If you were to devise the ideal cycle route, it would look a bit like this. 50% traffic free, very little climbing, miles of smooth tarmac, beautiful river scenery… oh, and a string of picture-postcard villages and towns.
La Vélo Francette is just as good as it sounds. An inland route connecting two seas (the Channel and the Bay of Biscay), it nonetheless spends a lot of time by water – the Mayenne, the Loire, the Sèvre Niortaise. Add a handful of railway paths, and you can see why there’s so little traffic and so few hills. The quiet lanes that make up the remainder are well chosen, allowing you to dawdle and daydream past cider orchards and vineyards.
A panel of travel journalists voted this Europe’s number 1 cycle route in 2017. An ambitious claim, but it’s certainly a contender. Why not find out for yourself?
Not all the route is paved, but the unpaved sections are good-quality gravel. The upshot is that any bike will do, though if you’re on a road bike, you’ll want reasonably sturdy tyres – 32mm or so.
Why not? It’s not hilly – there are just two gradual ascents on the whole route, where by “gradual” we mean “over 50 miles or so”. Yes, there are inevitable undulations on the road sections, but there’s so much rail-trail and towpath riding that you’ll never be too taxed.
That said, at 600km (370mi), it’s a pretty long route for your first cycling holiday. Angers is roughly halfway, and would make a good destination for a shorter excursion. (It’s also a little easier to get back by train from Angers to a Channel port.)
Just what you think: ‘Little France’, or ‘France in miniature’. In other words, the Vélo Francette captures the essence of France in one bike route. You might think that ‘Petite France’ would be a more obvious name, but as the route manager explains, a district of Strasbourg got there first.
Yes! A cheery logo of a cockerel in a pink circle adorns the excellent signposting throughout. It doesn’t hurt to have a map with you, whether one downloaded from cycle.travel or the very good French-language guidebook published by Chamina. But you’ll rarely need it.
Caen station has regular Intercités trains from Paris (St Lazare) and regional trains from across Normandy. If you’re travelling from Britain, ferries from Portsmouth arrive at Caen’s port (Ouistreham), operated by Brittany Ferries.
There are plentiful trains from La Rochelle, but unfortunately not to Caen or anywhere similarly helpful. Trains back to Normandy inevitably involve going via Paris, so if you want to get back across the Channel, you might as well take the TGV to Paris and then the Eurostar. (Both of these require booking for you and your bike.)
Made in the Cotswolds. Published by Éditions Système D Ltd.
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Ride reports & comments
La Vélo Francette is a lovely route but..
Just completed the route from North to South. You are on cycleways / rail trails or dedicated cycle lanes almost all the time. The route is well signposted for the…
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Ridden this route? Write a ride report and share your experience…
Thinking of doing this on recumbent trike. What do you think - likely problems with the barrier or surface?
I think you’d be 95% fine with the barriers – French ones are generally more forgiving than British ones! There’s one location that comes to mind where the barriers were bollards set a little closely together, but even then you’d probably be able to get a recumbent through. Surfaces should be ok as long as you don’t mind some generally well maintained gravel; there’s the occasional riverside cobbled section in the towns which it may be wisest to detour around.
Thanks, Richard.
Hello Richard, Thanks for this very useful guide to la Vélo Francette. When did you ride this route? I would wondering about the hilliness of the route. My wife is not keen on hills - we usually ride river and canal routes that are pretty flat like the Rhine or the Rhone after Lyon. The French site Canal Dodo (http://www.velocanauxdodo.fr/?page_id=5988) suggests that a lot of the Francette is pretty hilly. Thoughts would be welcome if you have a moment. Philip
I have a wife who is not good on hills. We ride a tandem because it means we can be together. Tandems are not great on hills. We get round the problem by allowing extra time so, if need be, I can push it up the hills. This often means we end up with the unexpected bonus of having extra time for other things because many hills turn out to be easier than we thought. Just don't set overambitious daily mileages because that's a recipe for divorce.
Just completed my first cycle touring holiday in France: Ouistreham-Angers-Nantes-Redon-St Malo. Used the Velo Francette from Ouistreham to Angers. Took 4 days for the Ouistreham to Angers leg overnighting in Ouistreham, Thury-Harcourt, Flers, Laval. I thought the voie vertes and canal/riverside trails were fantastic. No pot holes! ..Enough cafes and little supermarkets. Navigation was a cinch. It's well signed. Took a Gramin but didn't use it for navigation. Mostly flat apart from a little rolling country road riding on the Thury-Flers stage.
The B&B hotel just out of Ouistreham is well set up to receive cyclists coming off the Portsmouth ferry in the evening. The check-in machine in the lobby will get you an access code which works for the bike store as well as your room. The bike store is the separate garage sized building to the right of the car park, just walk around the back to find the entry door.
Stayed in some Ibis Budget hotels. Asking for a ground floor room to make it easier to get your bike was a good idea.
Just ridden from La Rochelle to Ouistreham on La Velo Francette in 5 days. I did it on a gravel bike with minimum luggage stopping in hotels in Niort, Thouars, Angers and Mayenne.
I would say a gravel bike is ideal for this trip as most of the off road is in very good condition. The towns were good to stop at with the exception of Mayenne, which was pretty dead, especially on a Sunday evening when I was there.
