Tour in early May around Brittany, Normandy and Pays de Loire

Just as a bit of fun I asked Kurviger to join the three separate jaunts in post #16 together, giving me a circular Caen > Caen route.

533a97a2d87941971af1e0462d66d0a9.png


It’s 1,100 miles, avoiding motorways and tolls but avoiding goat tracks. Seven full days is 165 miles a day, every day. For five full days it’s 220 miles a day, every day.

Here’s the route in a GPX format:

https://kurv.gr/2QuyV

If nothing else:

A. It would meet the OP’s criteria for a tour around the three regions.

B. It shows how easy it is to cheat, steal ideas and work them around.

Assuming the five or seven days, it would then just be a question of tracing along the Kurviger route to work out near enough equally spaced spots for overnight stops and do just a tiny bit of research on hotels. This assumes that all the days are going to be roughly same mileage. Of course you could vary it or lob in some motorway (assuming that is not a death sentence or see you thrown out of the Brownies) or cut some parts of the route out or, of course, add some ‘must do’ things in. Or you could just say, “Feck it, it’ll be what it’ll be” and wing it, bikermate style.
 
One thing that I experienced the last few times I was in France that might be worth bearing in mind is that thanks to many online booking sites/services providing free cancellation prior to a certain time, in the mid afternoon "everywhere" can appear to be fully booked, but in the early evening there are numerous places available.
I think many folk book a few options in advance, and just take the one that ends up suiting their day's events nearer stopping time, and then cancel the other options they'd booked just in case.
So don't get freaked out if nothing seems available around 4.30pm or so...there should be plenty available after 6.30pm or thereabouts.

It's not only that, hotels will keep back some rooms from the booking sites for walk-ins as they can charge more and do not have to pay a commission to the booking site. They will be playing a game of chicken and at a certain time will bail out, adding the rooms to the booking site, possibly at a substantial discount as it's better to make little money on the room but hope to get some money back in the bar and restaurant. Your point about room bookings being dynamic still stands but it is quite complex with the poor hoteliers taking on a lot of risk if they allow late cancellations or leave rooms off the booking sites for walk ins.
 
In Hilary Putnam's The Meaning of Meaning, there's a man in France contemplating touring around the home counties with a couple of bikermates and wondering if they're likely to have any hotels with vacancies
 
In Hilary Putnam's The Meaning of Meaning, there's a man in France contemplating touring around the home counties with a couple of bikermates and wondering if they're likely to have any hotels with vacancies

And curious as to whether the petrol pumps will be working on a Sunday.

The thing that confuses and terrifies them most? Lea and Perrins and mustard that sears the eyeballs. Their mates told them about it, as they saw it on the internet.
 
And curious as to whether the petrol pumps will be working on a Sunday.

The thing that confuses and terrifies them most? Lea and Perrins and mustard that sears the eyeballs. Their mates told them about it, as they saw it on the internet.

And do the 'Rosbifs' pull out of side roads onto the main roads without stopping.
 
France, though much bigger than the UK and a bit foreign, is not devoid of hotels. As Wessie says in his excellent advice, France has anything and everything from the very basic Formula1 through to five star luxury, with lots of small family hotels and the homogeneous chains (like Ibis) in between. So, yes, you and your two friends can take pot luck.

As this is your first trip abroad and to France, the first thing you’ll discover is that it’s a much bigger country than it might look on a paper map and definitely much larger than it looks on a computer screen. Talking of computer screens, if you are doing all your planing on a computer, do buy a map or two, too. Why? That’s easy: You won’t have your PC with you on the side of the road. The map that Jazbee suggests is certainly a good one, as are the RiDE links that he and Adventuredon have shared.

To get an idea of the size of France, let’s imagine a journey that goes Le Havre > Brest > Vannes > Nantes > Le Mans > Le Have. In other words, a crude circle through Brittany, Normandy and Pays de Loire, ie the three areas listed in your opening post. It would look something like this:

d1bea5e8b07ab796cfcd291f9130771d.png



Google puts the non-stop estimated time as fourteen and a half hours, using motorways. That jumps to a fraction under 24 hours, if you avoid (as you want to) every motorway / toll road. By way of simple comparison: Reading, where you live to the tip of Scotland is just under 12 hours by mototorway and fifteen and a half hours if you avoid motorways and tolls. You now have something to compare with and hopefully can now visualise how big France is. You can also hopefully get an idea how the time jumps if you avoid all motorways and toll roads. We know nothing about you but maybe ask yourself, if you were to ride from Reading to the tip of Scotland (and much further again) would you studiously avoid all motorways and toll roads entirely and seek to ride every small’ish road?

Let’s then look at the same route Le Havre > Brest > Vannes > Nantes > Le Mans > Le Have in the very popular Kurviger app, set to avoid motorways but to also avoid every goat track.

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It’s give or take, 1000 miles. By way of simple comparison, that is Reading to John o’Groats and back to Glasgow, just for that one corner of France.

