Introduction

Welcome all!! This blog is a real time capture of our Loire a Velo cycle adventure! This will be our main way to keep friends and family updated with our progress by sending posts and pictures from our mobile phones.


The Loire a Velo trail in France starts at Never in the center of the country and follows the river Loire right to the Atlantic coast covering a distance of 800kms.


More details and a map of the trail can be downloaded from the official Loire a Velo website:


Loire a Velo website in French
Loire a Velo website in English

Loire a Velo Brochures (download the first pdf)


For obvious copyright reasons we are unable to put any maps on the blog but the above brochure has a map that shows the places below.


Our itinerary is:


Friday 29th April 2011

• Up at 4:50am, train from Acheres to Gare du Lyon 05:25
• Train from Paris Bercy 7am arriving in Never at 9am
• Stage 1 - Never to La Charite-sur-Loire (42 kms)
• Stage 2 - La Charite-sur-Loire to Sancerre (25 kms)
• Stage 2 (and a bit) - Sancerre to Bannay (9.5 kms)

Saturday 30th April 2011

• Stage 3 - Bannay to Briare ( 35.5 kms)
• Stage 4 - Briare to Sully-sur-Loire (32 kms)

Sunday 1st May

• Stage 5 - Sully-sur-Loire to Orleans (45 kms)
• Stage 6 - Orleans to Beaugency (30 kms)

Monday 2nd May

• Stage 7 - Beaugency to Blois (35 kms)
• Stage 8 - Blois to Amboise (43 kms)

Tuesday 3rd May

• Stage 9 - Ambiose to Tours (28 kms)
• Stage 10 - Tours to Langeais (31 kms)

Wednesday 4th May

• Stage 11 - Langeais to Chinon (38 kms)
• Stage 12 - Chinon to Saumur (35 kms)
• Stage 13 - Saumur to Gennes (19 kms)

Thursday 5th May

• Stage 14 - Gennes to Angers (42 kms)
• Stage 15 - Angers to Montjean (40 kms)

Friday 6th May

• Stage 16 - Monjean to Oudon-Champtoceaux (38 kms)
• Stage 17 - Oudon-Champtoceaux to Nantes (30 kms)
• Stage 18 (if time and energy permits) Nantes to Saint-Brevin-l'Ocean (52 kms)

Saturday 7th May

• TGV from Nantes back to Paris