Free route description for 500km cycling tour of mountainous south-central France

This was designed for easy train access from Barcelona without having to dismantle and pack the bike – eg midweek 06:16 regional to Portbou, 09:39 TER to Nîmes, 12:56 TER to Alès, cycle 500km to Albi, 09:04/09:50 TER to Toulouse, 11:54 TER to Narbonne, 13:53 TER to Portbou, 15:59 regional to Barcelona. Altitude ranges from ca. 150m to ca. 1450, and non-brass monkeys will need to take care with winter cold on some of the higher bits. Most of the roads are small, well-engineered, and low in traffic, with often stunningly beautiful views to which the photos below completely fail to do justice. There are reasonably frequent bars and shops, and along considerable stretches there are still (infrequent) trains to help you out if you or your bike breaks down. If you can’t manage it all in one day 🙂 you should be able to figure out accommodation – there’s plenty out of season. Here’s the approximate route:

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Now here’s a list of settlements visited, which should enable reconstruction if Google Maps disappears before this website or if you refuse to submit to the monster:

1. Alès
2. La Grand Combe (mine museum)
3. Portes
4. Chamborigaud
5. Génolhac
6. Concoules
7. Villefort
8. very beautiful valley (check the path on the other side) leading to Pied-de-Borne
9. steep climb to and beyond Planchamp
10. hilltop moorland and forest leading to La Bastide-Puylaurent
11. Luc
12. Langogne (brilliant centre)
13. Briges
14. Laval-Atger
15. Grandrieu (splendid little church, atmospheric restaurant (also hotel) Laures, bar Viviane, Hotel Daudet, whose amiable boss, like an extraordinary number of people, speaks excellent Spanish)
16. climb through farmland, moor and forest to Baraque des Bouviers at ca. 1400m
17. gorgeous descent (larks, red kites) thru Saint-Denis-en-Margeride (bar)
18. Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole (nice barmaid in the bar behind the apse of the beastly Romanesque church)
19. Le Malzieu-Ville
20. slow climb through lovely countryside & Saint-Léger-du-Malzieu
21. Lorcières
22. Combechalde
23. Le Pirou
24. Saint-Michel
25. Saint-Georges
26. Saint-Flour
27. Murat
28. fairly heavy (ski-)traffic up to the col (you can’t go through the tunnel so have to climb a good bit more) and then very fast (50 km/h) but busy descent to Aurillac
29. Roannes-Saint-Mary (couple of excellent bars)
30. Marcolès (wannabe Disney “medieval” – don’t stop)
31. splendid, quiet, hilltop road via Saint-Antoine
32. Saint-Constant
33. Le Trioulou
34. Bagnac-sur-Célè
35. main road via Viazac to
36. Figeac
37. the aiguille on the road to Villefranche
38. Tombebiau
39. Capdenac
40. Capdenac-Gare
41. Saint-Julien d’Emparé
42. up the gorgeous Diége valley
43. Pomels
44. Salles-Courbatiès
45. Saint-Igest
46. Bérals
47. Villefranche-de-Rouergue
48. Ordiget and the west bank of the river
49. Najac
50. Saint-André-de-Najac
51. Montirat
52. Mirandol
53. Carmaux
54. fairly unpleasant and dirty road to Albi.

Several alternatives:

1. If you start from Nîmes, head across country from Brignon to les Vans then follow the river (via Gravières) to Pied-de-Borne
2. From Pied-de-Borne, follow the river to La Bastide (D151) – more shade in summer, & very pretty
3. Forget Albi and from Najac head south via Laguépie to Cordes-sur-Ciel, where the Toulouse plateau begins & there’s a TER to the metropolis

And here finally are some photos, most pretty bad and with some quite large gaps. I’ll try to add captions this weekend:
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The requested URL /data/feed/api/user/111257672258796628424/album/FranceSpring2012?kind=photo was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

There, didn’t mention Robert Louis Stevenson or donkeys once.