Case Study: How to plan a cycling trip in France (hassle free)

Although VeloNomad is all about self-touring holidays and teaching you how to plan a cycling trip in France yourself, sometimes it’s easier to join a tour and let someone else take care of the small stuff so you can just turn up and ride. Let's dive into my 2015 trip case study into how to plan a cycling trip in France.

With this in mind, here’s how I’d do a two week trip, hassle free.

Plan a cycling trip in France

Before we start, here's some context to the trip: in 2015, I’ll be leaving my 10-week-old bubba (our first!) behind to head to France (before you lot escalate into a rowdy cacophony of boos and jeers, I must confide that Kate has encouraged me to go on this trip. BELIEVE IT.) for a short trip to:

• Do Etape du Tour 2015
• Run a 4 day Col bashing tour and relaxing 6 day cycling/wineries/markets trip in Languedoc in partnership with VéloRoo

Now, although I’ll be running two guided tours with Steve and Julia from VélooRoo for 10 days (4 days, 6 days), the approach would still be the same if I wasn’t.

The key thing here is, because I’m going for only 2 weeks, I want this trip to be as hassle-free as possible: fly in, ride, relax, fly out.

To do this, you have two options.

1. Tour groups
2. Pick a spot and stay there (no driving around and transfers)

I’ve covered how to do the stay-in-one-spot holiday on the website and in the Cycling in France guide, so here’s how to do it with a tour group, where you get to do a lot of great riding, relaxing and importantly, actually soaking in what France has to offer.

Because to be honest, 2-3 weeks chasing the Tour and driving around tends not to be a great holiday.

Choosing a tour

The key thing here is to choose a tour that meets your needs and who is going on the trip.
For example, if Kate was coming, I’d choose a short tour that let me ride my legs into oblivion for a few days and/or a medium amount for a week or so.

Riding in the morning (50-80km), wineries, markets, relaxing, sightseeing, authentic French food in the afternoon.

And for those who are going with people who are also serious riders, or for those who want a short leg bashing tour, I’d choose a tour that did some hardcore epic riding, like our Iconics Tour, but one where you were not riding for 5-7 hours every day.

After all, it's no fun taking your loved one and consigning them to the roadside for hours each day. (Now THAT is worth a BOOOOO!)

So, find someone who is going to take care of the details, and who limits group size so you’re not waiting around a lot for riders to catch up, and who understands the need to balance the desires of riders and non-riders alike.

Not taking a bike

Although taking your bike overseas is easy (especially with this guide), on this trip, with the fact I'll be taking trains and a goal of minimising worry and fuss, I’ll hire a bike.

If you’re heading to France, here are three recommended Velonomad bike hire partners:

• Cyclomundo
• France Bike Rentals
• VéloRoo

Airports and Trains

Flying into an airport near Etape (or where you want to go) makes things a lot easier. It facilitates short car trips or better still, makes catching trains easier.

Here's what I'll be doing:

• Fly into Geneva, catching a Qantas-Emirates codeshare from Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane, as I can fly to Geneva with just one stop in Dubai. Hassle-free, remember.
• Catch the train to from Geneva to St Jean de Maurienne: 1 change, 3 hours. Geneva central train station is a mere 6 minutes from the airport. How easy is that! (Melbourne Airport, catch a 20-40min bus ride to the city…What. The. Hell!).
• Grab a cab to my hotel, grab hire bike (pre-delivered), go for a ride (Col du Madeleine day before Etape? Sure, why not).
• On the way home, get a train from Beziers (near where our Languedoc tour finishes) to Geneva to get home ASAP to my baby human, wife and puppy Golden Retriever!

The train sounds easy to me.

Insurance

As I’m not taking my bike, only standard travel insurance is needed as well as indemnity and injury insurance for Etape. I’ve covered insurance for events like Etape in this article, (please read it if you're doing Etape or travelling)!

For insurance I’ll be using World Nomads as it specifically provides cover for Etape. World Nomads provides cover for folks around the world so please check 'em out. There are other options such as CyclePlan for the UK folks.

Prepaid Mobile Internet SIM

Easy. Velonomad prepaid France SIM cards.

The Tour de France

Although the TDF will be passing through the Alps a few days after our Iconics tour being there, I won't be seeing it roadside as:

1. We’ll be relaxing in Languedoc.
2. I’ve seen numerous TDF stages and to be honest it’s better watching it on telly. Sure if you’ve never seen the TDF before, seeing it in the Alps will be awesome (and I’ll cover all that in my released-before-Christmas TDF 2015 roadside guide), but by golly there’ll be a LOT of people and it’s going to be crazy trying to get accommodation.

So for me, I’d prefer to ride int he mornings around Languedoc then watch it all arvo on telly. THAT’s relaxing. Following the TDF (especially in the Alps) is not relaxing. Fun, sure, but not relaxing.

Etape du Tour accommodation

Two options here:

• AirBNB (or other portal) or Google. I'll be finding something on AirBNB or staying with reader Mario.
• Portals like Hotels Combined or Booking.com
• A tour (for ABSOLUTE ease, you want something like 445 Tours’ Etape package).

(By the way, if you have some cycling friendly accommodation, please email me, so I can list you on the site.)

Things to think about

There are two things for me to worry about:

• Getting from the Maurienne valley to Oisans valley after Etape
• Getting from Beziers to Geneva

Since after Etape finishes I’ll now be onboard with our tour group, I need to get to Les Deux Alpes from St Jean de Maurienne.

There's no easy way to do this, unless you want to take 3 hours via train (this is the PITA thing about the Alps: everything takes time or is the lonnnng way around).

So, if any readers will be in La Toussuire or nearby on the 20th July, I’d love a lift to Bourg D'Oisans or Les Deux Alpes on the 20th July.

On the way home, I’ll need to get from Beziers (near where our Languedoc tour finishes) to Geneva, which can be accomplished on a train trip with 2 stops over 5 hours or two flights (Montpellier-Paris-Geneva).

Wrap up

I hope this gives you an insight into how to plan a hassle-free cycling trip to France. Really, the only tricky things involved are a couple of transfers and negotiating bike hire (Wilier Izoard full Ultegra or Trek Domane Durace). So all in all, easy-peasy.

So if this is something you're interested in, remember, the keys are:

• Fly somewhere close to where you want to go
• Pick a tour company who offers what you need
• If you want to watch Le Tour or do Etape, trying and fit that in but minimise hassle

About the only thing I think about when I'm there is Skyping my new child every waking night. Kate’s encouraged me to go (seriously), but my BIGGEST concern is missing my child, though I’m reliably informed I’ll only be missing poo, sleep and “upchucks”.

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