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Rance Tidal Barrage

Posted: 12 Aug 2014, 7:18pm
by groberts
Can anybody confirm if you can cycle across the Rance tidal barrage?

I've see elsewhere that the ferry from St Malo to Dinard has been recommended by others - where does it depart from in St Malo, is it free, roughly what time does it start & stop each day, is it OK with a loaded bike?

Thanks.

Re: Rance Tidal Barrage

Posted: 12 Aug 2014, 7:41pm
by Mattie
Yes you can. I have cycled across it myself. There is a footpath with high sides. When I cycled across there were quite a few people fishing from there and they had to slowly move out of the way to let me pass. Once across there is steep(ish) climb and traffic can be quite busy, especially from mid morning on a weekend !

Edit:
I would not really recommend this route as it was busy with quite fast moving relentless traffic when I went through there. I even videod it making a comment about where does all this traffic come from !

Re: Rance Tidal Barrage

Posted: 12 Aug 2014, 7:42pm
by tatanab
groberts wrote:Can anybody confirm if you can cycle across the Rance tidal barrage?

Yes. I did it a couple of years ago when I missed my turning on the way out of St Malo. having crossed the barrage I turned immediately left and followed a pleasant road towards Dinan. I saw several cyclists doing the same. No need to ride on the footpath, especially at the time of day you get off the overnight ferry it is pretty quiet.

Re: Rance Tidal Barrage

Posted: 13 Aug 2014, 1:49am
by wirral_cyclist
I rode the barrage last year and Dinan to St Malo is a nasty climb off the barrage on a busy road (it has wide shoulders so isn't too bad really if on wider rubber). Returning from St Malo we tried to get from the park onto the barrage footpath but it was a sod to find and closed when we eventually did... Riding back ended up OK with the gravity assist towards the barrage and an option to get on the footpath over. Then when we dropped off the path by a visitor area we went up a service road and bypassed the steeper main road climb out.

Re: Rance Tidal Barrage

Posted: 13 Aug 2014, 3:25pm
by sail&fish
We cycled across this last week from East to West. Yes the road was busy but going down the hill was fast and very little traffic came past us. We stopped at the EDF energy visitor centre (loos and water available) which was interesting and cycled up the hill after the bridge was lifted thus having an empty road. There were 5 of us and it would have been close to £50 for the ferry.

Re: Rance Tidal Barrage

Posted: 13 Aug 2014, 3:35pm
by simonineaston
I too recall it was not a very nice place - I walked across, on the path and there were lots of fishers with their attendant gubbins - nice view though... worse though were the apporaches which carried heavy traffic.
A recent post refers to the St Malo / Dinard ferry as being easy access :-)
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=88372#p809540

Re: Rance Tidal Barrage

Posted: 13 Aug 2014, 3:53pm
by geocycle
The Dinard ferry cost 10.5 euros including bike for the 15 min crossing. It may be there is more than one line. I used corsair in July. The problem at the Dinard end is that you are faced with a dozen steps up a wooden stair case behind the 'office'. I couldn't see any way to avoid these. http://www.compagniecorsaire.com/destin ... inard.html

Re: Rance Tidal Barrage

Posted: 13 Aug 2014, 10:16pm
by Claud
Interesting - I'd read about steps, but there were none for us a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it uses a different jetty depending on the tide. Like I said in the post referred to above, it was just a roll-on roll-off using huge stone ramps on both sides. The tricky thing was finding the start of the TdM ....... :?

And for the start point in St Malo, on google maps you'll see a couple of 'Compagnie Corsaire' offices marked - it goes from the ramp immediately south of the eastern one (just a little hut). We got our tickets in the big building 100m further south, but were told we could've got them in the hut.