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Immediately convinced by this large-scale project, the two regions concerned – Loire Valley and Pays de la Loire – committed to it fully (more than 50 million in investment). Above all, they involved the 6 départements through which the route runs (Cher, Loiret, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, Loire-Atlantique) as well as the big towns that go with them: Orléans, Blois, Tours, Saumur, Angers and Nantes. The Loire à Vélo therefore naturally became a theme in itself, a sightseeing concept that provides continuity between all the Loire Valley’s countless riches – people, heritage, gastronomy and winegrowing. Better still, the regions registered a trademark – La Loire à Vélo – allowing them to manage the sustainable development of the cycling route and all its by-products!

The Centre and Pays de la Loire regions are putting the final touches to the longest and most ambitious sustainable tourism project of the decade. This is the only cycling-cum-“green” route of its kind in France today. A carbon-free sightseeing itinerary that follows Europe’s last untamed river. And the first ever “cycling cruise”…

Length: more than 650 km this year, including an unbroken

stretch of 550 km… Or even more if you feel like it! With all the offshoots and additional routes, the Loire Véloroute will soon boast more than 800 km of signposted tracks.

The Loire à Vélo trail has taken more than ten years to build and the two regions concerned have invested heavily to promote the concept and the name. The highly promising results speak for themselves. Over the coming decade this lovely route may well become one of the Loire Valley’s biggest tourism assets.

First discovered by European tourists (German, Dutch, Swiss, Scandinavian, all enthusiastic cycling converts), the route did not take long to charm customers from further afield – Americans, Japanese and Australians, among others.

Having said that, the main market is obviously French. Progress in terms of numbers of tourists has reached double figures over the last few years! Users are usually won over in a matter of minutes and are by far the best ambassadors of the Loire à Vélo “product”. Remarkably, the financial crisis has not dented this enthusiasm in the slightest. The automatic counters recorded 51,000 visitors in Candes-St-Martin and 70,000 in Savonnières. The fact that it is local, free of charge and eco-responsible are obviously factors in this success, but there are others: easy access, practical, and offering a great many packages for bike hire, accommodation and catering along the route.

The “La Loire à Vélo” trademark, registered with the French patents office in 1998 by the Loire Valley and Pays de la Loire regions, offers great economic and environmental potential. Its link with the Loire Valley’s inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list – the itinerary goes through the entire listed site –only serves to strengthen its renown and impact. It is a source of considerable potential for actions relating to:• promotion, based on the fame of the

Loire Valley;• the positioning of the Loire à Vélo

product, focusing on the promotion of a tourism offering that covers both the destination and the service;

• the qualification of the tourism offering, using the trademark to mobilize the professionals concerned.

The Pays de la Loire and Loire regions have entrusted the Mission Val de Loire with management and dissemination of the “La Loire à Vélo trademark” to the public and to professionals.

Running through the part of the Loire Valley that is on the UNESCO World Heritage list, the signposted, secure Loire à Vélo route, designed for cyclists of all levels, has opened at exactly the right moment. In this decade of green tourism, active leisure and environmentally friendly mobility, the intuition shown by the Loire Valley and Pays de la Loire regions has paid off. Ten years ago, who could have foreseen the extent of eco-citizen awareness, the success of cycling in cities, and the subsequent spin-offs for tourism and leisure?

Above all, future prospects are highly encouraging. With the public “sustainable” phenomenon, already boosted by the media and the indispensable well-to-do clientele, this new cycle tourism has its whole life before it. At any rate, there is no reason not to imagine that the Loire route will quickly achieve the prodigious success encountered in Germany and Austria by the famous Donau Radweg, the route along the Danube (at least 200,000 cycle tourists ride along it between Passau and Vienna and 120,000 of them cover the entire 320 km of the itinerary!).

Rather, the challenge is to swiftly anticipate the needs of these tourists, and to set up structures to cope with the forthcoming flow of cyclists! The Loire Valley and Pays de la Loire regions are now working hard on this aspect, with the same determination as that that went into launching the project.

