Our Bike Tours in France
The spiritual home of cycling - and of The Chain Gang. This is where we started, in 1997, with a week-long cycling tour of the Dordogne.
France is a delightful place to experience one of our cycling holidays. Other road users are very respectful toward cyclists, and it must be one of the few places in the world where a cyclist gets more attention at a hotel or a vineyard than the coach that follows up the driveway. It's a great feeling to be King of the Road, and a rare treat for us cyclists.
We now offer cycling holidays in five of the most interesting regions of France.
Cycling Holidays in the Dordogne
The Dordogne is crammed with prehistoric sites including the cave of Cro-Magnon man, and castles from The Hundred Years War.
There are huge caves and limestone gorges, and of course you are in the home of the truffle and foie gras. Everyday there is something you will never forget.
Cycling Holidays on the Bordeaux Winetrail
Our Bordeaux Winetrail visits many and varied vineyards while enjoying stunning scenery in the reclaimed marshes of the Médoc, the beautiful wooded valleys of the lower Dordogne and medieval towns like Limeuil and St Emilion.
Cycling Holidays in Burgundy
Burgundy offers great wines, great cuisine, and an interesting look at French history. In the Loire Valley, Joan of Arc is a great heroine. In Burgundy? They sold her to the English! Burgundy was once a large and powerful state, and home to great monastries at Cluny, Vezelay, Fontenay, Citeaux, and others. It's a fascinating place, but above all it offers the chance to learn about some of the most famous wines in the world.
Cycling Holidays in The Loire Valley
Our cycling holiday of the Loire visits the most beautiful of the Loire châteaux.
The chateaux we visit include Chambord, Chenonceau and Azay-le-Rideau, as we also explore a range of wines from Vouvray, Touraine and Chinon with the noted cuisine of the Loire valley.
Throughout July and August the châteaux put on late-night displays in their son et lumière spectaculars.
Cycling Holidays in Provence
Provence takes its name from being the first 'Province' settled by the Romans outside Italy, and some of the best Roman theatres and buildings in the world are found here. In addition its simply a beautiful place, as Peter Mayle sets out in his book ’A Year In Provence’. During our tour we'll visit many of these Roman sites, and pass through Peter Mayle country as we cycle through the Lubéron hills and the Alpilles en route to the Rhône Valley and Avignon.