You say you have got a week (7 days) but I wonder if that might include getting from Reading to say Le Havre and back again to Reading. I suggest this only because bods often forget the additional journey times getting from their house and back again. Let’s assume a very modest (very optimistic even) two half days for the Reading out and back bit. You are now at six days to complete 1000 miles, which is about 170 miles each day, taking D roads, in other words avoiding motorways. That is doable. But, again, we know nothing about you or our friends. It might take you all day - every day, rain or shine - to ride 170 miles by the time you have stopped, had a coffee, pressed flowers, had lunch, bought fuel, had a tea stop, pressed more flowers…… and then and only then thought about where you might find a hotel.

But hey, we digress. Your key question was:



The answer is, yes you can and / or you can do both, if you feel like it. The only obvious observation being: if you don’t know where you’ll be, booking too far in advance is bound to be tricky. If by, ‘in advance’, you mean the day or evening before or some time on the actual day, then yes, of course you can. As Wessie observed, things like Booking.com have made life a doddle for the Adventure (with a capital A) motorcyclist. It’s truly a miracle how anyone ever did it before the internet. The dark ages must have been terrifying.

But, as tempting as it might be, don’t just take my word for it. To prove to yourself and your friends that it can be done, enter: ‘Hotels in Brest’ into Google and see how many pop up. Now do the same with ‘Hotels in Nantes’ and see how many pop up. Now zoom in and pick any small town you like in the intended regions of your travels - or anywhere in France, Spain, the UK or America - and ask Google the same question. There might not be any (not every small French town has a hotel or even a cafe that is definitely open) but the search engines will find you hotels nearby. The rest is now up to you, your chums and your potentially unlimited imaginations.

:beerjug:

Wow, I can thank you enough for that insight and time you took to put that together. Off to do more research this weekend.
 
No problem, welcome.

As much as anything else it’s just a question of looking at a map and imagination. Helped, of course, if you know the area (or indeed, France) a bit. The idea of cheating I use a lot, not least as you might as well use information and ideas that others have shared, deliberately or sometimes by accident. It’s amazing what is out there, just through basic Google searches of just three or four words. Some professional (paid) tour companies put up very detailed itineraries, whilst some you have to guess at a bit from the blurb. That doesn’t really matter too much as it’s very rare that one tour matches exactly with what you want to do.

I hope this thread gives you and others some ideas (and confidence) as to how to at least put things together. I did it all on an iPad, so it’s not hard once you have done it a couple of times. Everyone makes mistakes the first time they set out; time, distances and taking too much clobber, being the three most common. But, thankfully, nobody dies and lots of bods come back for second, third and 100th helpings.

Let us know what you and your friends decide on, please.
 
Hey Wapping it has helped. with My Route app, suggestions here and bike mag I have been able to map a route together for the first 3 days through Normandy and Brittany. I have then downloaded round route trips in La Rouchelle, Le Mans and Rene with a route back home. It gives us plenty of flexibility and maybe one or two days being able to stay at the same place which will be nice. Now I juts have wait until May. Thanks again all.
 
It's really not very hard to plan a tour - but it does take a bit of effort. And it does require that you think a bit like a travel agent and a bit like a school teacher.

You need to know the group of people you are meant to be going with - so you can figure out things like maximum mileage per day and comfort level expectations. Remember that it's not just your holiday, but also that of the group. They may not all want 4 300 mile days on the trot.

But it's really quite easy. Get a general idea of where you want to go and what you want to see. Break it down into doable daily chunks, get on Google to refine what there is to see near there and then book a bunch of freely cancellable hotels on Booking.com or similar sites. Figure out places for lunch, for fuel stops and stuff. It's easy enough with route planning software.

People will drop out of the trip as it gets closer, but you may get others to fill their spots. Flexibility and cancellability for hotel rooms is important - unless of course you are a "winging it" kind of group.
 
Hey Wapping it has helped. with My Route app, suggestions here and bike mag I have been able to map a route together for the first 3 days through Normandy and Brittany. I have then downloaded round route trips in La Rouchelle, Le Mans and Rene with a route back home. It gives us plenty of flexibility and maybe one or two days being able to stay at the same place which will be nice. Now I juts have wait until May. Thanks again all.

Have a good time.
 
Just to give you a bit more assurance - France is the most visited country in the world.
There is accommodation everywhere: from the remotest area to the tiniest village to the big cities.

Even if you go to the most touristic area in the height of the season, you will find accommodation. Sometimes it’s not obvious but there are tourist information offices everywhere, just pop into one of those and you’ll be sorted.

Good on you for trying your hand abroad - enjoy
 
Just to give you a bit more assurance - France is the most visited country in the world.
There is accommodation everywhere: from the remotest area to the tiniest village to the big cities.

Even if you go to the most touristic area in the height of the season, you will find accommodation. Sometimes it’s not obvious but there are tourist information offices everywhere, just pop into one of those and you’ll be sorted.

