Seeking advice on routes

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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mbamford
Posts: 1
Joined: 28 Jan 2015, 12:31am

Seeking advice on routes

Post by mbamford »

Hi,

My 17 year old son and I are planning a bike trip this coming summer. I'm looking for some advice on routes.

We'll be going in June. We like some hills but not true mountains. We plan to be on the bikes for about 7-9 days.
So at 80 km/day, we can go 560-720 kilometers in total.

We're thinking about the following routes:

1. Take the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg, follow the Rhein
south to Geneva, and take TGV back to Paris

2. Take the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg, follow the Rhein
south to Basel, head west to Dijon, and take TGV back to Paris

3. Take the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg, France, go north to Stuttgart, and
then east to Munich.

Any thoughts on any of these routes? I'm open to other routes as well.

Thanks.
pwa
Posts: 17366
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: Seeking advice on routes

Post by pwa »

Have you looked at European Bike Express?
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TrevA
Posts: 3551
Joined: 1 Jun 2007, 9:12pm
Location: Nottingham

Re: Seeking advice on routes

Post by TrevA »

There are some restrictions on taking bikes on Eurostar and TGV:

http://www.seat61.com/bike-by-train.htm#France
Sherwood CC and Notts CTC.
A cart horse trapped in the body of a man.
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Ron
Posts: 1384
Joined: 5 Jan 2007, 9:07pm

Re: Seeking advice on routes

Post by Ron »

Must you start and finish in Paris? Perhaps you live there? :)
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foxyrider
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Joined: 29 Aug 2011, 10:25am
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Re: Seeking advice on routes

Post by foxyrider »

mbamford wrote: 1. Take the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg, follow the Rhein
south to Geneva, and take TGV back to Paris


The Rhein doesn't go even close to Geneva! from Basel you head south through the Jura to Geneva - very nice and not too mountainous!

mbamford wrote:
3. Take the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg, France, go north to Stuttgart, and
then east to Munich.



Erm - From Strasbourg you'd actually go mostly east to Stuttgart and Stuttgart to Munich is actually a lot more south than east and is quite a long way! You could follow the Neckar and Donau to keep things a bit more level at least as far as Ulm.

There are thousands of places you could go but where do you want to go?
Convention? what's that then?
Airnimal Chameleon touring, Orbit Pro hack, Orbit Photon audax, Focus Mares AX tour, Peugeot Carbon sportive, Owen Blower vintage race - all running Tulio's finest!
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BeeKeeper
Posts: 1265
Joined: 29 Apr 2011, 6:45am
Location: South Devon

Re: Seeking advice on routes

Post by BeeKeeper »

It might help if you could say where you live, assuming this is your start point. I live near Plymouth and with your time scale I would take the ferry to Roscoff and do a loop around Brittany.

If you don't live near a channel port consider flying, this is the best way to find sunshine! As already mentioned the fast trains are not bike friendly.
bohrsatom
Posts: 807
Joined: 20 May 2013, 4:36pm

Re: Seeking advice on routes

Post by bohrsatom »

I can't really comment on the routes but wanted to offer an alternative opinion on taking bikes on the TGV.

Last year I took my bike on the train from Paris to Bordeaux with no problems whatsoever. Well... one problem. Getting a fully loaded touring bike up a flight of stairs at Gare Montparnasse was a challenge but all plain sailing after that. We booked the tickets over the phone using rail-europe.

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