“There’s no need to ask them where they come from”, confirms Philippe Hellio, the owner of three guest houses and an eco-gîte in Azay-sur-Cher (Indre-et-Loire). “When they get here, Loire à Vélo tourists always have a big smile on their faces! We’re not the only ones to have noticed this. This summer we received a couple from Mont Gerbier-de-Jonc. They had decided to cycle down the Loire from its source to the sea and to stop off at guest houses each evening. Every single one of their hosts made the same observation as we did. Cycle tourists are just great people! Whether they are tired by the day’s ride or not, they are always happy, and sometimes euphoric. By the prospect of a good night’s sleep? Or the effect of the open air and the great outdoors? Probably a bit of both. But I think the feeling of having done 40 km without their car has something to do with it…”

One of the advantages of a route that wends its way through a river valley is that it is never monotonous, makes light of any difference in altitude, can switch riverbanks in the blink of an eye when a bridge looms, and cuts through towns as and when the road takes you into one. And the laws of topography demanded that a railway track – and its string of little train stations – be built along the river, starting from Orléans on the north bank. This is a real blessing for the Loire à Vélo route today. You can choose your starting point wherever you like along the river, and can decide to interrupt it at any moment. All you have to do is get to the nearest station and climb aboard the next train – with your bike, of course. All trains except for the TGV accept bikes free of charge!

The itinerary was not designed for seasoned professionals! Quite the contrary – it offers outings for all and is destined for people who wish to go at their own pace, be they small or large, old or young. For this reason, most of the recommended stages are no longer than 40 km, a deliberately “all-person” distance corresponding to a maximum of 4 hours’ cycling per day, easily split up into bite-sized chunks. This allows you to plan your day at leisure, combining breaks where necessary, a picnic, and cultural visits.

And in this respect,

of course, there is an infinite choice on offer. The Véloroute’s 650 km are perfect for any type of break (weekends, bank holiday weekends, itinerant week-long breaks) and any type of package – with or without a tour-operator, with or without baggage transfer, on your own, in a group, as a couple, with your family. With access by road or

by train, with or without your own bike, single or return trip, etc. The same goes for accommodation, which ranges from campsites to guest houses via gîtes, hotels, camper vans, etc.

So whatever else happens, tiredness won’t be a problem. With one or two (minor) exceptions, the Loire à Vélo route is flat and gentle… rather like the river it follows. Whether you choose to “descend” the Véloroute or to “climb” it in the other direction, the difference in altitude is insignificant and within the abilities of any rider: 190 m over 650 km! Only a strong headwind might force you to pedal a little harder, but as the saying goes, everything has its price...

Islands, meanders, sandbanks, specific wildlife, rises and falls in water level… A trip down the river is a real treat for anyone who loves the open air and protected spaces.

This is even truer of cyclists making their way along the Loire à Vélo trail, to whom the riverbanks with their 650 km of unspoiled nature offer privileged access. They have the advantage of seeing nature in total peace and quiet; an untamed environment that tourists in cars could obviously never witness.

Gliding along to the panoramic view of the famous levées (dikes) of the Loire and taking hollow tracks to inspect the riverbed, ecological tourists will miss nothing of the astonishing Loire territory: big deserted beaches, immense sandbanks and boires (meanders) abandoned by the shallow water in summer. With your binoculars or camera, these are ideal lookout posts to spot terns, grebes, ospreys or herons, beavers and Loire fish – in short, all the wildlife you would not be able to see from a busy road.

In need of a few explanations? Want to find out more about the local ecosystems? A whole plethora of centres, museums, signposts and educational areas are dotted along the cycling trail, providing both a welcome break and all the answers to your questions about the river: the Val de Loire Nature Reserve between Pouilly and the Cher, but also Sully-sur-Loire, Châteauneuf-sur-Loire at Courpin (Orléans), Tavers, St-Dyé and La Métairie for the Loire Valley region; St-Mathurin-sur-Loire, St-Florent-le-Vieil, Champtoceaux, Oudon, La Martinière Canal and Massereau Island in Pays de la Loire…

A large part of the Loire à Vélo route follows the famous dikes – known locally as levées – that have been built and reinforced over the centuries in order to contain the river’s regular, devastating rises in water level. They are sometimes very close to the Loire riverbed, sometimes a mile or so away, beyond the vast flood plains. The people who built them very quickly realized that it was sometimes necessary to give a wide berth to a river that would never let itself be tamed.These dikes are 5 to 7 metres high and are a kind of “royal route” on the Loire à Vélo itinerary. Ideal in the parts where cars are prohibited, slightly less comfortable when traffic is allowed, but always welcome.Perhaps their only fault is that they can eventually become a little monotonous, which is probably why the promoters of the Loire à Vélo did not think it a good idea to make their use systematic.In the long sections, the Véloroute is also a mixture of cycling tracks, asphalt Green Routes, small roads with little traffic, and rural gravel paths.

