The Ride That Stopped at Auch: Saint-Malo to Catalonia
Saint-Malo to Catalonia by bike: ten days down the Atlantic coast, an illness at Auch, and the ride we came back to finish
On 4 August 2018 I wrote down the plan. An overnight boat from Portsmouth to Saint-Malo, then south towards Rennes and across the Loire at Nantes. Down the coast to Royan and the ferry over the Gironde, round Bordeaux to the canals, and on to Toulouse and Carcassonne. Then into Spain south of Perpignan, and on to the beautiful village of Corçà. "We will take our time," I wrote, "but the journey may take us 17 or 18 days."
It did not go to plan. Ten days and 513 miles later, at Auch in Gascony, Margaret had an infection and was not well enough to go on. We stopped, found help, worked out how to get two people and two bikes we could no longer ride to Catalonia, and promised ourselves we would come back. Nine months later we did, and finished the ride from Toulouse.
This is that journey. It has some of the best riding we have done in France: river banks and canal paths, the coast south of Royan, the Médoc vineyards and the pine forests of the Landes. It is also a story about what happens when a ride stops, and how you can still get to the end.
Last updated 5 November 2026
The route
From Saint-Malo we rode up the Rance to Dinan, then south through Brittany to Bédée and Guémené-Penfao, and across the Loire at Nantes. South of Nantes the route ran through the Vendée to Luçon, across the wetlands to Rochefort, and through the villages near the coast to Royan. A short ferry crossed the mouth of the Gironde to Le Verdon, and from Soulac-sur-Mer we rode the coast paths through the pine forests, then inland through the Médoc to Bordeaux. South of Bordeaux the forests of the Landes took us to Captieux and Losse, and the hills of Gascony to Auch.
There the 2018 ride ended. The 2019 ride began at Toulouse, the nearest place we could easily get ourselves and the bikes back to. From there we followed the Canal du Midi to Castelnaudary and turned south through Limoux into the foothills at Rennes-les-Bains. We rode through the gorge to Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet and Perpignan, and over the border at Le Perthus to Figueres and Corçà. Nothing joins Auch to Toulouse on the map, because we never rode it.
What the ride was like
The best moments were the rides along the river and canal banks. The Rance on the first day, the river towards Langon on the second, the canals across the Vendée wetlands and the coast paths south of Soulac. And, the following June, the Canal du Midi out of Toulouse. Water gave us the flat ground, the shade and, often, the quiet.
The coast south of Royan is magnificent. South of Soulac we found excellent paved paths through sandy pine forests, with other cyclists travelling between campsites and shops or simply enjoying their Sunday morning. We turned inland through the Médoc vineyards towards Bordeaux, then continued south through forest country around La Brède and Captieux. Those forests remain one of the pleasures of the journey.
Cities were harder work. Nantes had an impressive network of cycle lanes, but getting into it and out again meant plenty of twists, turns and checking where we were. Bordeaux was the same: a lovely lunch by the river, then rush-hour traffic and road works on the way out. And the further south we went, the hotter it got. The last three days to Auch were hot, and the last one, into the hills of Gascony, was the hardest of the trip.
We rode steel-framed Hewitt Cheviot SE touring bikes, loaded front and back. By 2018 we had had them about fifteen years, and they had taken us on rides across three continents. They have bar-end shifters, a good range of gears for most climbs and Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, the kind on which Margaret once crossed the USA without a puncture. The only thing we have upgraded is the brakes.
