Self guided French bike tours for 70 yr olds

Pam,

For starters, I advise sticking to the roads and avoiding the Loire River Valley Bike Trail. In 2019, I made the mistake - on a traditional road touring bike - of stubbornly following the trail from Orleans to Angiers. Not only was it often dirt, sometimes paved and usually broken or bumpy, it deviated seriously up and down out-of-the way hills through this village and that, leaving the Loire totally out of sight about 90% of the way. After leaving the trail, I just wound my way through Brittany and Normandy on whatever roads I chose.

I've taken many self-planned bike trips all over Europe and other places for decades, and this boo-boo was my biggest (and only) regret. There are many rural roads in France from which to choose with a good map. Michelin map #721 is ideal for cycle touring. The yellow and white roads on Michelin maps have the lightest traffic and go through more rural countryside, while the red roads have the heaviest and more directly connect larger towns and cities.

Another alternative, though far less practical, is EuroVelo. Check out its website for existing, planned and under-development routes all over the continent: https://en.eurovelo.com and click on the country of your choice. Its maps are downloadable and, I believe, also available in print form.

We did a honeymoon bike tour 22 years ago with Blue Marble out of Paris, to the Champagne region. This was a guided trip and involved human-powered Giant brand touring bikes. A subsequent trip to the Loire, we rented for just a day, from a shop in Amboise.

Back to Blue Marble: http://www.bluemarble.org/BikeRentBuy.html

They now rent ebikes, and their Individual Travel Assistance service is detailed by clicking on the link in the box on the right-hand side of their Website.

This is the best resource of which I know for biking in the Loire:

https://www.loirebybike.co.uk/

If you want to do serious touring, this company offers maps specific to bike trips:

https://www.chamina.com/114-velo/s-2/collection-velo_et_vtc

A quick note to say that the Loire by bike website is the English version of La Loire à Vélo.

Just curious, Pam. Do you currently do rides like the Platte River trail, out to Chatfield or up northeast, or Cherry Creek out to the dam, or west on 32nd Ave. to Golden, maybe even up Lookout Mountain, or other steep rides? I’m about the same age as you; how much riding on streets, or maybe on busy roads like Highway 40 or Hwy 285 do you do now? Denver’s added bike lanes are helpful, but many road surfaces sure are deteriorated, and traffic seems to be a constant concern, especially as I get older. Yesterday, I just broke out my road bike for the first time this year. Are you possibly thinking of bringing your own bikes to France, or renting over there?

We have a 42-day cycling trip planned for France, starting in late August. We start in Bordeaux and finish in Perpignan and are completely self-supported. Previously we have done bike trips in the Dorgodgne, Loire, Burgundy and Provence as well as in Italy. Most were with a bike tour company (VBT) and one was self-guided - the company booked the hotels, gave us the routes and moved our luggage. After completing that tour, we realized we could do a much better job and save a lot of money. We are renting e-bikes through France Bike Rental and have planned the routes from Bordeaux, French Atlantic, Canal des Deux Mers and Languedoc-Roussillon using a combination of Google Maps and Komoot. It has taken a lot of time to plan the routes because you need to validate the routes on Google Maps to make sure you are on roads you will be comfortable on but we have enjoyed every minute of it. The planning has meant we are much more involved and have a good understanding of where we will be travelling and what we want to experience. For us, it's been a lot of fun and we are so much more involved than with previous tours where we just showed up.
Originally we had planned on using baggage transfer services but once we switched to e-bikes we realized we could easily take our 'luggage' with us in panniers. We have purchased Ortlieb 35L panniers and packing cubes and are confident we will have more than enough room to pack what we need.
I suggest you Google as many bike tour companies as possible to get a sense of the routes they use as well as the hotels. It's important to make sure you check with hotels to ensure they have secure overnight bike storage. Some of the other resources are EuroVelo which outlines the many fantastic Velo routes that criss-cross Europe.
And, don't forget about YouTube as a lot of people have posted videos about their trips that include lots of great tips. If you wanted to hedge your bets there are many tour companies that will provide you with bikes, routes and hotel bookings at quite reasonable rates. But be cautious, as not all e-bikes are of the quality you might have in mind. We looked at a number of these options and were quite concerned about the age of the bikes and thus the range of the batteries.
Maggie LaCoste has a great website with a wealth of resources including one just for Loire bike trips. Steve Wartenberg also has an e-book on biking the Loire. And there is a great series of books from Cicerone which provide a lot of good routing information - here's the one for the Loire.

PS - we are in the same age category...

I agree with David that the white and yellow roads on the Michelin map are the way to go. I liked centering in Onzain and Azay-le-Rideau

So much great info…thank you all!

You all are so independent. Truth be told, we have a credit with Discover France Bike Tours from a trip we didn’t take to Holland in ‘20. The Loire Valley seems doable for a couple of seniors on ebikes.

I often explore new biking destinations with the Route Building feature on Strava - and also meet many fellow cyclists! There are also recommendations from folks who have made the trek, like this one.

Our first self-guided bike ride was in the Loire Valley with Discover France in 2003. Since then my wife and I have done 11 more (4 in France, 5 in Italy, and 2 in Spain). We’re doing another in southern Spain in Oct. If Discover France still offers the ride that includes the Chateau D Artigny and the Chateau Du Pray, we would do it again in a heartbeat. Rides were easy ( no e-bikes then), sights were fantastic, and the accommodations were outstanding. That trip wetted our appetite to do more self-guided rides in Europe, and we have never been disappointed; especially with Discover France.
We are both now approaching 70 and still dream of doing more.