De Toulouse à Rennes, il rentre chez lui à vélo !

You can sense the outskirts of the huge regional metropolis of Toulouse long before reaching the centre of ‘the pink city’, as it’s nicknamed. Sticking to the Canal de Garonne, its historic tranquillity contrasts with the rampant urbanisation beyond. You enter Toulouse at the junction of the Canal de Garonne, the Canal de Brienne and the Canal du Midi, at the level of Les Pont-Jumeaux. Then a cycle track beside the Canal du Midi takes you into the city centre.

Leaving Montech, the Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route leads south along the greenway beside the Canal de Garonne towards the great regional capital of Toulouse. Numerous big villages are dotted along the way, like Grisolles, with its museum, and many ‘Villeneuves’, ‘new towns’ dating from the construction of fortified grid-plan settlements… in the 13th century. A cycling circuit through the nearby vineyards of the Frontonnais allows you to discover them and a grape variety unique to this part of southwest France – négrette.

The Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route leaves Moissac via the Pont-canal du Cacor, a remarkable canal-bridge. Not long after, you reach a business park at the entrance to Castelsarrasin, an historic fortified town in the County of Toulouse. From its marina, you can head into the old centre that witnessed many turbulent times, but that has preserved many fine public spaces and buildings, including the imposing St-Sauveur Church, built of fine brick.

From Valence to Moissac, the cycle route sticks to the tranquil canal. The town of Moissac, located on one of the famous pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, stretches out peacefully beside the Tarn River. Visit Moissac’s splendid medieval Benedictine abbey, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its stunningly carved cloisters and one of the most beautiful Romanesque church entrances in southern France.

Leave Agen’s port via a greenway. The way continues close to the Garonne, although the river is rarely visible from beside the canal. After Lamagistère, you enter Valence d’Agen, passing close to former abattoirs superbly converted into an information centre. The town was built as a fortified bastide in the 13th century. Admire its covered market, dovecotes, washhouses and port. Every summer, the show entitled Au Fil de l’Eau une Histoire revives the town’s important past as a port.

The Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route continues along the greenway beside the Canal de Garonne, passing through the very lively port of Buzet-sur-Baïse. You reach Agen itself via one of the longest canal-bridges in France, at 600m. The town is both capital of the département (French county) of Lot-et-Garonne and French capital of prunes… and it conceals many other curiosities, which you can discover in the remarkable monuments in the historic centre.

Le Mas-d’Agenais is the highlight on this stage of the Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route. Its church of St-Vincent is an architectural gem, startlingly containing a work by Rembrandt, Christ on the Cross. The wide vista over the Garonne at one end of the village adds to its attractions. At the end of the stage, the cycle track leads to Damazan, a bastide fortified town built from scratch in the 13th century.

The cycle route joins the Canal de Garonne close to the startling Musée de l’Allumette (Match Museum) at Fontet. This place’s port and outdoors recreation centre make it a great spot to stop before starting out on the greenway beside the canal. This stage is calm, but the perched village of Meilhan-sur-Garonne draws you up to it for fabulous views. For a further short detour, visit the town of Marmande, which conceals some surprises.

In the heart of the Entre-Deux-Mers area – between the two rivers, the Garonne and Dordogne, nicknamed ‘seas’ – you cross an ocean of vines! The terrain is hillier here. You join the Canal de Garonne at La Réole. This town conceals a few treasures behind its ramparts. In its maze of little streets, don’t miss the 13th-century church of St-Pierre, nor the esplanade next to a former Benedictine Abbey which offers a fine view over the Garonne Valley.

The route continues along the former railway line, recalled by converted stations and railway-crossing houses. A detour to La Sauve is well worth it to admire the historic Abbey of La Sauve-Majeure. Enter Sauveterre-de-Guyenne via one of its splendid old gateways to make for the arcaded central square, at the heart of the bastide fortified town created in 1281.

Leaving Bordeaux, after crossing the St-Jean Bridge, a cycle track that runs in part alongside the Garonne leads to Latresne, where you join the beautiful Roger Lapébie cycle track. It’s named after the winner of the Tour de France in 1937 and is remarkably well laid out along a former railway line, with several dedicated stops in former railway stations. The way heads to Créon. This place, set around its arcaded central square, a remnant of a former bastide fortified town, is well worth a detour.

