Small pleasure craft can still reach Roanne by a mixture of canal and river, but the Villerest dam (built 1984) prevents them going any further. There is no commercial shipping on the river nowadays, although enthusiasts have restored many old wooden Loire barges, some of which are used for commercial fishing, but most for leisure pursuits.
Flat-bottomed barges like this reconstruction at La Charité-sur-Loire (Stage 11) once carried goods downriver
The route
The 1052km Loire Cycle Route starts in the Massif Central mountains of central France, then heads north to Orléans (only 100km south of Paris) before turning west to reach the Atlantic at St Nazaire. En route it passes through the French regions of Rhône-Alpes, Auvergne, Bourgogne (Burgundy), Centre, and Pays de la Loire.
Our route (Stage 1) starts at the Loire source on the slopes of Mont Gerbier de Jonc in the Monts du Vivarais, a northern extension of the Cévennes range. From here the river is followed downhill, threading its way through a series of gorges between the puys (volcanic cones), crater lakes and basalt plateaux of the Massif Central before following a voie verte (rural cycle track) along an old railway line to reach the pilgrimage city of Le Puy-en-Velay (Stage 2). The volcanic landscape continues (Stage 3–4) with the route climbing in and out of the gorges and crossing more basalt plateaux. After Aurec the route crosses the edge of the Monts de Forez (Stage 5) before descending into the Forez basin. A final forested ridge is encountered, an outlier of the Monts de Beaujolais (Stage 6), before the route crosses the Villerest dam to reach Roanne, the end of the mountains and the beginning of navigation in the Loire Valley.
The volcanic plug of Mt Gerbier de Jonc (1551m) rises above the Loire source (Stage 1)
Quiet roads and another voie verte are followed (Stage 7) past the Charolais hills with pastures full of eponymous cream-coloured cattle. At Digoin the route joins the towpath of the Canal Latéral à la Loire, which is followed (Stage 8) most of the way to Bourbon-Lancy. Between here and Decize (Stage 9) there is no dedicated cycle way, so quiet roads are followed through gently rolling hills. After Decize the canal is regained and is followed (Stages 10–13), with a few deviations, all the way to Briare, passing opposite the city of Nevers and below the hilltop wine town of Sancerre. Beyond Briare, the Loire, which has so far flowed north, turns to a north-westerly direction, looping round the Sologne (Stages 14–15), a huge area of forest and lakes that was very popular with French royalty and nobility for the pursuit of hunting. The city of Orléans, the most northerly point reached, was the ancient capital of France and is closely linked with the story of Jeanne d’Arc.
Part of the route follows the towpath of Canal Latéral à la Loire (Stages 8 and 10)
Downstream from Orléans, the Loire is known as the ‘Royal River’, so called because of the large number of royal châteaux in the area built by a succession of monarchs between the 14th and 18th centuries. Between Orléans and Blois (Stages 16–17) the route first skirts the fertile Beauce plain, north of the Loire, then crosses the river to visit the spectacular Château de Chambord in the Forêt de Boulogne. Blois and Amboise (Stages 18–19) both have large city-centre royal châteaux, while the smaller château at Chaumont hosts an annual garden festival. The river is now flowing between low chalk and limestone cliffs, into which many caves have been cut to extract building stone. These nowadays have a variety of uses, including wine cellars and mushroom farms. The basilica in Tours is the burial place of France’s patron saint, St Martin, a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and became bishop of Tours.
Stage 20 leaves the Loire briefly, following its Cher tributary past the châteaux at Villandry with an immaculately kept 100 hectares of formal gardens and Ussé, inspiration for the story of Sleeping Beauty. There are more riverside cliffs, with the route going underground through the caves of a troglodyte village, and hillside vineyards before Saumur (Stage 21). Entering Anjou, heartland of Norman-English France during the Hundred Years’ War, an excursion can be made to visit its capital, Angers (Stage 22). Stages 23–25 follow the river through the Vendée – an area that provided the greatest level of resistance during the French Revolution – and the Muscadet wine region to reach Nantes, a city that grew rich on profits from the African slave trade. Finally the generally flat coastal plain of Loire-Atlantique is crossed (Stage 26) to reach Brevin-les-Pins, opposite the shipbuilding town of St Nazaire.
Natural environment
Physical geography
The Massif Central mountains are the oldest in France, formed mostly of gneiss and metamorphic schists. When the African and European tectonic plates collided approximately 30 million years ago, pushing up the Alps and raising the eastern edge of the Massif Central, they triggered a series of eruptions that formed a chain of volcanoes in the eastern and central parts of the range. Subsequent erosion and weathering have exposed the central igneous volcanic cores, and these dot the landscape through which the first part of the Loire flows – Gerbier de Jonc being a particularly well formed example. This collision of plates also caused rippling of the landmass to the north, creating a series of calcareous ridges. After leaving the Massif Central, the Loire flows down between these ridges, forming a wide basin with outcrops of chalk and limestone. Where the river has cut down through the ridges, tufa limestone cliffs abut the river and these have been extensively quarried for building stone.
The Loire is a fleuve sauvage (untamed river), the level of water fluctuating greatly between seasons. In summer large sandbanks appear, while in winter riverside meadows are flooded. The river is fed by a number of important tributaries including the Allier, Cher, Indre and Vienne (all of which rise in the Massif Central) and the Loir, Sarthe and Maine which drain the hills of Normandy.
Loire Gorge natural park seen from Chambles (Stage 5)
Wildlife
While a number of small mammals (including rabbits, hares, red squirrels, voles, water rats and weasels) may be seen scuttling across the track, this is not an area inhabited by wild animals – with two exceptions. Large forests close to the river were once reserved for royal hunting parties seeking bears, wolves, wild boar and deer. Bears and wolves were wiped out long ago, but deer and boar are still present.
There is a wide range of birdlife. White swans, geese and many varieties of ducks inhabit the river and its banks. Cruising above, raptors, particularly buzzards and kites, are frequently seen hunting small mammals. Birds that live by fishing include cormorants, noticeable when perched on rocks with their wings spread out to dry, and grey herons, which can be seen standing in shallow water waiting to strike or stalking purposefully along the banks. Egrets are commonly seen in fields where they often pick fleas off cattle. Seasonal sandbanks and islands in the Loire attract millions of migratory birds during summer months and some have become protected reserves.
Roe deer crossing the cycle track near Avaray (Stage 17)
Preparation
When to go
With the exception of Stage 1 in the Massif Central, where snow can remain on the ground until late April, the route is generally cycleable from April to October. If the source is inaccessible, an alternative would be to start from the beginning of Stage 3 in Le Puy-en-Velay, which can be reached directly by train.
How long will it take?
The route has been broken into 26 stages, averaging 40km per stage. A fit cyclist, cycling an average of 80km/day should be able to complete the route in under a fortnight. Travelling at a gentler pace of 50km/day and allowing time for sightseeing, cycling the Loire to the Atlantic coast would take three weeks. There are many places to stay along the route, making