OK, so I managed to sneak in a few off road circuits on a recent holiday in Provence, France (as the yanks would say). Here is a short report and some advice on going off road on the other side of the channel.

In all I did some riding in three places: Colmars in the southern Alps, Digne les Bains, and Apt in the Luberon. They can all be easily found on multimap but are basically within about 100 miles of Marseilles.

Before leaving I did a bit of research on the internet and found out that Colmars (and a nearby village Allos) was a recommended mountainbiking area. Colmars is basically moderate to extreme xc and Allos also has downhill (which I didn't attempt on my rigid gt timberline). Upon arriving I picked up a free map guide from the tourist office (which was basically fine except that on one key part of the map some bright spark editor had superimposed a picture of someone going superfast downhill - this contributed to my losing my way later!)

Day one I did a relatively low level 25k xc loop following the map. There were also route marking arrows (triangles with FFC VTT on them and the number of the circuit). There was some really nice gentle to sharpish downhill singletrack through woods - reminded me of epping - but on a very narrow track so not much room for error. Was also pretty reminiscent of the bits of Afan. Coupled to this was a lot of grinding up gravel fireroads - 670m in total - not so much fun! Some changes to the route meant that the arrows weren't completely reliable and I found my new garmin 705 helpful in a few occasions in checking I was on course. Unfortunately I managed to lose my phone on the ride so went back to look for it (without success) - and did another 25k and 670m - I slept well that night!

Day two I did a high level black route. This started with a 550m road climb to gain altitude! It then tracked off road onto some of the severest climbing I've ever done - I had to get off and walk several sections. After climbing 150m or so though it levelled out and began to twist beautifully through the trees with some nice minor technical stuff (stream crossings, off camber scree, rocky descents etc) to keep it very interesting. The views were incredible. Then followed a long descent on a fireroad to a superb twisty steep rock strewn track which plunged 300m back to the start - pretty challenging on a rigid!

In Digne I wasn't expecting to find any mtb routes but came across some of the signs I'd seen in Colmars by chance and had enough time to check out a the first stages of what appeared to be a bigger loop. It was really inventive, following some twisty tracks through carparks and round the back of council blocks - obviously created by locals - before heading out into the countryside. However without a map it was much harder to follow confidently.

In Apt I went to the tourist office hoping they'd have a free guide. They did have what appeared to be an excellent detailed guide book to off road in the area but it was 19 euros and since I only had the afternoon I simply made some notes of what looked like a good local circuit.

What a brilliant ride! The first half was basically along a footpath twisting through cedar woods along the edge of a gorge and then following old roads through farmland. Plenty of little technical challenges climbing up rutted stoney gulleys and twisting through the woods. After reaching the film location village of Bonnieux ("A Good Year" with Russell Crowe) I started to notice thunder rolling in. Time to head back. The rain (and lightening!) caught up with me just as I started to descend off road down a steep rocky track used by one of the french long distance footpaths. (By this time I was pretty much convinced it's fair game to go anywhere you like on an mtb in France - not sure this is strictly true but there's not much to stop you and certainly very few stiles!) It was an amazing kick to try to keep it together on the old timberline with the rain coming down increasingly heavily and thunder and lightening all around. Pretty quickly though I'd dropped back to the town at the end of the ride.

In summary then, France rocks for mtb. I didn't see much of the infrastructure we'd expect to see at UK mtb centres but on the other hand there's so much great stuff everywhere you turn, or so it seems. There are a large number of waymarked routes (limited information on which is available on the FFC website) but it's quite easy and apparently fair game to follow well marked footpaths as well.

Nice report Gray, sounds like some sweet riding.

The old GT is still doing you proud! What happened with the King in the end - I guess you didn't get it returned? Any replacement lined up?

gray wrote:

It then tracked off road onto some of the severest climbing I've ever done - I had to get off and walk several sections.

Jeez - it must have been steep!

cheshmatt wrote:

Nice report Gray, sounds like some sweet riding. The old GT is still doing you proud! What happened with the King in the end - I guess you didn't get it returned? Any replacement lined up?

thanks matt, it was really great riding. road is good for pushing your fitness levels up but nothing beats a sweet trail. no the kona never turned up. i've been thinking about getting a hardtail but don't really need it for epping. depends on whether I start doing some more riding further afield which I hope to once we're through the diy.

gabber wrote:

gray wrote: It then tracked off road onto some of the severest climbing I've ever done - I had to get off and walk several sections. Jeez - it must have been steep!

it was! but it was made harder by the numerous little step ups - no doubt if my technical riding was better I could have made it up without getting off.