Bonjour!

Four friends and I (ages 67, 69, 70, 70, 72) recently finished riding our bicycles across France on the Loire-a-Velo. Arguably the best bicycle trail in Europe. (we think so). Riding from September 27-October 13, 2025… 14 days of riding with 3 days off… on average about 30 miles a day.

Somewhere more than ~425 miles along the Loire river from Nevers in eastern France to St Brevin les Pins, in the west, at the mouth of the Loire as it flows into the Atlantic.

The Loire-a-Velo is mostly flat but there are some short hills that go up to towns overlooking the river, or up into the vineyards. Mostly on dedicated paved bike paths, sometimes on very quiet roads. It is well marked, sometimes confusing, but not that bad.

Some of us had a lot of long distance biking experience, but one had never been on a long distance bike trip. The farthest she had ever ridden in a day was 10 miles! To complete the Loire-a-Velo is challenging, but not so much in the daily distance. Our biggest challenges seemed to be navigating. Getting lost occasionally when we got off the trail, finding hotels in cities, and getting out of towns and cities and back on the trail in the morning… but we had all day, it worked out.

We carried all of our gear in bike panniers and stayed in Hotels in the cities, Gites (like AirBnBs), a few Hostels, and “Glamping“ usually in more rural areas. We brought our own bikes (except one guy). No fancy carbon fiber bikes or spandex. We all had average to old bikes. Mine was a 35 year old steel Trek road bike, another was a Gitane over 50 years old. We go fairly slowly. An average of ~25-30 miles a day with a few days off for rest and sightseeing.

It was great! Beautiful towns and villages, Chateaus, cathedrals, fascinating historic cities, cows, horses, vineyards, vineyards, vineyards. We met many interesting people. Great food and wine. (it was also sometimes difficult and confusing, but definitely worth it!)

But once your interest is piqued, it soon becomes a logistical problem. How do I get there? How do I get from Paris to the start of my ride? How do I transport bikes? Where do I stay overnight? How do I follow the route? How do I cross the bridge to the train station at St. Nazaire? We planned our trip all ourselves, no expensive tour operator. It worked out well, some bumps along the way, but overall it was great.

I have set up a free website with useful free information and many logistical details about our trip, including where we spent each night. Pictures and videos are on the …Our Trip…page. It’s not a “Look what I did on my Vacation” website. It has the details to help you plan your bike trip on the Loire-a-Velo, whatever the length. Why reinvent the bicycle wheel?

Take the trip we did, or maybe do stretches, like Orleans to Angers(~140 miles) with many of the Chateaus , take info and ideas from our trip to plan your own.

You can do this, or at least you can do stretches of this. It is a trip of a lifetime. Click Home to check it out