The Loire à Vélo is first and foremost a nature excursion. But it is quite clearly in its upriver section that the itinerary is most faithful to its original vocation. An untamed, untameable river. A sanctuary of wildlife. Tourists can observe the phenomenon at the famous Bec d’Allier, the very starting-point of this trip down the Loire and the confluence of two young waterways (400 km for both the River Allier and the River Loire at this point!). The official itinerary of the Loire à Vélo starts here, at Le Guétin, facing the canal-bridge over which the Green Route to Nevers passes.

A little further downriver, between the Cher and the Loire, a series of flood plains, meanders and improbable islands announce your arrival at the Val de Loire Nature Reserve, jointly managed by the Loire Valley and Burgundy regions. A whole host of trails run through it between La Charité-sur-Loire and the outskirts of Sancerre, absolutely not to be missed by nature lovers, and further explanations are provided at the Pavillon du Milieu de Loire on the right bank of the river in Pouilly-sur-Loire, as well as at the Maison de Loire in Belleville.

After Sancerre and its famous vines, the voyage continues alongside the dike, with the track set high up in an environment of large cultivated fields to the west and woods, copses and wetlands on the river side.

Further on, skirt around the Belleville plant and join Bonny-sur-Loire on the right bank to enjoy one of the prettiest parts of the trip a few kilometres on: the course of a little river which eventually joins up with the mighty Loire… Once you have gone through Combles Lock, a wonderful towpath (4.5 km) takes you straight to the Briare canal-bridge.

This is one of the prize assets of the cycling route: a view of the Valley of Kings as no one has ever seen it before! As soon as you leave the Loiret, the Loire à Vélo route enters a cluster of historic stately homes that have made the extraordinary reputation of the region (Blois, Chaumont, Amboise, Villandry, Langeais, Ussé). Sumptuous, extravagant or intimate, there are so many of these Châteaux that you wonder how anyone could visit them all without a bike! Because when these châteaux are not directly on the Loire à Vélo route, a network of cycling circuits, paths and trails have been added for cyclists to get to them.

Starting from Chambord, the “Châteaux à Vélo” is one of these circuits (see above), but the principle of extra cycling tracks – secure or otherwise – has also been applied to the Châteaux of Chenonceau, Azay-le-Rideau and Chinon, as well as Fontevraud Abbey.

The latest in this line of “junction tracks” is the 20-km signposted section joining Chaumont (+ its station, Onzain, right bank) to the town of Chenonceaux. It opened this year and is indispensable if you want to visit the Châteaux of Chaumont, Amboise and Chenonceau in one fell swoop!

More than 300 km of cycling tracks and 12 different circuits ranging from 16 to 43 km – this is the palette of outings on offer in the Châteaux à Vélo circuit starting from St-Dyé (the river port of Chambord), Blois, Cheverny or Bracieux. They alternate between bicycle-only tracks, gravel paths, and small country roads with hardly any cars, all with specific signposting with information about the circuit you have selected. So they are perfect “extras” to add to your trip, allowing you to visit two or three different châteaux at a time without any stress or exhaust fumes.They obviously involve a few more miles in the saddle, but will add unimaginable riches to your trip. And there is another appreciable reward: total freedom of movement, including direct access – without parking or other inconveniences – to the châteaux and their grounds!

