La Dolce Via – the perfect starter family bike tour

The Dolce Via cycle route stretches in a Y shape from Lamastre or St-Agrève down to La Voulte-sur-Rhône, near to the city of Valence, creating nearly ninety kilometres of safe cycling trail.

The route from Lamastre to Le Cheylard and onto La Voulte-sur-Rhône is the easiest as it’s mostly downhill. We chose this route to ride with our girls (8 and 11 years old) for their first bike packing experience.

 

Safe terrain for your first family bike tour

Lamastre – Le Cheylard (19.5km)

Arrive at the village of Lamastre either by the Mastrou steam train or by car.  If you’ve taken the steam train (and we would highly recommend it), you will arrive at lunchtime. The tourist office is on the train platform in Lamastre so pop in there to pick up a map of the Dolce Via cycle route and ask any questions you might have. The staff speak English.

It’s a couple of minutes ride through the village to pick up the start of the Dolce Via cycle trail. The first section from Lamastre – Le Cheylard (19.5km) is cyclable in one afternoon with kids.

The Lamastre – Nonières section (11.5km) is actually the hardest section on the route for young kids, as the gradient is slightly uphill. Be prepared for a bit of whinging here. If you have very young kids cycling solo and are time plenty, consider staying at Nonières, although it only took us an extra hour after Nonières to reach Le Cheylard.

From Nonières it’s all downhill, as it will be for the rest of the entire Dolce Via. It took us only 1 hour to cover the 8kms to Le Cheylard.

dénivelé = elevation different pente = gradient

We stayed at the Hotel des Voyageurs in Le Cheylard,  a 3 star bike hotel in the centre of the town. It has safe underground garage storage for bikes, the rooms were clean and spacious (with ensuite) and the staff were helpful and friendly. We can recommend.

 

Le Cheylard – Pont de Chervil (16 km)

dénivelé = elevation different pente = gradient

From Le Cheylard, the Dolce Via route now follows the Eyrieux river, a tributary of the Rhône. The river forms a wide reservoir as you leave Le Cheylard (you’ll pass the Eyrium water park here – a  good place to cool down in the heat of summer) and then you’ll pass the barrage du Eyrieux (the Eyrieux dam).  The Dolce Via continues to hug the left flank of the tumbling river, looking down on the gorge for most of the day. It’s spectacular riding.

We set off from Le Cheylard at 9am and it took us three hours to reach Pont de Chervil, a beautiful ancient bridge at the village of Chalencon.

Look out for the harvesting of the many chestnut trees you’ll pass – large tarpaulins stretch out over the ground under les châtaigniers.

The girls loved passing so many vegetable patches and of course the cute donkeys.

There are plenty of picnic tables along the route.  Most even have bike racks to park your wheels while you take a break.

Make sure to bring lots of snacks with you. We did this bike tour in the Toussaint (Oct half term) holidays and expected much more to be open. Some of the villages were deserted so I was glad I’d stuffed our bike packs with so many goodies before departing. Obviously in the height of summer, the villages and towns along the trail will be bustling with life so this would be less problematic.

Pont de Chervil – Les Ollières-sur-Eyrieux (14.5km)

From Pont de Chervil, the Dolce Via route follows viaducts built into the rock face. It’s one of the best scenery sections with the tumbling river noisily crashing below to your right. The river, now harnessed for electricity, used to drive silk mills, which you’ll spot abandoned along the route.

Cycling is the perfect pace to absorb your landscape.  Tiny French hamlets such as La Roche (below), charmed us with their ancient stone exteriors, terracotta roof tiles typical of the south of France and wonderfully weather beaten shutters. 

dénivelé = elevation difference       pente = gradient

There’s a good campsite, Mas de Champel, on the riverside just before Les Ollières. If we were to do this family bike tour again, we would definitely break the cycle route here and spend our 3rd night in a tipi at Mas de Champel.  Accommodation is in cabins, tipis, safari tents or of course, pitch your own.

Aquarock, a great water based activity centre is also on the river just before Mas de Champel camp site. The cycle route goes right past it so you’ll see the entrance and the courses from the cycle path. Aquarock has 9 courses with two giant ziplines of 250 and 300 meters.  We did this family bike tour during the October half term, so sadly for us, we didn’t get to test our nerve on the Aquarock courses and the campsite were closed. We saw the suspension bridges and via ferrata over the river though – it looks a great set up. Perfect for breaking the journey and stoking out the kids.  

 

Les Ollières-sur-Eyrieux – La Voulte-sur-Rhône (19.5km)

Keep an eye out along the route for signs of yesteryear. Many of the old station buildings, Les Ollières, is a fine example, are well preserved. Les Ollieres station is now a tourist office and coffee shop and a good place to stop for a refreshment.

Les Ollières is well set up in the summer for family activities. Eyrieux Sports, opposite the Post Office (“La Poste”)  00 33 (0) 686 575 631 can organise a 4.5 km family-friendly kayak paddle, stand up paddle boards or for the brave, coasteering. Alternatively cycle back along the Dolce Via track to Aquarock for water and height thrills. 

Back on the Dolce Via cycle route the scenery changes again from Les Ollières-sur-Eyrieux becoming less dramatic. This section is known as ‘the pink valley’ due to the abundance of peaches grown here in the summer.

The trail still continues very gently downhill. It’s easy to whizz past villages and the kilometres seem to be eaten up greedily now as we cycle towards the end of the trail.

We cycled as far as St Laurent du Pape, the village before La Voulte-sur-Rhône (which is the end of the trail) as we wanted to catch the bus back to our start point. In hindsight, this is quite problematic as the first bus from St Laurent du Pape to Valance takes bikes but Valance to Tournon sur-Rhône.

It’s a much better option to do this family bike tour as a 5 day option rather than a 2 day! You can thank me later 🙂 From La Voulte-sur-Rhône, pick up the Via Rhona bike trail which takes 2 days to get back to Tournon Sur-Rhône.

dénivelé = elevation difference       pente = gradient