Loire valley by bike - questions
 

Rent a hybrid or road bike? (forwarding luggage twice)
Azay or Usse? (Have heard Azay... even if scaffolding?).
Anything missing below?
Other advice?

Sunday 4 Sept - arrive Chinon. Rent bike afternoon or Monday morning?
Monday - bike Chinon to Fontevraud (10mi) then to Breze (7mi) then to Saumur (or other) train station. Saumur (7.5mi) = 25 miles. Train to Tours
(mileage based on google maps, not locally-mapped bike paths)

Tuesday - bike Tours to Villandry 11mi and then to Azay or Usse (9 or 15mi). Bike to nearby train station and train back to Tours = 20-26+ miles.

Wednesday - bike Tours to Amboise (15mi) and then to Chenonceau (10 mi). Train back to Amboise = 25 miles. Return bikes and stay overnight.
Thurs AM visit Clos Luce and then train to Tours.

or
Weds - explore Tours in the morning and train to Amboise in afternoon. Thurs train to Chenonceau and bike back to Tours (via Amboise = 25mi).

I like the idea of a rest day, but might be better to bike 3 days in a row and then IF rain, we have flexibility to postpone. But if all goes well, we return the bikes a day earlier, thus saving $$.

You have to think a little about the bike quality and the time in the season. Bike companies generally get new bikes in the spring and run them into the ground. Road bikes tend to be a bit more sensitive to miss-handling so I'd tend to only rent road bikes early in the season. Much of what you are touring is pretty flat and resonable quality tarmac so a road bike will do well.

Then you have to think about your usual sitting position. I tend to ride a "sit up and beg" so I'd hire a hybrid just to use the same muscles as normal.

3 days in a row makes sense to me

Yep, you are right you'll ride further than google reckons

I'd make sure I had a bottle of water with you at all times.

@bilboburgler - awesome info, thanks! I use a flat bar road bike and do sit somewhat upright so it sounds like a hybrid is the way to go. We're not going for speed or crazy distances so the weight shouldn't affect us much.

I assumed the bikes have a water bottle holder, so we'll bring bottles that should fit. Otherwise, we'll have a backpack.

I will check http://en.francevelotourisme.com/ now to make sure the bike routes aren't too much further than my google estimates.

Bottle holder assume... ass u me?

I tend to buy one water bottle for a holiday and fill up from the local potable. I'd not assume, but you may like to pack a picnic lunch. This is easy to do in France as the local delis are wonderful, with some bread and a little bottle of wine. Perfect.

The good thing about back packs is you can step off and walk around town easily, the bad thing is they give you a sweaty back and the raise you centre of gravity. Up to you. I'd look at your hire company to see if they throw in a basket (pannier) (which does not mean pannier in english bike talk), after all you need somewhere to stick wallet, sun cream, waterproofs.

Azay-le-Rideau is one of my favourite castles - but look here:

http://www.azay-le-rideau.fr/en/Expl...STORATION-SITE

It is pretty inside, but you find two dozen other castles without scaffolding. The best of Ussé is the view when you approach it from the road. Inside, there is a fairytale museum.

i had not seen the "france velo" website for a couple of years, I admit that I originally thought it was rubbish. It looks a lot better now but still mising swathes of bike routes and of course all the very quiet roads that are perfectly fine to ride along.

You'll find that there are loads more than on that website. So you may decide you want to ride further, a vinyard is over the hill, whatever, keep your eyes open and pop into tourist info places as you go along, they often push their own little bike routes which can be fantastic

To me Villandry with its gardens was the most memorable of the chateaux, so make sure to save time for that.

We had hybrids and were happy with them.

Having some flexibility in your plans would be great.

Now wondering if we should skip both Azay (scaffolding) and Usse and just enjoy the countryside (maybe a winery? or troglodyte site nearby?).

plan your ride using ridewithgps or similar. it has OSM cycle maps, and you can export to a gpx track, which you can transfer to your gps device.

I just use "here" on my phone, it works fine