Our overall bike trip took 20 days from landing in Paris, getting to the start in Nevers to arriving back in Paris. That was 17 days on the Loire-a-Velo bike route, Sept 27 to October 13, with three days of no riding for sightseeing, so 14 days of riding. (We took a week and a half off at the end to tour around France). A major factor in our trip is that we were off season in late September, so no crowds, easier to book accommodations, trains, etc. That is almost certainly not the case in summer or high season. The weather was exceptional during the entire trip, warm days and cool nights, a bit chilly some mornings. Only 1 day with rain, and that was the day we were visiting Chateau Chambord.

I figure the ride itself from Nevers to St. Brevin les Pins cost on average about $125 per person per day X 17 days, so about ~$2,200 per person for the ride itself. Not including airfare, trains to Nevers, back to Paris, hotel in Paris, etc.

We disassembled our bikes at home and put them in bike boxes which we got for free at bike stores. We left September 24 at 1:00pm and arrived Sept 25 in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport around 1:30 pm. We flew Delta out of Baltimore, MD. We checked the bike boxes as luggage through to Charles De Gaulle airport. All our gear in bike panniers and bags. Bike boxes=total linear dimensions (Length + Width + Height) under 115 inches (292) cm and (<50 lbs).

We were supposed to arrive in Paris at 6:00am, but our flight was delayed. Landed around 1:30 pm. This mucked up our plans for getting to Nevers that day. Assembled the bikes in the airport, threw away the bike boxes. Took the RER train from Charles de Gaulle airport to Gare du Nord, switched trains to an RER train to Gare de Lyon. Walked the bikes ~1km to Paris Bercy Bourgogne train station. Trains to Nevers leave Paris from Paris Bercy train station. Spent the night in a hotel. Walked to Paris Bercy the next morning for a 7:00 am TER train to Nevers, about 3 hours. Bikes are not allowed on the Paris Metro.

You have to book a TER train ticket and a separate bicycle slot. Book trains and bikes on the SNCF connect phone app. TER trains have more bike slots than TGV trains.

(If we had to do it over again, I would have taken a G7 van taxi with the bikes in boxes (~80 Euros) straight to a hotel in Paris and assembled them at the hotel, spend the night, walk to Bercy the next morning. I would flatten the bike boxes, save them and ask or pay the hotel to store the flattened boxes until you come back (wishful thinking?).

We started at the Cafe Velo, on the north side of the Pont de Loire bridge over the Loire in south central Nevers. They are very friendly, helpful with directions, great coffee, great food. Cross the Pont de Loire bridge going south, turn left following the bike path along the canal. Then head south along the left side of the canal for about 2 miles . The path turns west for about 5 miles where it crosses the river Cher. It then turns north for about 1 mile to Le Bec de Allier and Kilometer 0 of the Official Loire-a-Velo bike trail.

The route signs and markers varied a bit along the route. Early on Kilometer markers were embedded in the bike path every kilometer, but they stopped after about two days. As we went along the route, side loops would turn off from the main route. It was confusing at times to know if you were on the main route or side loops. Quite often as you got close to a large city (Orleans, Nantes) the route would go through city parks along the Loire. The signs for the Loire-a-Velo are not as obvious, being superseded by the city park signs. Staying in sight of the Loire was usually a good idea. There are other bike signs, but they do not have the Loire-a-Velo sticker.

The official Loire-a-Velo is mostly dedicated paved bike path often on the Loire levee, some gravel, small stretches of teeth rattling cobblestones. Maybe 25% very quiet safe small “D” roads. Sometimes it is more efficient to jump aff the official trail and onto a small road.

Forget the word Camping, unless that is what you really want to do. Glamping= Glamorous + Camping: The term was created to describe an elevated, luxurious version of traditional camping (from the web).

Most of us had a lot of experience with bikepacking, taking a tent and sleeping bag on the bike. This trip was NOT THAT. I’m too old for that s*tuff. Some of us took advantage of the whole GLAMPING thing. It seems that most of the Campgrounds were set up with accommodations at ALL levels of support. From your tent on the ground to small houses to rent, with many types of accommodations in between. They were quite affordable, ~10 Euros to pitch your own tent, <100 Euro for a Fancy tent with beds that sleeps 4. Of course the campgrounds had bathroom and shower buildings and often laundry facilities.

There are Fixed tents on stilts above the ground, Fancy tents with 3 or 4 beds with sheets, duvets and towel service, sometimes with bathrooms and mini kitchens, as wll as Gypsy trailers, and mini-homes for up to 6 people. The tents usually had electricity (charge your phone), often a mini kitchen, sometimes a bathroom and a shower. We didn’t see any WiFi.

One good thing about the campgrounds where we stayed is that they were close to the trail and easy to find. Right back on the trail in the morning.

We usually Glamped in the more rural areas, and stayed in hotels in the cities. My friends and I usually stayed in the Fancy tents, once in a Gypsy trailer. We didn’t carry any camping equipment…no tent, no sleeping bags , no cooking stuff… all at a very reasonable cost. (That means we didn’t have to carry all that stuff through airports, trains, etc.).

Check out these accommodations…they were great! Clean, comfortable, and cozy.

Before we left home, we only booked the first five days to keep the rest of the trip open for extra days, flexibility, sightseeing, etc. Along the way, we mostly booked through Booking.com a day or two ahead as we went along. You can see the specific places we stayed with contact info and rough distances on our personal trip GoogleMyMap.

We stayed in Nevers, Sancerre, Gien, Sully sur Loire, and Orleans (2 nights). Approximately 92 miles or about 25 miles per day. We often rode on excellent paved bike path along canals or along the paved Loire levee. Approaching Gien we got off the paved bike path onto rougher gravel path then onto roads going into Gien.

