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Walking/Running Beziers to Nimes (France)

Walking/Running Beziers to Nimes (France)

Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 05:25 AM
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Walking/Running Beziers to Nimes (France)

Hello

I'm a long-distance runner looking to run from Beziers to Nimes over two days (stopping overnight in Montpellier). I've had a look online and I'm trying to find the safest route to travel (I notice that most of the roads don't have a pavement so I guess I need quiet roads). Does anyone have any suggestions for good roads/routes to use?

Thanks

Paul
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Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 05:49 AM
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Paul,
These websites ay help:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/

http://www.irunfar.com/forum/ (Post your question on the forum as there are ultrarunners there).

Good luck - looks fabulous!
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Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 06:15 AM
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Running away from Beziers is a terrific idea. I spent the longest day and night of my life there last summer. Sorry I can't help with a running route since I took a fast train (not fast enough) out of Beziers.
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Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 06:38 AM
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>

I concur.
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Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 06:49 AM
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Sorry, had to come back to thank LarryJ for the best laugh I've had all day. Classic.
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Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 06:51 AM
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LarryJ, please tell us about your day and night in Beziers.
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Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 07:20 AM
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Sorry to the OP for hijacking the thread but I've got a suggestion for you. Get yourself a Michelin map either of the scale 1:150,000 or 1:200,000 and maybe also an IGN series map (a topo map) and study it and you'll see all the possible routes you could take. I'm looking between Beziers and Montpellier right now and there isn't really a straight route. A straight line between these two places on the autoroute looks to be almost 60km so if you had to twist and turn your way there it could be well over an 80-90km run. The Canal du Midi runs out of Beziers to Agde and if there is a halage (path) along the canal you might take that to Agde and then from Agde run along the beach to just south of Montpellier. There are roads along the beach to Les Aresquiers but after that it looks like a sandy beach run for about 10km before the next road. Or you could turn inland from Les Aresquiers.

It appears the run between Montpellier and Nîmes would be less problematic but there are so many possibilities I see in looking at my map that I can't recount them all here. So get some maps and start studying is all the advice I can give for now. You might also want to look into seeing if there are bike trails you might take in this area. I haven't researched it but it's a possibility.
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Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 07:35 AM
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That's a complicated proposition. If you go along the coast you'll be on a big, busy road. The other options are countless, some of them involving twists and turns and hills. I agree you need to study the detailed Michelin and other maps carefully. You can also use Google maps to get a sense of what the territory actually looks like.

And I, too, say get out of Béziers as fast as you can.
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Old Feb 2nd, 2012, 10:40 PM
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Thank you all for the replies (and LarryJ, I'll be running straight from the airport so will be running away from Beziers from the moment I get there!).

I had only really looked on google maps so far, just to make sure there are decent, not-too-busy roads all the way so that I knew it was possible. I've been looking for OS style maps for France but haven't found anything. I'll look into IGN maps as it sounds like what I'm looking for.

Thanks again!
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Old Feb 3rd, 2012, 03:19 AM
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You can buy the Michelin maps from their website and here is a link to the page that shows all of the maps of France:

http://tinyurl.com/4bt96ev

The page I linked to shows the scale 1:200,000 maps but if you want just pay around with the website and you'll find the scale 1:150,000 maps, which are more detailed.

Let me give you some tips on how to read the Michelin maps. I use them for biking. I generally stay on the small white roads and sometimes the yellow roads while generally trying to avoid the red roads (which carry the most traffic). You will find that the small white roads (country roads) are remarkably traffic free in the countryside. If a road has a hill with greater than a 5% gradient you will notice that such a road will have a gradient arrow superimposed on the road. One arrow means a gradient of 5%-9%, two arrows means a gradient from 9%-13% and three arrows means a gradient of over 13%. Just because a road has no gradient arrows doesn't mean there are no hills but whatever hills there are should not be too strenuous. Twisty roads often mean hilly as well.

If you are looking for dedicated bikeways to run on you can do google seaches using keys words such as "pistes cyclables (enter your region)" or "voies vertes (enter your region)". Also, the local tourist offices usually have very good info about hiking and biking trails which they usually don't put on their websites.

France does have some websites that will show where there are designated bike routes and there are also other on-line resources available for bikers so let me gives you a few links you may find useful:

http://www.voiesvertes.com/
http://www.ffct.org/
http://www.af3v.org/Cycle-routes-and-greenways-in.html
http://www.gobicycletouring.info/
http://www.cartovelo.com/
http://randovelo.fr/randovelo/-Anglais-
http://slowtraveladventures.wordpress.com/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/...ogle-maps.html
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Old Feb 4th, 2012, 09:14 AM
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Thank you so much, that is a huge help!
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