A friend and myself will be taking part in our first cycle tour in aid of charity from St Malo to Morocco (via Gibraltar). We'll be arriving in St Malo via ferry from England (Weymouth) and will have to spend our first night in St Malo as our ferry is due to arrive at 20:40. We are looking to cover 80-100 miles a day depending on the terrain. We are doing this trip at the end of August. Whilst we're keen to have the most scenic route, we're also keen to use long, fast roads in order to keep on top of the mileage, so we aren't scared of the odd busy road to ensure we can clock the distances we need and to avoid fiddly navigation. I have a Garmin Edge 810 which I intend to plot the route on, but we'll also be using maps. We will be camping for the majority of the trip. My questions are:
1) Can anyone recommend some accommodation (most likely hotel/ hostel) in St Malo. We will be arriving late and we wont have much time to cycle out of the city so we're now looking for a convenient place to stay that doesn't brake the bank balance. Has anybody out there done a similar thing after arriving late of the ferry?
2) There are tons of conflicting routes on this forum that I could piece together to create our trip, but many take a largely scenic route, and often hug the coast. Can anybody recommend a route that can ensure we get the distances done? Something fast but obviously no illegal roads. There's plenty of cycle paths in france and I'm wondering whether they are good enough to ensure we can keep our avg speed up (i.e. not too much stopping and starting).
Any help advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
