Hi
I want to start cycling from Nicea to Gibraltar next week. I have never been in France or Spain but I planned that my road will be similar to Eurovelo 8. I checked Eurovelo 8 at official website and it seems to me that roads in France and Spain are not realised so far. What does it mean? Does it difficult to ride a bike on a south coast?
French and Spanish south coast / Eurovelo 8
月, 2016-08-08 14:48
#1
Unregistered
French and Spanish south coast / Eurovelo 8
Hi,
Roughly 50% of Ev8 is built in France, here are 2 links to fin out more:
http://www.francevelotourisme.com/contenus/les-futurs-itineraires-velos/leurovelo-8-en-france-la-velo-route-de-la-mediterannee
& http://af3v.org/CarteAF3V/carte-detaillee.html
Also, it depends which bike you'll use, if you take large tyres (32mm or more), you could follow the "littoral de la Camarque" from Ste Marie de la Mère. It seems also that you can follo le canal du Rhone à Sète from ... sète or Frontignan, half way on the Voie Verte from Frontignan du Vic. I saw some cyclists there but I don't know how easy it is.
Bonne route,
Philippe
I've been there some weeks ago (from Germany to France, down the Rhone to the Camargue and all the mediterranean coast of spain and to Lisboa). In france, between Camargue and Spain I would advise not to care about the Voies Vertes in france (there are lots of them!) between Camargue and Spain. You will always find beautiful ways without much traffic and will discovery much more nice landscape and villages if your not dogmatic about the eurovelos. Navigation is really easy there as you can see the sea!
In Spain I never found the EV8 or any other velo routes outside the citys. I think maybe the half of the way down to the south coast isn't possible without using the red national routes.There are lots of traffic and bad air, but the traffic is very respectful to cyclists! I really enjoyed it anyways, but if you want to have the most intense experience of freedom, you may consider to stay in France, it is so much more diverse ;-)
This gets worse on the Costa del Sol, which is a Coast of Golfclubs as well. Between Malaga and Gibraltar you are forced to use highways or go through a hell of mountains. There is no other way! Cycling on Highways in Spain is legal as long as there is no sign to show otherwise, but fun is something completely different. I am sure, you can take a Bus from Malaga or Marbella for under 50€. So yes, cycling the south coast of spain is not a nice experience, but the southern coast of france is beautiful!
If you are in Gibraltar, I would advise to go to Tarifa, there is a national route, maybe 3 hours, it's the most southern town in Spain with a beautiful view to Africa while having the mediterranean sea to the left and the atlantic to the right!
If you use any kind of navigation, always prefer the yellow roads, the red ones are the national routes and the blue ones are the highways.