To attract Loire à Vélo tourists (the river flows about 6 km south of the town), Angers has recently completed an exceptional cycling route. Simple and exemplary. Just before reaching the famous Ponts-de-Cé, the junction route to Angers offers nothing less than a ride on slate from Trélazé, the former mining town in the Anjou!And this route is varied. The signposted trail first takes tourists across the Authion on a little chain ferry (the Authion is the canal river that drains the lowlands of the Loire-Anjou-Touraine Nature Reserve), then, via the long Napoléon Dike, directly through the disused mining lands left by the former blue slate operations. It then comes into the town. Loire à Vélo tourists can therefore ride for several miles on a carpet of slate in the midst of a strange, almost lunar area, with late schist plates, mini slag-heaps and former mine pits transformed into lakes…

We can never say it often enough: the Loire is a genuine wonderland and its banks are an inexhaustible treasure trove: an infinite number of bijou Châteaux, exceptional landscapes and renowned vineyards, white “tuffeau” stone, cool wine cellars and cave dwellings, immense river shores. As a first approach to the Loire and its Véloroute, this trip has everything going for it. Everything is laid on to make your travels utterly enchanting: a long ride alongside the Cher to start with, between Tours and Villandry, then a spectacular dike between Langeais and Ussé; a fascinating route at the confluence of the River Vienne between Chinon and Candes, and finally a visit to troglodyte country with a section that goes past the caves dug out of the local stone hundreds of years ago.

Quite logically, you “descend” the river by following the direction of its current, but the Loire à Vélo works equally well both ways: you can also choose to “go up” it. The climb in altitude is so small (less than 200 m over 650 km!) that your calves won’t even feel the difference… And there are other advantages to going against the current. The prevailing wind, which blows from west to east, can turn out to be the best friend of tourists who depart from the Atlantic coast (St-Brévin-les-Pins). Next, the “up the Loire” option offers an appetizer for tourists before they tackle a more ambitious ride. St-Brévin and the Loire Estuary are the very starting point of a pan-European trip, the Eurovelo 6, of which the Loire à Vélo is merely the first stage. When you reach the end of the Loire stretch (Nevers), you may well be tempted to continue your voyage eastwards! Via Burgundy, Franche-Comté and Alsace, the same route will take you through Mulhouse and Basel, before reaching the Rhine radweg (cycling track), then that of the Danube. German Bavaria, then Austria and Slovakia await you, before going on to Hungary, Budapest and the borders of Croatia… And in the coming years you will be able to go as far as Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. The Eurovelo 6 will eventually run from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, covering 3,800 km!

The downriver section of the Loire à Vélo route, between Angers and the sea, is marked by the twofold memory of fishing and river transport. While the traditional Loire boats (gabarres and toues) used to sail as far as Orléans or even higher, it was obviously in the lower part of the river that the heaviest traffic was to be found. Starting from the Maine river-mouth near Angers, the cycling route follows both riverbanks and comes across an endless series of ports and quaysides which, over many centuries, enjoyed great affluence and massive trade. Although today you need a little imagination to reconstruct this history, Bouchemaine, Savennières, Chalonnes, Montjean, St-Florent-le-Vieil and Oudon-Champtoceaux are the silent witnesses to a frantically busy past. Thousands of flat-bottomed boats used to be moored to these quays each year.

More widely spread, fishing activity has kept its favourite port almost intact. It is in La Meilleraie, facing St-Florent-le-Vieil, that you can now imagine the work of the Loire fishermen in days of yore…

Between Nantes and the sea, the Loire à Vélo offers more sailing heritage with visits all the way along the La Martinière Canal. Here you take a Green Route around 10 km long as your itinerary alongside the wide, straight canal dug in the 19th century to allow large ships to get to Nantes. It rapidly became obsolete, but since it was not known at the time how to rid the riverbed of its recurring sandbanks, the canal was used as a problem-free alternative course...

Abandoned soon after

the First World War, the canal is only used to regulate the water level in the nearby marshes. But for cycling visitors, it is an opportunity for a superb ride which is as peaceful as it is educational.

As it joins onto other cycling itineraries (and will increasingly do so – see below), the Loire à Vélo meets up with an interesting sightseeing circuit on the Atlantic coast. At St-Brévin-les-Pins, the “Vélocéan” network offers signposted tracks and trails on either side of the estuary. It heads south towards Pornic and the cycling routes of the Vendée coastline (from Noirmoutier to Les Sables-d’Olonne), and north towards Brittany, via Saint-Nazaire, La Baule and Le Croisic. The only problem northwards is the Saint-Nazaire suspension bridge over the Loire, deemed too dangerous for bicycles. The St-Brévin Tourist Office found the solution: a taxi specially fitted out to carry bikes can now get you over this obstacle in a matter of minutes!