From Blaye, cross the Gironde Estuary by ferry to Lamarque, in the midst of the Médoc, a peninsula packed with some of the greatest wine territories (or appellations) in the world. A provisional route takes you along quiet roads through the Médoc’s vines, fields and heaths to the edge of the city of Bordeaux, at Blanquefort. From here, a cycle track leads you gently to the heart of the great wine town. Bordeaux is a splendid, dynamic city, its exceptional architectural heritage listed as a World Heritage Site. Amidst its grand quarters, sample its many lively, trendy cultural and gastronomic offerings.

Reaching the port of Vitrezay, you leave the département (French county) of Charente-Maritime, continuing on the Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route into the département of Gironde. Bypassing the electricity-producing nuclear power station of the Blayais, a beautiful greenway leads to Blaye and its citadel designed by the great 17th-century engineer Vauban. The citadel and other forts along the Gironde remind you of warring times. A small ferry crosses the estuary from Blaye to Lamarque.

From Mortagne-sur-Gironde to Vitrezay, the scenery is characterized by great expanses of marshes backed by hills covered with vineyards and crops. A number of little marinas along here provide access to the Gironde Estuary and offer places to pause.

Past Royan’s port, this stage begins at Royan’s Grande Conche Beach. Head along the seafront on a lovely shaded cycle path. The cycle route then threads between tracks and quiet roads to Meschers-sur-Gironde before reaching Talmont-sur-Gironde, an astonishing look-out post onto the estuary and part of the association of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. Caillaud Cliff and the square fishing nets suspended above the waters add to the atmosphere. The stage continues via quiet, sometimes steep roads and tracks to Mortagne-sur-Gironde, a port well protected from the temperamental Gironde.

The Marennes Country, home to the leading oyster farms in Europe, spreads over salt marshes and the Seudre estuary. Here cycle paths are numerous and a truly memorable part of the route takes you through the forest of Coubre as La Vélodyssée reaches La Palmyre.This part is fit for a king, with splendid sea views. Following cycle lanes throughout, it weaves through the coastal forest and array of pretty beaches, one of which is the charming St-Palais, along the coast road to reach the striking cliffs and sandy beaches either side of the beautiful streets of Royan. All you have to do is to catch the boat!

It’s with great regret that we leave behind Rochefort and its gardens on the banks of the Charente. We take the former steam-train tracks – now the greenway – and La Vélodyssée meets the marshes, criss-crossed with little channels, before heading onto the oyster centre of Marennes (some sections under construction).

As the famous towers which defend the port of La Rochelle hove into view, a cycle path section takes us to the Port of Minimes, then onto the Cove of Godechaud, right next to the sea. The delightful Bay of Châtelaillon now comes into sight and offers weary cyclists a very pleasant stopping point. After the Bay of Châtelaillon comes a pretty seaside section before heading back inland towards the ‘royal city’ of Rochefort. While the middle section of this route might appear somewhat commonplace, the remarkable town of Rochefort is well worth exploring.

This final stage of La Vélo Francette shares the way with the longer La Vélodyssée cycle route. You follow the Canal de Marans towards the sea before branching off for the great city of La Rochelle via the Canal de Rompsay. Although this stage is easy, it allows you to end La Vélo Francette with a flourish – plus there’s the possibility of a dip in the Atlantic! Islands beckon just off the coast, if you wish to prolong your experience of douce France!

La Belle-Henriette Lagoon, separated from the sea by a narrow band of sand, and then your arrival into La Faute-sur-Mer which stretches endlessly towards the point of Arçay, mark this stage of La Vélodyssée. The route then heads into St-Michel-en-l’Herm through the dried marshes of Marais Poitevin a great expanse of marshes and cultivated land dotted with farms and sheds. The crossing of the Pont du Brault takes us into Charente-Maritime in the ancient district of Aunis. Marans, the capital of the dried Marais marshes, was once a very important look-out point.

