Cycling in France

Posted by donna (Portland, OR) on 01/16/19 02:23 AM

In Summer of 2017 we enjoyed a 5-day bike ride around Lake Constance. We rode without a guide but our ride was supported by providing bikes, maps, lodging, and hauling our luggage. Has anyone experienced a similar ride in France. We are especially interested in the Alsace/Lorraine Region or Champagne. We are anticipated flying into Zurich and after whatever time we choose to spend in France we will be going to Luxembourg. I would appreciate hearing about any cycle tour companies you might be able to recommend and also any recommendations about must-sees for those areas of France.

Thank you,

Donna

Posted by yosemite1

Placentia, CA

01/16/19 03:13 AM

1075 posts

Check out this bicycle tour company. They have a very good reputation. You can even get an ebike on most tours if you want to take it a little easier.

https://www.vbt.com/tours/

Posted by Rachel

Washington

01/16/19 03:34 AM

920 posts

Hi Donna,
I traveled with Yubike in Holland and thought the trip was well run. They offer one France trip. You can check their website yubike.com. I booked the tour through Tripsite.com, a Pennsylvania-based company. Look at their website as well for France tours. They do not run the trips themselves but serve as an agent for European companies. Good experience with both operations.

Posted by Donna

Sunriver

01/17/19 08:09 PM

1321 posts

check utracks they have many self guided tours listed. We used them for our bike & barge in Italy.
If you like beer - check out Beercycling a local Portland based company with biking in Belgium and France. We cycled with them last Labor Day

Posted by Becky

seattle

05/26/19 07:02 PM

2137 posts

We have good friends who just took a bike/barge trip in France with Giorlibero. They loved it!

Posted by KAS in YVR

Vancouver, BC

05/26/19 10:18 PM

135 posts

We are heading to France in a couple of days to do a 10-day self-guided bike tour in Provence with Randonneé Tours and then a week in Lyon before we join a 6-night group bike tour in Burgundy with VBT. This will be our first self-guided tour after having done 5 trips with VBT, including the Loire and the Dordogne in France. While we enjoyed the VBT tours, we are keen to try a self-guided one and Randonnee came highly recommended by a friend who has done many trips with them. So far our pre-trip experience has been excellent and they use the same Ride with GPS app as VBT so we are confident about being able to manage the routing. The other thing that was very attractive to us is the fact that they offer several levels of accommodation from B&B or more rustic all the way up to Luxe or Premier. And like your previous trip, they transfer your luggage between hotels. I'd love to hear what you end up choosing and your itinerary.

Posted by Adam

Boston

05/27/19 03:33 AM

4132 posts

I had a similar experience with two bicycle rental places in Burgundy (one of them the place in Beaune that Rick recommends).

It is pretty common for these places to offer unguided tours that bundle together such services as reservations, route planning, and portage of luggage, as well as bicycle rentals. We passed on most of these, but they are also available individually--it is not a take-or-leave proposition.

There is zero pressure to buy, in fact as our itinerary evolved Florent in Beaune recommended Laurent in Auxerre for the second leg of our trip, because it made more sense. (So we rented two sets of bikes.)

Burgundy makes for some great cycling, and is not too far off your route, but I'll bet you could find similar services elsewhere, if you wanted to tour, for instance, Alsace or Champaign.