The ride in stages
Ten days in September 2018, then four in June 2019. For the first eleven days, the notes below are the ones I sent home as we went, lightly tidied; the last three are written from memory.
| Stage | From → to | Distance | Character and effort | Overnight stops | Main constraint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Brittany | Saint-Malo → Bédée → Guémené-Penfao → Nantes | 140 miles, days 1 to 3 | Rolling hills, river banks and quiet roads, then the busy approach to Nantes | Bédée; Guémené-Penfao; Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire | A lot of hills on day 1; finding a quiet way into Nantes |
| 2 · The Vendée and the wetlands | Nantes → Les Pineaux → Rochefort | 116 miles, days 4 and 5 | Hills, then flat wetland paths beside canals, rough in places | Les Pineaux; Rochefort | Getting out of Nantes; no dinner in small villages |
| 3 · The Gironde coast | Rochefort → Royan → ferry → Soulac-sur-Mer → Listrac-Médoc | 93 miles, days 6 and 7 | Winding small roads to Royan, a short ferry, then paved coast paths through pine forest | Soulac-sur-Mer; Listrac-Médoc | Rochefort to Royan is longer than it looks |
| 4 · Bordeaux and the Landes | Listrac-Médoc → Bordeaux → La Brède → Losse | 104 miles, days 8 and 9 | Bike paths into Bordeaux, city traffic out, then long forest roads | La Brède; Losse | 30°C in the forest, and water running low |
| 5 · Gascony | Losse → Auch | 60 miles, day 10 | Forest tracks, then hills in the heat | Auch | Heat and hills: our hardest day |
| 6 · The canal and the foothills | Toulouse → Castelnaudary → Rennes-les-Bains | About 78 miles, June 2019 | Canal towpath, rougher towards Castelnaudary, then the first real climbs | Castelnaudary; Rennes-les-Bains | Heat on the climbs with a loaded bike |
| 7 · Into Catalonia | Rennes-les-Bains → the gorge → Perpignan → Le Perthus → Corçà | About 107 miles, two days | Hill roads, a narrow gorge, the plain, then over the border | Perpignan; Corçà | Blind bends in the gorge; traffic on the main road over the border |
The 2018 distances are the ones I recorded each day. The 2019 distances after the first day are estimates between the places we stopped.
1 · Brittany
Day one, Monday 3 September: Saint-Malo to Bédée, 45 miles. The crossing from Portsmouth was gentle. After a night in a spartan but quiet cabin we slipped into Saint-Malo harbour before 7am, which is the beauty of the overnight boat: you have the whole day to move. The boat seemed full of silver-topped sixty-somethings who, like us, were taking advantage of post-school-holiday fares and reduced cross-Channel traffic. I counted at least twelve other cyclists on board.
My intention was to take the small ferry from Saint-Malo across to Dinard and then follow a cycle route south towards Dinan. No sign of the ferry. So we took an alternative course along the east bank of the river on quiet roads, and had lunch at the picturesque port of Dinan. We followed the river bank, then climbed to Calorguen, Saint-André, Le Quiou, Plouasne (on what seems a former railway track), Landujan and La Chapelle-du-Lou-du-Lac. We are staying at a small hotel restaurant at Bédée, ten miles west of Rennes. A very warm day. It is a small village and very basic accommodation, but we are happy enough. A lot of hills today. Legs are going to complain tomorrow.
Day two: Bédée to Guémené-Penfao, 53 miles. What an amazing day's ride. OK, so there were a lot of ups and downs but, wow, the scenery. The ride along the river bank towards Langon was a highlight, so peaceful and picturesque. We got into Guémené-Penfao around 3pm and are staying in a bed and breakfast just south of the town.
Day three: Guémené-Penfao to Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, 42 miles. What a great night's stay. We had booked bed and breakfast, but there was a problem with the room, so we were given a large gîte in the grounds: kitchen, lounge, choice of bedroom, the full works. This morning it drizzled for the first half hour, but no matter: we were on quiet country roads, riding through sleepy villages, noticing more dogs than people. By lunchtime we were getting into the network of busy roads that lead to Nantes: more traffic, more navigation decisions, a bench at McDonald's rather than a seat outside a village mairie.
The afternoon was different: finding a quiet road into Nantes, using its impressive network of cycle lanes, and then travelling some distance from the centre to a B&B in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire. It has been a good day.
