There’s a great new resource to help you plan a bicycling trip to the Loire Valley, one of the premier cycling destinations in France.  Ma Rando a Velo is a project of the Centre-Loire Valley Regional Tourist Board, and is designed to showcase the region’s cycling trails. This easy-to-use website includes information on 4,000km of cycle paths including 6 veloroutes and 14 networks that loop through the Loire Valley, the Touraine, Sologne, Perche and Berry regions.  If you are thinking about a cycling trip to the eastern part of the Loire, this is a website you should definitely take a look at!
The website is well designed and is packed with information on the many cycling options available. Â Whether you have a weekend, a week or longer, whether you want to base yourself out of one town or travel point to point, there are plenty of itineraries and resources to help. Â Be forewarned: Â this new Loire trip planning resource may make it even more difficult for you to choose which Loire itinerary to choose for your cycling vacation in France!
Click on the “Plan your trip” button on the main page and you can access cycling itineraries in one of 4 ways:
- By 5 major areas(Touraine, Sologne, Berry, Loire Valley or La Perche) or by town: Orleans, Chartres, Blois, Tours
- By cycle loop networks in 14 specific areas
- By major cycling itineraries in the region: Â La Loire a Velo, L’Indre a Velo, The Loir Valley, Touraine Berry a Velo, La Veloscenie and the Saint-Jacques cycle route
- By theme: Â chateaux and history, nature and food and wine
If you don’t have the time to plan your own trip, you can also access information on all-inclusive holidays offered by local tour companies.
There’s also a services page where you can get information on anything ranging from how to get to specific locations, luggage transport, hire a guide, and lodging options.
One of my favorite features of this new resource is a section called Works In Progress. Â This section provides information on works in progress and disruptions on cycling itineraries in the region.
Assuming this section is updated regularly, it would be a valuable resource to cyclists as they get ready to embark on an itinerary, or as they are cycling their way through the region. Many cyclists scrambled for information last spring during the devastating rains that brought flooding to the Loire and surrounding areas and it was difficult to find  information on conditions along the route. Hopefully Ma Rando a Velo will update this section regularly and become a reliable resource for cyclotourists.
Kudos to the Centre-Loire Valley Regional Tourist Board for developing this great new resource for cyclists. Resources like this will definitely make it more challenging to decide which itinerary to choose for an upcoming trip!  What a wonderful dilemma to have!