Good on you for trying your hand abroad - enjoy

Up to a point Lord Copper.

Arrive in Lautrec in the August Pink Garlic festival and you might struggle to find accommodation. Always worth a bit of research to see when local events are taking place as accommodation can be booked and the price rises significantly.
 
Up to a point Lord Copper.

Arrive in Lautrec in the August Pink Garlic festival and you might struggle to find accommodation. Always worth a bit of research to see when local events are taking place as accommodation can be booked and the price rises significantly.

A good point.
This has happened twice to us in the 28 years that we’ve been going to France, on both occasions we popped into the local tourist office. Both had an ‘unofficial’ list of people who offered a room. One was a woman who’s son had gone off to university and let out his room during term time. The other was a widower who lived on his own and enjoyed occasional visitors.
These people only went through the tourist office, to wean out undesirables, and we’re, we were led to believe, unregistered. My wife speaks French so perhaps we would not have been offered the accommodation if that were not the case.

Anyway, just putting it out there as an option to try.

PS Lord Copper ?
 
A good point.
This has happened twice to us in the 28 years that we’ve been going to France, on both occasions we popped into the local tourist office. Both had an ‘unofficial’ list of people who offered a room. One was a woman who’s son had gone off to university and let out his room during term time. The other was a widower who lived on his own and enjoyed occasional visitors.
These people only went through the tourist office, to wean out undesirables, and we’re, we were led to believe, unregistered. My wife speaks French so perhaps we would not have been offered the accommodation if that were not the case.

Anyway, just putting it out there as an option to try.

PS Lord Copper ?

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199916108.001.0001/acref-9780199916108-e-8353

An expression of polite or deferential disagreement. It derives from Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop (1938)
 
Winging it, with two people, who probably don't mind sharing a bed, is lot different to winging it with a gaggle in tow. Given the fuss that two blokes I know (the two having known each other for years) made about sharing a very large double bed in Germany for one night - each demanding a single room (none of which were available) - it can end up as world war three.


PS Arrive in Cavaillon (quite a large Provencal town) on the weekend that they celebrate their twinning with Parma, Italy and you'll be sleeping on the street.

The reason? Cavaillon is the French and indeed world, 'Home of the melon' and Parma, the equivalent for ham. It's a big social event, drawing in bods for miles around.
 
Winging it, with two people, who probably don't mind sharing a bed, is lot different to winging it with a gaggle in tow. Given the fuss that two blokes I know (the two having known each other for years) made about sharing a very large double bed in Germany for one night - each demanding a single room (none of which were available) - it can end up as world war three.


PS Arrive in Cavaillon (quite a large Provencal town) on the weekend that they celebrate their twinning with Parma, Italy and you'll be sleeping on the street.

The reason? Cavaillon is the French and indeed world, 'Home of the melon' and Parma, the equivalent for ham. It's a big social event, drawing in bods for miles around.

There’s 3 of them, I don’t think that’s a lot different to 2, a little bit I grant you but not a lot.
Both my examples were high tourist areas at times of greater influx than normal. Both houses were large with 3 spare rooms, although one was a 15 minute ride away.
I’m not claiming to be a tourist expert but just giving an example of something that worked for us at the time and would have worked had there been 3 of us - I’m not comparing it to a tour with a ‘gaggle in toe’ because that’s not the case in this thread.
I also thought it’s general information that might be useful to others.

Your point is valid however but my point is you’ll always find some accommodation in France - sometimes you may have to go 30 minutes down the road or sometimes just think out of the box, this comes from experience, something this chap says he doesn’t have.
 
My comment was directed more towards the gaggle crew than to addressing the OP's dilemma.......and I guess you don't mind sharing a bed with your wife, let alone a room :beerjug:

For what it's worth, I am looking for a family run hotel on a specific Monday in the very rural mid-west of France in mid-June. Some are already full, even when contacting the hotels direct. Some are shut, which is sometimes not unusual for small (non-chain) enterprises on a Monday, whilst some are open but their restaurant is shut, again not unusual. Having a bed but nothing to eat, though with nice country views, is not that appealing. Some are just plain in the wrong place.

I can find lots of gites but they don't suit us for this jaunt. They do though when we go to Le Mans and when we went to the Mediterranean in August 2020. In the end I compromised by finding a family hotel in the big railway hub town of Montlucon. It doesn't have a restaurant but I have found one or two within walking distance (or a cab if it's peeing down) that are open on a Monday. This little task took me a couple of hours, which I would rather do at home in February than sweating my nuts off by the side of the road in June, when I'd be better employed drinking beer. A part of my need to also confirm the hotel is driven by my bikermate travelling companion wanting to tell his wife where we are staying. That I can understand but it removes at a stroke any concept of winging it.

The truth is both methods can work. There is no right and wrong. The great thing is that the OP is giving it a go!

:beerjug:
 


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