2 · The Vendée and the wetlands
Day four: Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire to Les Pineaux, 55 miles. We didn't find getting out of Nantes easy. Lots of twists and turns, and probably an over-reliance on Google Maps to check we were going in the right direction. As we were going the same way as the motorway, the route kept criss-crossing it during the morning. By the afternoon things got more straightforward: we needed to follow the D7.
We arrived at Les Pineaux around 5.30, a small village without any bar or restaurant, and the chambre d'hôte did not serve food. You can imagine that the last thing you want after a 55-mile ride is to ride another hilly 5 km in search of a meal. Fortunately, as we rode this way we had bought a cooked chicken at a supermarket we passed, so we are feeling quite content this evening. No doubt one or more of the free-roaming cockerels in the garden will exact revenge on us, probably at 5.30 tomorrow morning.
Day five: Les Pineaux to Rochefort, 61 miles. Although we heard the local cockerels call out at dawn, this was no great disturbance. We got a pretty good night's sleep. The chambre d'hôte is past its prime, but the room was comfortable, traditionally decorated, and had probably been this way for many years. Today we started early, on the road with the school buses and the motorists travelling to work.
Hills at first, but having reached Luçon we rode through the flat wetland areas on cycle paths alongside canals. Beautiful at first, but the surface was rough, and the bumps and shakes made asphalt more attractive. So the final part of the ride was through a series of small villages between La Rochelle and Rochefort, taking the quieter D116 to avoid heavier traffic. We got to Rochefort around 5pm, checked in at a hotel used by many other cyclists, shopped, and had a good meal at a fish restaurant by the harbour.
3 · The Gironde coast
Day six: Rochefort to Soulac-sur-Mer, 43 miles. We liked Rochefort. It is a seaside town and working port, and it has some character, some architectural grandeur and some good seafood restaurants. I was thinking the trip to Royan, the ferry across the Gironde and the short ride on the other side would not take long. It proved a longer and more complex ride. Apart from the coastal bike path, which follows the line of the coast and is therefore longer in distance and time, there seem to be no other bike paths between Rochefort and Royan. There are some busy main roads, so to avoid them our route wound between villages on smaller roads and proved longer than the 48 km Google Maps suggested.
Once at Royan, the ferry across the river mouth was straightforward. The service is used to bikes. It was comfortable and got us across within 30 minutes. The final ride of the day, to Soulac-sur-Mer, was longer than I'd thought. The town has a tourist feel in the centre, some nice buildings and a good seafront. The beach has fine white sand, and in September it was almost empty. We had a fine evening there, with a sunset walk and a drink at a local bar.
Day seven, Sunday 9 September: Soulac-sur-Mer to Listrac-Médoc, 50 miles. There are some superb bike paths along the coast south of Soulac. The surface is tarmac with very few cracks or holes, and it appears well used. On this Sunday morning there were many cyclists on the path, some training, some merely cycling between campsite and supermarket to get bread. We travelled on this route for over 20 miles, mainly through sandy pine forests and within half a mile of the ocean.
Today we were rained on for the first time this trip, light rain around lunchtime. But the temperature stayed in the 20s, and the overcast sky was probably better for riding than direct sunshine. We are now in the Médoc wine region, within half a day's ride of Bordeaux. We began seeing clusters of black grapes in the fields towards the end of the ride, and we are staying near Listrac in another chambre d'hôte.
4 · Bordeaux and the Landes
Day eight: Listrac-Médoc to La Brède, 45 miles. The Médoc is worth visiting. We sampled the local wine and it was good. Our hosts, who run a great B&B in Listrac-Médoc, say the black grapes, now very full, will be harvested in a fortnight. Sorry we are not around to see that. We made our way south and hooked up with a bike path near Sainte-Hélène, which took us almost into Bordeaux. There we sat and ate lunch, like so many others, by the banks of the Garonne.
The afternoon's ride was a little tricky: finding the right roads out of the city, contending with rush-hour traffic and road works, and afternoon temperatures of around 30 degrees. We were very satisfied with the accommodation at La Brède.