The Loire à Vélo does not content itself with being the western section of a major European cycling route (Eurovélo 6); each year it also joins up with a number of collateral tracks. Among the latest to be grafted onto the Loire Véloroute:

• the tracks of the Vélocéan (mentioned above) and Vendée coastal network on the Atlantic seaboard.

• the large network of Green Routes in Mayenne which, via the banks of the Maine, will next year connect to Angers and the Loire à Vélo.

• the Côteaux du Layon and Angers Corniche cycling circuit, recently joined to Béhuard Island and to Savennières.

• The Véloroutes of Poitou-Charentes and the Deux-Sèvres (Thouet Valley) should be joining the Loire itinerary this year, via Saumur.

• The new Indre à Vélo itinerary. Following the downriver section of this Berry waterway, in 2010 it will link the south of Tours, Loches, Azay-le-Rideau and Montbazon with the Loire.

• the new cycling link between Chenonceau and Chaumont-Onzain.

• the Green Route of Orléans Canal already joins Montargis to Orléans. It will soon be completed by a Montargis-Briare link via Briare Canal.

• a new cycling itinerary will soon be put in place between the bijou town of Apremont-sur-Allier and Cuffy, the official starting point of the Loire à Vélo.

Between Cuffy and Sancerre, the Cher department is nearing completion. In spring 2010, it will be opening the second-last section of its part of the route, between La Chapelle- Montlinard and Marseilles-les-Aubigny (12.5 km). All that will remain will then be a dozen or so kilometres – which can actually already be cycled on – to bridge the gap with Cuffy-Le Guétin. From its border with the Cher – in Belleville-sur-Loire and the beginning of Loir-et-Cher, just after Beaugency – the Loiret department is also in the process of completing its section (95.5 km). Apart from a final section around 60 km long between Briare and Châteauneuf (fortunately already usable), the whole Loire à Vélo route in this department will have been signposted and finalised in the course of 2010. Between St-Dyé-sur-Loire and Blois, a left-bank cycling route right next to the Loire now mirrors the one on the right bank. Lastly, there is a long-awaited shortcut in the Saumur region. Between Souzay-Champigny and Saumur, a new track by the river, with no uphill climbs, allows you to avoid the provisional trail which has a few steep slopes!

Particularly easy by car – there are countless car-parks dotted along the route – the journey is no more difficult by train. The main towns in the Loire Valley (Nevers, Orléans, Blois, Tours, Angers and Nantes) can be reached from Paris in a couple of hours or less, and the tailor-made rides are then very easily accessible. Apart from the last stage between Nantes and St-Brévin and from Briare to Orléans, the entire Véloroute has the railway line running alongside it, with many regional trains on which you can take your bike. You can thus start or cut short your trip wherever and whenever you like.

Fifteen or so bike-hire professionals have formed a network along the route, making it possible to hire a bike at one point and drop it off at another. Although the nature of the route is hardly likely to cause any damage to your bike – breakdowns are rare – it is also reassuring to have this network in place in the event of a mechanical hitch.

All along the itinerary, a large number of hotels, gîtes, campsites, youth hostels and guest houses

have the “Accueil Vélo” accreditation and, as such, are entitled to the Loire à Vélo trademark. They guarantee suitable accommodation for cycle tourists: a locked bike garage, appropriate food, repair equipment and other services. They are therefore recommended and most of them are right next to the itinerary or, at worst, a few kilometres away.

For weekend breaks and mountain-biking excursions in particular, an autonomous trip on the Loire à Vélo trail does not require much in the way of baggage. For longer stays, and even more so if you take a guided package tour, you can use the baggage transfer service offered by certain bike hire companies and accommodation units with “Accueil Vélo” accreditation (hotels, campsites, gîtes, guest houses, etc.) or the taxi firms they work with.

Several tour operators have obviously put all or part of the Loire à Vélo route in their catalogue. Among them, the Loire Valley Travel Agency, the French cycle-tourism leader for the last 20 years, offers a number of packages ranging from 3 to 8 days and including all types of accommodation, baggage transfer, bike hire, maps, routes and bike repatriation at the end of the trip (www.loire-valley-travel.com).

