Doing some France research. It appears nobody has done this ?

[suavecarve]

We have been trying to do the Gorges du Doux for a couple of years to include cycling up them (Ebikes i m not mad!) to look at the Ardeche steam train from the valley going over bridges.
All planned to stay at Tournon where we have been before but it is a pretty uninspiring aire.
So I had a look further up the valley and found 3 or 4 decent aires with great reviews and further research found "La Dolce VIa" with photos of a 90 km dedicated cycle way on an old railway track that joins the Rhone with La Loire.
So i did a search for "La Dolce Via" and "Eyrioux" (one of the rivers) and got no results so guessing nobody has been there.

To me this looks like gold dust in that its out of the way, easy cycling with maximum daily percentage of 3% but mainly 1% split in potentially 7 days with 4 Character Ardeche villages and tunnels with no lights and viaducts and bridges and all of it traffic free in unspoilt France just below Lyons and following wild rivers.

Worthy of a gander in my view and we are definitely popping here for 2 or 3 days of easy cycling before the Vercors

https://www.dolce-via.com/fr/ hit the paths for the journey to be split into 7 parts and then explore website for other tourist info and youtube provides a selection of home made videos using "la dolce via" as the search.

For info, and for anybody who has been there for me to get info

 

[suavecarve]

Just found the promotional video with music to turn your volume down to for a minute and 8 seconds

 

[Itsmcb]

Thank you posting this, looks fabulous Putting it on my 'want to go' list now.

 

[WJACC]

We pretty much followed that route in July. It was at the same time of the floods in Germany. I didn't see a ******* thing. It was perhaps 9C at 2pm. Clouds were low and the rain was relentless. We'd left the Alps after 10 days of great weather but it changed as we approached the Rhone.

Looks to be quite a few decent 'wild camping' sites on Park4Night and the odd decent 'Camping a la Ferme'

 

[orridge]

Looks great another thing to add to the list.

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[RidersofRohan]

It looks very nice. I have a thick question about the logistics involved.
Would you leave the van at A then cycle to B then cycle back to A, or is there some other way involving buses and taxis to convey you back to A.

 

[DBK]

Thanks for the post. It looks a little forgotten corner.

 

[suavecarve]

It looks very nice. I have a thick question about the logistics involved.
Would you leave the van at A then cycle to B then cycle back to A, or is there some other way involving buses and taxis to convey you back to A.

Our plan is to just cycle uphill, probably 2 stages at a time, so 30 kilometersish then turn round and come back downhill but have several stops bathing in the river at appropriate points.

Early planning would be missing the first stage as havent found an aire there yet and the ones later loook top jonny banana free aires at Le Cheylard, Lamastre, Saint Martin de Valamas and another one which i cant remember which one it was

 

[suavecarve]

Thanks for the post. It looks a little forgotten corner.

You were my "Go to" person as having maybe having been there !

 

[DBK]

You were my "Go to" person as having maybe having been there !

The Cévennes we've been to a few times but that area north of the Monts d'Ardèche seems to have avoided us.

Something to be rectified next year I hope.

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[royandsharont]

Fantastic post suavecarve, Thanks

 

[suavecarve]

More research reveals this zipline on the route and canoeing

 

[violet]

More research reveals this zipline on the route and canoeing
View attachment 526672

Thank you Suavecarve, this is super information.
We shall certainly put this on our list.

 

[MisterB]

suavecarve

Will you be fully clothed on your journey?

We haven't travelled to France this year so far as it all seems a bit of a faff and a nonsense AND we've been getting our home ready for AirBnB (first guests today !!)

We have rebooked tickets for October though

 

[suavecarve]

suavecarve

Will you be fully clothed on your journey?

We haven't travelled to France this year so far as it all seems a bit of a faff and a nonsense AND we've been getting our home ready for AirBnB (first guests today !!)

We have rebooked tickets for October though

We have a couple of specialist campsites in mind and the pfaffing about has been minimalised to a great degree by some good information about where/who/how/when and How Bleeding much to do with the testing and when sorting out the wood from the trees isnt preventative in my view.
It is most certainly a nonsense, but probably a wise precautionary nonsense if they actually did anything with the 2 day self tests.

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