The first day from La Rochelle to Niort was almost perfect cycling, flat and practically no traffic. Niort to Thouars was mostly on road and involved a fair amount of climbing, 1,500m including getting lost. Thouars to Angers was a little disappointing as I expected the Loire Valley to be more interesting. A lot was on a road with a fair amount of weekend traffic and then went onto a succession of farm roads with innumerable junctions. Angers to Mayenne was beautiful, all off road along the river valley. Mayenne to Ouistrham was long and had a couple of nasty hills but started on well maintained railway tracks and finished with 50km on an all tarmac cycle path.
The sign posting is mostly easy to follow without using a Garmin though you can get lost in larger towns and villages and one day I did miss an important sign and added a few km. The western option through Flyers which I took wasn’t so clear so I’d recommend downloading the route just in case.
All in all a great route though I’m not sure I’d recommend the part from Niort to the Loire for inexperienced cyclists.
Re: "Thinking of doing this on recumbent trike. What do you think - likely problems with the barrier or surface?" (for reference as question was from 2019)
I rode it on a tadpole recumbent trike in 2023 (Ouistreham to La Rochelle. On a low recumbent (3½" ground clearance, ICE Sprint X Tour). No real issues only one gate (left right fence barrier at bridge where I had to get off and push through as it was tight) and minor grounding coming off bridge at Angers, actually over a step and it was my fault and didn't even scratch the paint and would have been trivial to get off, lift the rear wheel but I was lazy.
All paths, surfaces, etc. were fine, some better than others but no issues.
As on anything with pedals gearing will affect how you find the hilly bits.
I did this in June 2024 on road bike with 32c Tyres. It was fairly well signposted but at some critical junctions the signage was missing and I found myself not knowing which way to turn. Sometimes there was a sign a bit further on the telling you you had made the correct choice. I hadn’t realised how much gravel there would be. Although it wasn’t tough gravel it nevertheless was hard work and took more time than even tarmac. The route also by-passes most towns and villages meaning you have to go off route to find food and water.
I overnighted from Portsmouth to Caen and took a train to Paris St Lazarre, cycled to Paris Montparnasse and a TGV to Rochelle. I waited until the tickets went on sale to book the bike reservation as there are only a few reservations on the TGV. La Rochelle is lovely and you are spoiled for places to eat.
Day 1 proper was from La Rochelle to Niort. A pleasant leg mainly beside canals and a river. However due to a lack of signage a got hopelessly lost and had to rely on google maps to find me an impossible grass track to get me back to a place wher I could pick up the route. Niort is a good place to stop.
Day 2 was hard going from Niort to Thouars. This leg was mostly tarmac but was ceaselessly undulating with my Garmin telling me I has 11 climbs. I again got lost due to the lack of signage and lost a lot of time ending up on a man in road for the last stretch to Thouars.
Day 3 was mostly flat along a rover path to Angers, stopping in Saumur for lunch. The final stretch is alongside the River Loire.
Day 4 from Angers to Laval was the best leg with the first stretch alongside the stunningly beautiful Mayenne river. Mostly flat. The second stretch after the town of Mayenne is moslty a very boring disused rail line with a gravel track and dense trees alongside preventing you from appreciating the countryside..
Day 5 was Laval to Flers. A steady rise in gradient with very few places to stop for snacks and beverages.
Day 6 was Flers to Ouistrehem for a night ferry back home. A couple of stiff uphill climbs fefore reaching the amazing downhill tarmaced cycle path to Caen. This is very pretty with stunning views and I was glad it ws downhill. There is a disused railway station at Thury Harcout which has a shop/cafe. Beware. It closes for lunch! And when it opens it serves a very limited choice of drink and hardly any food.
I covered approximately 100km each day. It passes through dome spectacular scenery but also some which is boring, especially some of the disused rail tracks. Getting lost spoiled it for me. I wont do it again
I'm sad that the previous poster had a negative experience of La Vélo Francette. I cycled the northern section from Caen to Angers over a week in July 2024 with my wife and 11-year old daughter (while the older daughter enjoyed a post-GCSE holiday with friends in Spain) before heading along the Loire to Amboise.
Apart from a little bit of intra-family tension caused by trying to rack up too many KMs per day, which was easily remedied by slowing down a bit) we had a great time. The weather was a bit mixed but the riding was all accessible despite the weather. The section from Caen to Thury-Harcourt is not the most exciting, but it's less than a day of riding, and the cafe at Thury-Harcourt is great. We found it had a great range of food, plenty of drink options from coffee through wine and beer. We went there twice - once the afternoon we arrived and once the morning after on our way out of town, and found it open and welcoming on both occasions.
The section from Clécy to Condé-sur-Noireau was quite hilly, leaving the old railway to head across country on quiet roads, but that was the only challenging section of the whole route. The riding along the River Mayenne was beautiful, on champagne gravel, and there were plentiful opportunities for wild camping here for those inclined. If not, there were also plenty of reasonably-priced and well-maintained campsites, except for the section between Domfront and Ambrières les Vallées. We headed 2-3km off the route into Ceaucé and found a stunning campsite there, which was only 7 euro for the three of us for the night (it only took cash, would be inconvenient if we had had none).
It's true to say that the route bypasses villages for the most part, but none are ever more than 2-3km off the route and there are plenty of small towns and occasionally larger towns too, so food and drink is never far away.
If you were determined, you could do this in two days (IE from Caen to Angers) without too much trouble. It would be easy in 4 days. We would highly recommend it - don't be put off by the previous review.