Day nine: La Brède to Losse, 59 miles. We found another amazing bike path right across from the hotel. We had been a little concerned about the early-morning traffic and the mist that had appeared, and the bike path removed those concerns. It took us for seven or eight miles in the right direction. Thereafter we were on quiet country roads through pine forests in bright sunlight.
This really is a spectacularly beautiful part of France. The forests are sometimes thinly wooded, sometimes so dense it seems like night-time within them, and they are fringed with green, brown and golden ferns. The riding became more difficult as the day grew hotter. By the time we got to Captieux it was 30 degrees and we were getting low on water. Eventually we got to a B&B near Losse. Fortunately it had a swimming pool.
5 · Gascony
Day ten: Losse to Auch, 60 miles. This has probably been our most difficult day on the trip. The heat and the hills were the main factors. It all started off well, riding on rough tracks through the forest and then on quiet roads as we moved south and east. By the time we got to Valence-sur-Baïse, the hills were taking their toll. So much for the downhill joys: the heat was sapping our energy. The last 32 km were difficult, with frequent stops and one longish rest.
We are staying at a hotel in the commercial centre in the north of Auch. Unfortunately my reservation is for tomorrow night (my confusion). So we will stay here for two nights and have a deserved rest day tomorrow.
When the ride stopped
It was the day or two after Bordeaux that Margaret began to feel unwell. By the time we got to Auch we had to stop and change our plans. The rest day turned into two nights at the hotel and a visit to the local hospital, where Margaret was treated for an infection. She was not well enough to carry on.
Auch is not the easiest place to travel from if you have bikes you can no longer ride. In the end we hired a car, dismantled the bikes enough to fit them in the back, and drove on to Corçà. Then it was tricky. The car had to go back to a French rental point. So once Margaret was settled at Corçà, I drove back into France, dropped the car at Perpignan and took the train back to Flaçà, the nearest station to Corçà.
We were glad we had travel insurance, and the resources to find help and use it. A rest day, a hospital visit, a one-way hire car and a train back across the border all cost time and money that a tight plan does not allow for.
Later we decided we would complete the ride, and resume it from as near to Auch as we could. Toulouse made sense from a transport point of view. In the spring of 2019 we drove down to Corçà from the UK. On the way home we dropped the bikes at a bed and breakfast in Toulouse, whose owners agreed to keep them safe until we came back. A few weeks later, on 1 June, we flew from London to Toulouse and walked through the city. That night we stayed at the guest house on the Canal du Midi where our bikes had been waiting.
The ride resumed: Toulouse to Corçà
6 · The canal and the foothills
Day eleven, Sunday 2 June 2019: Toulouse to Castelnaudary, 38 miles. Back again. We resumed the ride from Toulouse today. Toulouse is a reasonable place to restart. It is not far from Auch, and it is a place we could get the bikes to more easily.
This morning we set out along the canal. This really is a pretty ride. The canal is lined with trees, offering shade and protection from the 30-degree temperature. The canal path is wide and mostly hard-surfaced, although it is rougher towards Castelnaudary. There are places to stop and picnic and plenty of canal life to watch, including boats passing the many locks on this stretch of the canal.
Stop at one of the locks on the Canal du Midi and wait for a boat. Come in out of the sun under the trees and feel the heat drop away from your arms. Listen to the water running through the gates while the boat sits low in the chamber, and watch it rise, slowly, until the people on deck are level with you. They have come the same way as you, at a walking pace, with the same shade over them. For a few minutes nobody is going anywhere, and that is the point.
Day twelve: Castelnaudary to Rennes-les-Bains. From Castelnaudary we left the canal and headed through Limoux to Rennes-les-Bains. This became our preferred approach to northeast Spain with heavily loaded touring bikes. There are real climbs, but our Hewitts had very good low gears. Those granny gears earned their keep. We rode all the climbs, but took rests and did some hills in stages. There was no prize for getting to the top without stopping.