You have everything to gain by visiting the site www.loire-a-velo.fr. Brimming over with good tips and new features, accessible in 4 languages (French, English, German, Dutch), it offers a whole host of advantages: continuously updated addresses with map searches, bargains from among the various packages and turnkey breaks, a schedule with all the news from the two regions, circuits suited to different types of rider, a “holiday shopping basket” with the option of saving your selection, etc. Users can also get Loire à Vélo news by subscribing to the newsletter.

But also: Détours de Loire, a bike hire firm with many outlets (www.locationdevelos.com ). Loire Vélo Nature, in Bréhémont ( www.loirevelonature.com ). Parenthèse Océan (www.parenthese-ocean-voyages.fr). Full list on www.loire-a-velo.fr.

The Loire à Vélo is signposted in both directions, from one end to the other, and presents no danger or particular difficulty. It is therefore perfectly suited to family trips. The only thing that ultimately counts is the length of the stage, which most guidebooks recommend at between 30 and 50 km. The main thing here is to enjoy your ride, so it is always better to underestimate your abilities – and those of your companions – rather than the opposite.

The Loire à Vélo is today virtually faultless in terms of signposting. It is impossible to lose your way, even if you’re distracted, when you follow the signs showing the way to go, including left-hand and right-hand bends. This is why the specialist guidebooks (see following pages) have logically evolved from the role of “guide” to that of companion. They are now less focused on showing the way than on explaining what there is to do – the landscapes, history and heritage of the region.

This new 168-page cycling guide by Michel Bonduelle, a journalist specialised in active tourism, describes the “Valley of Kings by the Queen of Véloroutes”! 800 km of cycle tracks and Green Routes split into 18 stages of 20 to 50 km + practical info, descriptions and a full list of hotels, campsites, gîtes and guest houses.Retail price: 14 euro – www.edilarge.fr

The 6 official maps of the French part of Eurovélo 6, including 4 on the Loire à VéloContent: directions, tourist information, service points for bike repairs or rental, accommodation such as youth hostels or campsites, etc.Retail price: 2 euro each or 12 euro for the full guide. Trilingual version: French, English and German – www.cartesetguides.michelin.fr

The new Chamina guide with 128 pages, for 840 km of pleasurable cycling through the Valley of Kings, including 160 km of variants via the Loire Châteaux (Chambord, Chenonceau, Azay-le-Rideau…). All the routes, services and equipment, practical and tourist information you need for your stay.Retail price: 14 euro – www.chamina.com

This new 168-page cycling guide by Michel Bonduelle, a journalist specialised in active tourism, describes the “Valley of Kings by the Queen of Véloroutes”! 800 km of cycle tracks and Green Routes split into 18 stages of 20 to 50 km + practical info, descriptions and a full list of hotels, campsites, gîtes and guest houses.Retail price: 14 euro – www.edilarge.fr

This recent guide from the Chamina Cycling collection includes 8 circuits lasting 2 or 3 days, or 16 day-long rides, covering the entire regional territory. More than 650 km on small routes and cycling tracks. Detailed maps, practical info, tourist info.Retail price: 12 euro – www.chamina.com

This 80-page guide describes 300 km of secure and signposted bike circuits around Chambord and nearby, for day-long or weekend rides, maps, practical info, tourist info, useful addresses (bike hire firms, Accueil Vélo accommodation, etc).Retail price: 12 euro – www.chamina.com

A guide in German to discover the Loire à Vélo from Orléans to the Atlantic.Content: detailed maps (1:75,000), descriptions of secure itineraries, many town maps, info about the region’s cultural and tourism offering, a long list of accommodation, etc.Retail price: 12, 40 euro – www.esterbauer.com

The Loire Valley and Pays de la Loire tourist boards have published a document presenting the Loire à Vélo route, with references to the existing guidebooks and the website www.loire-a-velo.fr

The Loire Valley tourist board has also published a brochure called Accueil Vélo en région Centre, listing the accommodation and hire firms specialised in receiving cycle tourists.

These brochures are available free of charge on request:

SEM Régionale des Pays de la Loire1, place de la Galarne, BP 8022144202 Nantes Cedex 2Tel.: +33 (0)2.40.48.24.20infotourisme@sem-paysdelaloire.fr

Comité régional du Tourisme Centre37, avenue de Paris45000 OrléansTel.: +33 (0)2.38.79.95.28crtcentre@visaloire.com

More about the Loire à Vélo on

www.loire-a-velo.fr