# Trails in the South of France....



## willem3 (Apr 14, 2007)

What exists? My parents live near St. Tropez and my wife and are going to visit them. I want to bring my Ventana along to experience riding trails in France.

Any ideas?


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## Uzzi (Oct 28, 2003)

St. Tropez is good for checkin big boats, fast cars and lots of girls looking for their future man with the 1.000.000 euro plus bank account. Don't know about the biking around there. 

However St. Raphael is close and has some good trails. Nice and Monaco have some good ridin as well but you would have to drive a little. There is this classic trail that ends in Monaco...lots of stairs at the end...


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## willem3 (Apr 14, 2007)

*Thanks!*

Looks like you are Dutch! Do you live in the South of France?


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## Uzzi (Oct 28, 2003)

Yes I am and I live about 6 hrs drive from there. 

Used to work as an mtb guide/instructor in St. Raphael during the summer months when I was a student. Def a good area to go riding, you can basically ride all trails that don't have the velo interdite sign. The area where you would want to ride is called the Esterel...take the D100 from a village called Agay...after the camp ground the first one to the right then park your car at the little lake... Ride up to Pic de Cap Roux or Pic de l'Ours and you have a selection of trails to choose from...

St. Tropez has the Maures in the back yard and that should be good riding as well. Check out the bike magazine website as I think they had some routes described there some time ago.

Good luck!


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## Goldfish boy (Apr 18, 2007)

I've ridden in the Esterel and its great. You need to be brave and just try what ever trails you come across (unless you have someone that knows the area) and it can be a bit hit and miss, but on the plus side if you get lucky some of the trails are great. Even if you dont get off the fire roads, there is loads to explore and the whole place is virtually empty so it really has that wilderness feel about it.


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## jlb2 (May 8, 2007)

Hi willem3

If you read any French, you can visit http://www.utagawavtt.com/randonnee-vtt-gps, which hosts a fairly impressive collection of tracks in France, particularly in the Var (Maures, Esterel, etc.) which has the (justified) reputation of being a great place for MTB. These are mostly GPS files with descriptions. To see the trails you are looking for, locate the "Dépt/Région" on the left of the window, select "Var" in the list, and click the "Rechercher" button. There are currently 41 tracks you can choose from.

Another option if you have enough time before going there : leave a message on the tourism office (http://www.tourismevar.com), I am pretty sure they have a brochure with permanent MTB trails. Not necessarily the most impressive ones (these people hate to have dead tourists  ), but quite a lot of them.

And finally, the FFC (French cycling federation) has 3 permanent sites in the Fréjus area, totalling 800 km of trails I think, including 29 trails in the "red / black" category (difficult / expert). You can check them there : http://vttdbv.free.fr/parcours/PlaquetteRecto.pdf, http://www.ffc.fr/a_VTT/a_SitesVTT/index.asp (select "Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur" in the "Région" scroll-down menu, and check "Fréjus", "Gréoux les Bains" and "Grinasservis" in the "Villes" column. Fréjus is closest to where your parents live if my memory serves.


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## feimanis (Jun 4, 2007)

Hi there,

http://www.1001sentiers.fr/ Is another brilliant site for the south of france...:thumbsup:


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## mtnbkrdr98 (May 27, 2004)

Southern France must be a paradise for those who surf and mtn bike then. Probably need to have an extremely high income to live comfortably there, I would imangine.


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## cyrus (May 25, 2005)

feimanis said:


> Hi there,
> 
> http://www.1001sentiers.fr/ Is another brilliant site for the south of france...:thumbsup:


this is a lot better than uttagawa: i ride in fontainebleau, and people on the uttagawa forum think that fontainebleau trails are too technic, when in fact they are just perfect.
i know some riders from 1001 sentiers, if you like technical rides, it will be perfect.


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