7 · Into Catalonia
Day thirteen: Rennes-les-Bains to Perpignan. Beyond Rennes-les-Bains we rode towards Cubières-sur-Cinoble and through the spectacular gorge before Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet, then continued towards Perpignan. The gorge was wonderful to ride through, though it certainly kept our attention. Riding in our direction, the river ran deep below on the right. On the left the rock face rose sheer, and in places the rock extended overhead like a partial ceiling. I remember a narrow, winding road, spaced stone pillars and stretches where the edge offered little reassurance.
The road through the gorge is single track. Since 2003 traffic has been controlled, one way at a time, by lights on busy summer afternoons. We have not found the current rules for cyclists published anywhere, so check locally before you ride it in July or August.
Day fourteen: Perpignan to Corçà. From Perpignan we took the main road over the border at Le Perthus, then a route to Figueres and on to Corçà. Nine months after we stopped at Auch, and roughly 700 miles from Saint-Malo, we arrived.
Places worth knowing along the way
Four places where it is worth stopping longer than we did: two from 2018 and two from 2019.
A naval town built for Louis XIV, and a town we liked very much in 2018. The Corderie Royale, the royal rope factory, runs 374 metres along the Charente; it made rope for the French navy until 1862. South of the town, the transporter bridge of about 1900, the last in France, still carries walkers and cyclists across the river in a gondola from late March to the start of November. Eat fish by the harbour, as we did.
The old capital of Gascony, where the 2018 ride stopped. A monumental staircase of about 370 steps climbs 35 metres from the river to the old town, past a bronze statue of d’Artagnan, the musketeer, who was born about 40 km away. At the top, Sainte-Marie cathedral has 113 carved oak choir stalls from the 16th century, and is listed by UNESCO as part of the routes to Santiago de Compostela.
The end of our first day back on the bikes in 2019. The town calls itself the world capital of cassoulet, the slow-cooked dish of beans, sausage and duck, and holds a cassoulet festival in late August. Its Grand Bassin is the largest stretch of open water on the Canal du Midi, and the Saint-Roch lock beside it, built in 1678, is the only four-chamber lock on the canal.
Spectacular, and wonderful to ride. The Agly river has cut a gorge up to 500 metres deep through the limestone, and a single-track road, finished in 1892, is carved into its wall high above the water. From the parking above the gorge, a path leads down to the hermitage of Saint-Antoine, a chapel in a cave where hermits lived from the 7th century until about 1930. Traffic is controlled in summer, so check before you ride.
The Royan to Le Verdon car ferry stopped on 2 November 2026 for about six weeks of works on its landing stages. A free shuttle boat runs in the meantime and takes bikes if they fit. The small Saint-Malo to Dinard boat carries bikes but runs mainly from late March to early November. The Canal du Midi path is surfaced out of Toulouse but becomes an unimproved towpath approaching Castelnaudary. Check each before you go.
What we learned
You can plan a ride like this carefully, and we did. The unexpected still happens. These are the things that helped us respond when it did.
Illness on a ride is not a remote risk, and treatment, extra nights and changed travel add up quickly. We were glad we had insurance, and the resources to find help and use it.
Auch is not easy to leave with bikes you cannot ride. Toulouse and Perpignan have airports and main-line stations, which is why we restarted at Toulouse.
We rode ten days without a rest day. The one we took at Auch came about by accident, from a booking mix-up, and we needed it. A spare day or two is cheap insurance of a different kind.
Two dismantled bikes in a hire car, a one-way drop in another country and a train back: getting the bikes home was harder than getting ourselves there.
The hospital at Auch treated Margaret, and a Toulouse guest house looked after our bikes through the spring. Help is often there if you ask for it.
Stopping was the right decision. Coming back nine months later let us finish the ride we had set out to do.
A final word on the ride that stopped at Auch
This ride did not go to plan. We had to change tack and respond to illness, and the journey took longer and needed far more organising than we had imagined. But we did finish it. The rivers, the canals, the coast south of Royan and the forests of the Landes were worth every mile, and we rode the last of them, nine months late, into Corçà.
Andrew + Margaret
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