We are new tandem owners (second hand). We got ours the first day we arrived at our holiday home in central Brittany. We did manage to get two, both Dawes one is like new and is a touring style the other is older and a mountain bike style and in need of a little care.
The first trip out was ride to a creperie along the canal path and back through the lanes visiting churches and small hamlets. Both tandems went out as we had friends staying with us.
The second trip was just my wife and I round the lanes and back along the canal a longer ride and great fun.
I have ridden a tandem before many years ago but my wife had not but we soon mastered the stop start manoeuvre .
We return to Brittany at christmas and look forward to more rides.
has anyone else ridden the lanes and canals of brittany and could give use some interesting routes?
Hi Scott and Bev, you didn’t say what part of Brittany
you stayed at.
We normally stay near Pontivy, which has the Brest/Nantes canal,
which is very beautiful and very flat.
We normally cycle down from Roscoff, and it is very nice
cycling through all the hamlets and fantastic B roads which are better than our
A roads.
Most small villages have cafes or super markets, and we normally as we ride about
this cycle friendly area, its picnic for lunch and hot chocolate/coffee in between. Its great!
Pity we have to wait till next year now,
Pedlar
Hi Pedlar
Thanks for your reply.
We are lucky our holiday home (have had for two years) is very
central, near Carhaix. We are 4km from the Nantes Brest canal, which is
a lovely track for cycling on. The lanes are quiet and rolling, a
cyclists paradise !
The tandems are lucky they stay in the house as we fly and drive to the
house.
Our next trip is at christmas and across again for the tour de France in
July as it is passing near .
We hope you have a good time on your next trip, and let us know where
you get to .
How lucky are you? that is our lunch time stopping off point. Although we have breakfast on our way back at Carhaix,
This year it was raining and they had a rock concert where we liberated 4 posters
one of which is looking at me right now. Its now not soggy.
Did you ride your tandems to your house or on the back of a car?
Have you tried the D9/D28 to Callac, nice and in Callac the local bar
is run by a nice English couple, who lucky for us speak French
We have been staying down at Perret, but sadly we now have to look for
somewhere else as the costs sky rocketed.
There are some very beautiful rides around that area.
It really is heaven for us bicycle freaks isn’t it?
We were averaging 70 miles a day on fairly traffic free roads.
Our longest ride was to Josslan (nice Chateaux) that turned out to be a round trip of 110 miles
very tired. But good.
If you or us see TANDEMS lets stop for a chin wag, well we try to anyway.
Pedlar Stokes
The house is in a village 9k outside Carhaix. Carhaix its useful for the shops and market and a couple of cycle/sports shops.
We got the tandems this year, both delivered to the house and both from english people.
We have only done two trips on the tandem and had a great time, I have ridden bikes/tandems from a very young age
but Bev is a novice but enjoys the tandem. In the UK we are keen walkers and indeed have done several walks in Brittany all wonderful.
My parents have a tandem and other bikes they come into the keen category, they intend to spend several weeks in summer at our house,
If you have a good route from Roscoff to Carhaix and distance/time scale I could pass this on as they will go on the ferry.
If we see anyone on tandems nexttime we are in Josselin we will stop and chin wag it may be you.
until next time, ......behind
Bye
Hi Scott and Bev, you didn’t say what part of Brittany
