Riding suggestions in Brittany, France

[Mzilliox]

Hello all. My wife and I have a few days worth of cycling in Brittany later this year, late May i think. We are based south of the town of Lamballe, so not directly on the coast, which i hear can be quite wet and windy.

We would be looking to either do day rides of 40-75 miles or perhaps a mini credit card tour of 2-3 days between villages. we could ride for 30-60 miles per day seeing sites along the way to the next place. or whatever.

It looks like there are a ton of bike paths connecting things, but are there any things not to be missed? roads that are must see, views that are just too good? I am more thinking of the cycling aspects than otherwise, but sometimes a ride is wonderful because the town or cafe was wonderful, so those types of rides are welcome.

Any and all recommendations are welcome.

thanks paceline

[Doug Fattic]

I thought your post might get more responses. What I remember from my visit to the west part of France doing a little genealogy research in the 80's is a little old. What impressed me was that there were lots of narrow paved country back roads with little traffic. The population density was much less there than say in England. Going between villages I felt like I saw more farm tractors than cars.

The other small piece of advice i'll add about bicycle riding in Europe is that I lower my expected daily milage compared to riding in the US. Villages are a bit closer together with more to see, roads aren't laid out in a grid but a bit more windy and I stop to take more pictures.

The only caution I have about taking my advice is that we traveled more in Normandy than Brittany (Normandy is just above Brittany) and even though I think the 2 areas are similar I can't separate them out as distinct in my mind.

[weisan]

I thought your post might get more responses.

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showpost.php?p=2482286&postcount=6

[tristan]

I can't comment on that particular part of the world, however I find when I travel that Strava's route planner is really good.

The route planner (dashboard > My Routes > Create New Route) uses heatmap data to find the most-cycled roads in that area. You can pick the basic route you want to travel and it will then bypass the main highways and put you onto bikepaths and quiet rural roads. It's easy to send the route to your phone or Garmin for turn-by-turn directions.

This used to be a premium-only feature but it looks to be included in the free version now, however if it's still premium-only then it's worth a month's subscription to use while on holiday.

The only gotcha is that it can't differentiate between mountain bike and road riding so occasionally I've ended up on a mountain bike trail.

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[Mzilliox]

haha, thanks guys, i guess. Hopefully these bumps get me some info.
things i already know: there are lots of roads and villages. i can ride my bike on all of them. this ride will probably be fun no matter which roads i choose. maps exist. there are things to do in France. the food is good. weisan and velotel dont know any more than me about the riding in Brittany.
Tristan, good call on the route planner, i used this on our vacation in Japan. very useful tool, but it still doesnt tell you if you missed out on that wonderful cafe or not.
now im hoping to actually glean some good info, mainly because my wife enjoys planning, and my contribution to the vacation research is figuring out a nice ride. i just need one. it doesnt need to be an epic climb or part of the TDF, just a ride that maybe someone did and would do again in an instant.

thanks