prevailing winds France and Spain

[patpalloon]

The prevailing winds for the UK end to end are the subject of much debate, with the perceived wisdom being generally you are better doing LEJOG. I just wondered what are the prevailing winds in France and Spain. I'll be heading down the Mediterranean coast from catalonia to Gibraltar, up through the middle of Spain and up the Atlantic coast of France. Presumably the same logic can be applied to western france as Western UK. I leave in a fortnight's time so will be may and June.

[jamesgilbert]

This website has some maps of prevailing winds in France (summer and winter): http://survolphoto.free.fr/paramoteur/vents/vents.htm

On the Atlantic coast it looks quite variable, mostly SW, W, NW and NE...

[JJF]

You might wish to be aware of the "tramontane" wind which occurs from time to time in the region of the French/Spanish Mediterranean border. I arrived there from Barcelona in February a few years ago intending to cycle along the French coast to Montpellier. I found that the wind was extremely strong (about force 9) and very blustery. I decided to take the train to Montpellier and cycled in that area. This wind seems to cover a fairly limited area and it doesn't seem to extend down the Spanish coast. For example my journey northwards along the Costa Brava wasn't blighted by strong winds.

[BeeKeeper]

Any prevailing winds are just a statistical thing. I went south to north up the west coast of France last June and expected a tailwind - it never happened. A German lady we met had been cycling north from Faro in Portugal a few weeks earlier and she had suffered horrendous headwinds - barely managing 20 km in a day.

So, given you have chosen your route and time then the wind will be what is going to be and in these changeable times (errant jet streams etc) I doubt anyone can be sure what you will experience! As suggested above, it would be worth knowing about local trains if it all gets too much.

[geocycle]

This is a wonderful animation of wind direction http://earth.nullschool.net