mobiles see m.loireavelo.fr.

B&Bs, self-catering and hotels in and around the Loire Valley e.g the self-catering Une Nuit Insolite en Bateau de Loire near Orléans – a boat moored on the Loire at Jargeau between Sully and Orléans