Orleans was wonderful. We stayed at the boutique l’ Abille Hotel. Very nice with a rooftop view and a place to store bikes. West of Orleans we pedaled along the river through rural landscapes, spending the night at Beaugency. We toured Chateau de Chaumont, then continued to Blois along the river. We did not take the cutoff to Chateau Chambord, but continued straight along the river to Blois. We spent 2 nights in Blois and took a bus from the train station back to Chateau Chambord on our day off.

In Angers, we stayed at the Hostellerie Bon Pasteur in Angers, a hotel/hostel with private rooms within the historic convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, very nice, good restaurant. The Angers Reserve rooftop restaurant is close by with beautiful views of the old City. Rode from Angers to Ancenis then onto Nantes, often along the Loire levee. In Nantes, we stayed at “Le Spot”. A very nice hostel with private rooms very close to the trail/river. In Nantes we also visited Les Machines de l île, very cool… a little Jules Verne…a little Steampunk. nice restaurants along the river.

Heading west out of Nantes city in the morning was a bit difficult. It seemed that there was a lot of construction in the western part of the city. We eventually straightened out and had a pleasant day on very nice trail surface following canals and the river as it broadened at the mouth of the Loire, passing flounder fishing docks along the edge of the river. People said that headwinds were a problem as you get get closer to the ocean, but we had tailwinds pushing us west. We made it to St. Brevin! and had a beer at the De’barcadere bar across from the Loire-a Velo 0 kilometer sign and saw the Sea serpent! We celebrated the end of the trip with a perfect sunset on the Atlantic!

Now that the bike trip was over, the next challenge was to get across the bridge to Saint Nazaire to the train station and then on to Paris. It is a dangerous windy bridge, you should not ride across the bridge. We took St Brevin Taxi from our hotel JOA-Beryl Ocean 70 euros. The driver had a bike trailer which could accommodate 4 bikes. It worked out well. Set up the night before. Ph. 02 40 27 23 07. Our friends took the bus from St. Brevin $8 with two bikes to the St. Nazaire train station.

We got a TER train with our bikes back to Nantes then a TGV train to Paris. Booked the day before with separate bike slot booking. We arrived at Gare Montparnasse and walked our bikes to the Seine, then rode along the Seine to our hotel. After a week of traveling around France (sans bikes). We broke down the bikes, put them in boxes, took a G7 van taxi (80 Euros) to Charles de Gaulle airport. Getting into the plane took 3 hours trying to drop off the boxed bikes. Air France (Delta’s partner) baggage requirements were very different than Delta’s on the way to France.

Back home, all is good.

All distances mentioned here are from the measurement tool on mygooglemap which doesn’t take into account back and forth turns. The true distance will be a bit higher.

Language was not a problem. None of us were fluent in French. Most people we encountered, especially in tourist areas spoke enough English to get the message across, and were very polite. In patisseries and boulangeries, pointing at this or that pastry or baguette and the word Cafe’ went a long way.

I did not carry a lot of cash-Euros. I paid almost everything by credit card/ bank card. It worked well. Cell service worked well all along the Loire-a-Velo, as far as I recall. I used international roaming on my personal cell phone. It was not too expensive. Charging phones in hotels or Glamping in campgrounds was not a problem using my cell phone charger and the correct French 220V adapters.

Many of us in the US are used to riding Rail-Trails. They are essentially straight. It’s usually clear where to head…you go straight. The Loire-a-Velo is not always like that. Many times the trail is straight ahead along the river, or river levee or a canal. But quite often there are sections that twist and turn, go through villages and towns that turn this way and that, right left, behind a row of houses, back up into town. It is usually well marked, sometimes its a guess, but …as they say…it’s not rocket science..

When you look at the map and the trail is mostly straight along the Loire, that is often along the Loire levee. Good straight pavement. If the trail on the map has one turn after another, that may be through villages or turns in rural areas. That will take more time.

There are paved, gravel, and cobblestone surfaces on the Loire-a-Velo. Very skinny tires with fully loaded Panniers may not be appropriate.

As you get into the Loire-a-Velo trail there start to be numerous official side loops with Loire-a-Velo signs, quite often it is difficult to tell which loop you are on. Also, if you are with multiple people and are separated, they may turn onto a different loop.

Staying close to the river is often a good thing. Sometimes the trail turns away from the river and goes uphill to go through vineyards, winds around and comes back to the river. There is usually a road or bike path along the river which can cut off the windy loop and safe time and legs. After the 9th Vineyard, you may want to take a pass on the 10th Vineyard.

There are cobblestones…then there are cobblestones on the Loire-a-Velo

There are 4 nuclear power plants on the Loire-a-Velo. They are pretty interesting and easy to ride by. You can see them in the distance by the steam rising from the cooling towers.

In France there is a system of road numbering starting with the letter D meaning “Départementale”, a departmental road. A “D” followed by a number. Such as…D8, D15, D947. Sometimes the official trail will be on a D road, usually very very little traffic. It seems on the roads we were on, the smaller the D number, there was very little car traffic. As the D number went up, there seemed to be more traffic. Apparently this is not a rule…just a rule of thumb.

Restaurant opening times in rural France are difficult to understand. They open at 12:00 noon until about 2:30. Then close until 7:00 pm and stay open past 9:00pm? I still don’t understand it. You would often be hard pressed to find anything to eat at 4:30 in the afternoon. Carry a baguette!

If you rent accommodations at a Campground with a mini kitchen, they often have a coffee maker or some way to boil water…but usually No Coffee. You might want to bring coffee. I hate to say it, but instant coffee is pretty practical.

None of the information on this website is official, please check the official Loire-a-Velo for official up to date information.