Brittany

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journeyman
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Brittany

Post by journeyman »

Excellent trip with family on a clock wise circuit/pootle for 2 weeks through Brittany largely on Voie Vertes. Used Cycle.travel for planning a GPX track and OSM for following on the GPS. La Rigole Voie verte was nice and linked into the Blavet river route which provides a quick way south. Around the finesterre coast by Point De Raz was a highlight and the route back from Brest to Roscoff was good too. Many unsealed tracks and paths found for some rural off road adventures. Even found some proper hike a bike on the Crozon peninsula. Lots of discreet camping opportunities in superb locations. Cidre and pan au raisan in abundance. :-bd
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Dyffers
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Re: Brittany

Post by Dyffers »

I clicked on this certain it would be about singlespeeding...but that's Britney not Brittany isn't it? :roll:
slugwash
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Re: Brittany

Post by slugwash »

Hi Journeyman,

did you ride the coastal Voie Verte (no. 5 I think), from Brest back to Roscoff? Catching the ferry in a couple of weeks for my second bikepacking trip of the year to Bretagne and was thinking of riding the coast westwards, so any info on traffic free routes handy.
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Borderer
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Re: Brittany

Post by Borderer »

VelOdyssey heads south from Roscoff of course.... 900 miles of off road path there til you hit Spain...
http://www.weirdosonbikes.com/2018/03/13/veloodyssey/
slugwash
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Re: Brittany

Post by slugwash »

Crikey, what an epic! I might have to father some more kids as an excuse to do it myself!
However, I have developed Brest- Nantes canal fatigue over the years through using it as a, fairly flat, bicycle motorway to fast track my way across Brittany.
journeyman
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Re: Brittany

Post by journeyman »

Hi just picked up your question!

I guess you may be there already but here goes - after a clockwise circuit from Roscoff to finesterre via Route 8 and the bits of Route 5 along the south we caught the mini ferry from Le Fret on the Crozon to Brest and then the local cycle route heading north east to the coast via Plabbennec - a well signed route through Brest then along back lanes with off road sections on old railways. There is a better off road section further east and north of Landerneau.

We used cycle.travel for planning https://cycle.travel/map : If you zoom in you get the regional routes which allow you to avoid Brest Canal lassitude. These routes were very quiet and with mixed surfaces, plus Brittany generally had lots of great bivvy opportunities especially on the coast. The coast from Brest back to Roscoff on route 5 to the west of Brest is meant to be hilly so with a seven yr old we were trying to avoid this type of terrain. The north coast west of Roscoff is really nice, but if you get a chance to visit finesterre in the south I highly recommend it as there is great exploration to be had.

In Hennebont nr Lorient watch your kit/bike. It felt a bit dodgy both times weve been there and this time Annas Green Bottle copy of a Kleen canteen was knicked from her locked bike whilst she was in a tabac buying a stamp!

For more off-road stuff, cycle.travel shows the tracks as brown dashed lines and paths as brown dots. You can create GPX files with this site. The tracks we used from this mapping were always great fun.
slugwash
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Re: Brittany

Post by slugwash »

Cheers for the info Journeyman.

The dangers of a stop off in Hennebont should not be a problem for us as we are staying in the North West quadrant (and not sending any postcards. Plus, only a despondent individual would dare nick the grotty, pathogen laden, plastic receptacle that passes for a piss bottle from my bike!).

Jim, my fellow wheelman, has the compIete French IGN maps on loaded his phone, so five days of Breton navigation will be a series of squabbles (every 200 metres), with him on a mountain bike and me a road bike.

It'll probably rain anyway, so we'll be plotted up for lengthy periods in various McDonalds in the industrial belts of Brittany's finest urban hubs.
Looking forwards to this trip!
journeyman
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Re: Brittany

Post by journeyman »

The plymouth Roscoff ferry and the options when youre over their make it a fave place to go even for a short trip - couple that with rolling across dartmoor and down the plym valley line and on to the port - classic stuff. Have a good trip!
slugwash
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Re: Brittany

Post by slugwash »

Quite right! I usually roll the back roads from Totnes to Modbury, then the main road to Plymouth, but will probably get swept up in Jim's van as he makes his way across from Ottery. But whatever, as far I'm concerned the best thing about Plymouth is the ferry links to France and Spain ;-)
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Borderer
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Re: Brittany

Post by Borderer »

I believe you can go from Roscoff to Rosslare (Ireland) too. That's a lovely corner of Ireland. I was there in November a few years ago and had balmy weather. Beautiful beaches too.
slugwash
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Re: Brittany

Post by slugwash »

I've considered going cycling in Eire by way of Roscoff in the past. Maybe one day.

BTW, the ferry from Roscoff to Eire was cancelled the other day due to high winds. Luckily the Plymouth sailing went ahead as I'd woken up in a puddle that morning, with everything soaked and wasn't in the mood for an unexpected, extra night in damp clothes and a sodden sleeping bag.
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