In this fairytale setting are both Les Sables (world capital of yacht racing) and La Rochelle, (the ‘broken rebel’ capital of Aunis) centre stage. The Vendéenne coast brings the cycle routes back to the Poitevin Marshes. Once past the Sèvre Niortaise River, we find ourselves at Charente-Maritime and the Marans canal which leads straight to the Old Port. After St-Vincent, La Vélodyssée winds its way into the large national forest of Longeville, drawing close to the sea on two occasions from where beautiful beaches can easily be accessed, such as Les Conches. A quick dip is a must on this stage!

St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, working port, well-known seaside resort, significantly located on a river whose name means ‘life’… all this and the Grande Plage… altogether an unmissable location on La Vélodyssée! Take time to stroll around before continuing on the route which gets closer to the coast towards Brétignolles-sur-Mer and Brem-sur-Mer.The route stretches along the coast and snakes through the Avocettes road between the Olonne forest and the ancient salt marshes which extend between Brem, the Isle of Olonne, Olonne-sur-Mer and Les Sables-d’Olonne.

This stage of La Vélodyssée focuses entirely on the sea, the beach, the forest and the dunes. There are 18 kms of cycle paths winding through the national forest of Pays de Monts, after which you come to the very lively seaside resort of St-Jean-de-Monts. Before reaching the Vendéenne Cove and its famous boulders at Sion-sur-l’Océan, La Vélodyssée heads towards an old fishing village in the commune of St-Hilaire-de-Riez, adjoining St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. A superb stage.

The last stage of La Vélodyssée in the Bay of Bourgneuf-en-Retz (your pedals keeping time with the sweeping circles of its wind turbines!) before arriving at the very lively Port-du-Bec in Epoids. The highlight of the day will be crossing the famous Gois causeway to the Island of Noirmoutier, tides permitting!

La Vélodyssée route continues its tour of the Bay of Bourgneuf, brushing past the Breton Marshes in the search for out-of-the-ordinary landscapes in an area rich in birds local to the region. Human activity makes itself felt in the form of the fisheries and the small working ports which dot the coastline. One last gourmet stage on the Loire-Atlantique, La Vélodyssée route continues its tour of the Bay of Bourgneuf. We find ourselves in oyster country, encountering numerous little oyster ports and pits used to cultivate the oysters.

This stage of La Vélodyssée starts by crossing St-Brevin between the sea, dunes, pine trees and villas. It continues into the countryside of the Pays de Retz towards St-Michel-Chef-Chef and the charming tourist seaside resort of Pornic.

This is the last stage on the Loire à Vélo cycle route, but it also offers you the opportunity of joining the Velodyssey cycle route as it runs alongside the Atlantic. The Loire is strongly affected by the tides here and arriving at the end of the stage, you end up in a typical seaside resort!

The calm Canal de la Martinière acts as your guide on this stage shared by EuroVelo 6 and the Loire à Vélo cycle routes. You cycle along quiet little roads, in the midst of landscapes typical of the Loire estuary, with broad marshes and meadows spreading out from the great river.

Contemporary art features large along the Loire’s long estuary and this stage shared by the Loire à Vélo and Velodyssey cyles routes. The installations are startling, set in unusual locations. They offer joyous surprises close to the city of Nantes.

Quiheix’s second lock marks the end of the Nantes to Brest canal towpath. Gradually you return to the hustle and bustle of urban life during this stage of La Vélodyssée, alternating rural routes with sections of the greenway and the charming Sucé-sur-Erdre crossing - a very comfortable stopping point.

This is the last, very easy going and enjoyable stage of La Vélodyssée along the Nantes to Brest canal. The Bout-de-Bois Pond or the Chevallerais woods make two very timely stops for weary cyclists.

Staying close to the Brière and the confluence of the Isac and the Vilaine, this stage of La Vélodyssée follows the river at water level. Keep your ears and eyes open for the host of different animal species which populate the surrounding marshes.A magnificent section which alternately twists and turns, with hedgerows, hillsides and copses to each side - sometimes even little pine forests - before reaching Barel Lock. Following cycle paths right to the heart of Blain.