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Experience with Randonnee or DiscoverFrance or other biking tour group

Experience with Randonnee or DiscoverFrance or other biking tour group

Old Sep 20th, 2003, 01:49 PM
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amelia
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Experience with Randonnee or DiscoverFrance or other biking tour group

I am starting spring plans. Would like to bike Provence first week of April. Have biked with three other touring companies with success, but none of them operate in April.

Has anyone had experience with DiscoverFrance or Randonnee?
 
Old Sep 21st, 2003, 07:09 AM
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amelia
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anyone?
 
Old Sep 24th, 2003, 04:29 PM
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Hello Amelia,
I have not biked in France but was hoping you would share with me the other biking tours you have taken.
We would like to travel to France in the fall of 2004.
Thanks
Brenda
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Old Sep 24th, 2003, 05:32 PM
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amelia
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We have done two Backroads trips in France: Loire Valley and Brittany/Normandy. We loved them.

They are, however, expensive.

We had a great time on Europeds trips, priced quite nicely, in France and Switzerland, but the company went under. Now, apparently, it has been resurrected with quite limited itinerary.

Bike Vermont was superb in Ireland. We liked the demographic of the tourists drawn to the company a lot.

We've also done Backroads in Puget Sound, Glacier, Ireland. Good trips; well-designed.

Backroads doesn't run trips in France in April. I'm considering Randonnee and Discover France because they do!

If you want details on any of the above trips, let me know.

 
Old Sep 24th, 2003, 05:44 PM
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We did the 4 day Loire Valley bike tour this summer with Discover France (listed as Chenonceau tour on their web site I believe). It is very good value for the service--I was very pleased with it. Decent hotels, excellent food, instructions were very detailed and I would do it again.
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Old Sep 25th, 2003, 03:42 AM
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Rachel: How were your bikes? Were they good quality? How were they outfitted? Did you feel as though you would be able to get help in case of a flat or were you supposed to know how to do everything?
 
Old Sep 25th, 2003, 07:28 AM
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The bikes were ok--you can look on their website and they tell you what you will be getting. There was one very flimsy plastic piece (I don't know the name--it is the thing covering the chain) that broke on everyone's bike except my husbands. I was worried they would make us pay for them, but they didn't--must be a frequent problem. All the hotels where we stayed had a place to lock up the bikes overnight and were very accomodating.
We didn't have any flats, but had a flat repair kit in case--I wasn't worried because my husband and oldest son know how to fix them. They do tell you to learn how to do this before the trip.
We had chains pop off a couple of times but no trouble fixing.
You have a number to call in case of disaster, but we never had to use it so don't know how well it works. We did get lost a couple of times, but stopped and asked directions in a combination of my terrible French, English, and my oldest son's Spanish (he is 17 and quite good looking, so usually gets a good response from women).
You have to bring your own helmet ( I would want to anyway). They provide panniers, locks, spare tubes and flat repair kit.

Overall, very well run. Restaurants we ate in were more upscale--to the point of gourmet--than I expected. A wonderful surprise.
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Old Sep 25th, 2003, 01:51 PM
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Keep the info coming, Rachel. Good bicycle description. How were the hotels? You said they were decent. Tell all!

Thanks!
 
Old Sep 26th, 2003, 05:54 AM
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I was also looking into bike tours. The discover France ones sound like they don't have a guide and you do the tour on your own?? Did that work well? I had also looked at Rotalis (www.rotalis.de)...which is a german company. They have alot of tours which are guided...the guide speaks both english and german...and they seem reasonable.
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Old Sep 26th, 2003, 11:53 AM
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Dear Amelia,
Sorry it took me awhile to answer--I actually had to do some work, imagine that!
The trip we went on started in Blois where we stayed at Anne d'Anjou, a typical small 2 star French hotel. Small very clean rooms with tiny bathrooms with showers, comfortable beds. They did not have air conditioning, but in late May none was needed. No elevator. There was a tiny tv in each room-my sons watched soccer. The hotel is very close to the train station--we walked to it and pulled our wheeled luggage. From there, Discover France moves your luggage from place to place.
We ate at the Medicis which is a very highly acclaimed restaurant (included in trip)--food was very good but I thought the waiters were pretty stuck up. Breakfast at the hotel was French bread, canned oj, and coffee or tea.
Next day we cycled to Amboise--hotel there was Le Blason, another typical French 2 star--very clean but tiny nondescript rooms with even tinier bathrooms and showers. Nice lady at the front desk. They have a gourmet restaurant here which is apparently quite renowned and this is where we were supposed to eat; however, they are closed on Tues-the day we were there, so they sent us to another quite interesting Corsican restaurant and they paid for it. Breakfast was really good rolls and pastries, oj, coffee (in their restaurant, which looked wonderful--I'm sorry we missed it).
Next day (my favorite) we went to Clos Luce and Chenonceau. At Chenonceau, we stayed at Bon Laboureur, which is absolutely wonderful--outstanding hotel--I think ranked 3 star but could be 4 easily. Big beautiful rooms with very nice elegant baths--our sons' was in the turret--how cool is that!. THey have a very nice pool. The manager took my husband and oldest son to the little airport nearby so my husband could check out the gliders--his hobby. DInner was in the very elegant restaurant--my husband felt he should have worn a suit--he and the boys had sport shirts and khakis and felt underdressed. I had a very simple sleeveless black dress with heels and fancy purse and fit right in. We had pre-dinner drinks on the patio, and huge wonderful dinner, then afterdinner drinks and coffee in the salon. It was great! And all included. Breakfast was really good also.
Next day was back to Blois with sights along the way. Stayed at Anne d'Anjou, ate at L'Orangerie, another extremely elegant and wonderful restaurant.
Overall, I think it probably cost us less to go through them than we could have done on our own. Well worth it.
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Old Sep 26th, 2003, 12:29 PM
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Also, I did check out the Rotalis website--good prices for a escorted tour, though the group is 19-20 people which is a lot of bikes. Website is impressive and they offer tours in a lot of places American companies don't go.
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