Cherbourg to Barcelona

[midlife]

Hi.

3 of us are planning to go from Cherbourg to Barcelona and back to Roscoff in a week in May. Ideally we'd like to avoid the motorway but wouldnt mind small "blocks" of Motorway travel to make up time. Anyone recommend a nice route which wont involve too much bum numbing days? We plan on camping mostly with maybe 1 or 2 hotel stays. If we dont get to Barcelona its not the end of the world, its the adventure we want

[French martin]

Hi

From Cherbourg i would head for Granville then the Mont saint Michel which is well worth a visit, nearest village Beauvoir has an excellent friendly campsite. The route national roads are very good and quick but can be a bit flat and boring. I try to use the yellow D roads if not in a rush. I would suggest either follow the Atlantic coast down past Bordeaux to Biarritz. There are plenty of smaller interesting roads with the motorway always nearby if you want to make up time.

From Biarritz head for the Pyrenees, which is going to be the best bit of your trip! To make the return from Barcelona more interesting i would try to cross the Millau viaduct then head up the centre of France, loads of nice roads and interesting towns.

For campsites every small town and a lot of villages have a camping municipale in the town, usually walking distance to pubs, restos etc and very cheap. Good clean facilities run by the town hall. Just rock up and pitch your tents, the lady from the town hall will come and find you although many times i have left the money under a stone by the entrance. When arriving in a town just follow the brown signs with a tent, or signs to camping municipale.

If you end up near Blois give us a shout for we would be happy to give you somewhere to crash, handy for the Chateau of the Loire valley if thats your thing. Alternatively i have a well stocked wine cellar!

Have a good trip.

Martin

[midlife]

Thanks for that Martin, appreciate it. is all that doable in a week?

[French martin]

Probably a bit tight, depends how badly you want to go to Barcelona. Personally i wouls see how far you get in 4/5 days then head home. Two days to Cherbourg from anywhere north of Barcelona is doable. I used to be a lorry driver in the 80s and two days from the Spanish border to Dieppe was easily done at a steady 56 mph. The roads are better now.

Martin

[dbliss79]

hi

I recently did a trip where i crossed over to cherbourg from the uk and rode down to pyranees, on day 4 i crossed over at Andora and although I wasn't pushing it by any means i took a fairly direct route (didn't plan route, just pointed the bike in right direction and used about 40% toll roads). I took a right turn after I passed through Andora and rode along pyranees to Bilbao to get ferry back to uk. Can highly recomend riding in pyranees. I've not done a huge amount of trips (something I hope to change as time goes by) but pyranees where absolutly stunning and perfect roads for enjoying time on the bike.

spent a night camping next to dordogne, beautiful region to ride through.

[midlife]

ok. so after a brief discussion our destination has now changed! we're still departing Cherbourg but are now going to Freiburg in the black forest region. Route suggestions anyone??

[Walkabout]

Then check out the Vosges region of France on the border of Germany + the Eiffel region on the borders of Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.
These can be good riding on the way to the Black Forest, but you could also spend all of your time riding the roads in that forest.