Île de Ré: how to bridge young children to distance cycle touring
4 and 6 year old cycling across Île de Ré, France.
Day dreaming of cycling beside the ocean, counting white sail boats bobbing up and down, interrupted by lunch at an oyster hut and a swim? Inconceivable holiday with young children? It’s possible.
Our 4 and 6 year-old cycling champions finish a nearly 20 mile day through fields of grapevines and oyster beds to celebrate with their first double scoop ice-cream. Their little legs could have gone longer because the day was partly cloudy, a welcome respite from the heat. They loved it. Giddy, in fact. And they felt like champions (not champignons) -our cycling slogan. After all the broken nights of sleep and endless tantrums that punctuate parenthood, it’s an exhilarating day when your children take a meaningful leap forward completely in line with your passion - for cycling.
Île de Ré is the ideal location to both beach holiday and to escalate children from long rides at home in London to independent rides that ladder up to cycle touring distance. Having done loads of bikepaking on my own and then in parenthood bringing the children in tow with a trailer, the plan has always been to build them into little bike touring loving girls. (But it’s not a given that they’ll have an interest or that you’re able to cultivate it in a practical way.)
Why choose Île de Ré for the first longer cycling trip to build endurance?
Besides being a casually chic beach holiday in it’s own right, the set-up is good for cycling. The French have a strong cycling culture. It’s evident in Paris, with wide streets with room for bike paths and gorgeous plane trees as a canopy from the sun. Tour de France, of course. Cycling is in their cultural DNA. Off the Atlantic coast of France, Île de Ré has 110kms of bike paths across a 30km island. The paths are well marked and many sweep through fields of grapevines and oyster beds. They produce bike path maps for tourist to help navigate across ten major towns on the island.
This means that you can have a single base (camping or a Villa) and do destination rides to different towns every day so it’s a half-step forward towards touring.
How old do your children need to be?
This was a long planned trip for when our youngest, Olive, was ready to do small distances. She transitioned from her balance bike to a pedal bike when she was 3, turning 4. At the time, her older sister, who was 6, was ready to learn road safety and go on longer independent rides (not in the trailer) of 5-8 miles so she wanted to join in. We started planning longer weekend rides into Surrey and up to Richmond. At the beginning of the summer we booked a week of intensive swim lessons everyday at Hampton Pool, which required at least 5 miles a day across the week.
It was clear Olive would be able to do 5 miles independently when we scheduled the Île de Ré trip in February. We weren’t attached to how far we could explore because we knew the island was full of magic in every mile.
Practical tips for little legs
We didn’t focus on only cycling. We spent mornings at the beach destroying pain au chocolate after paddleboarding and evenings in the pool. They went to kids club and the mini discos, so rides didn’t feel oppressive, even in the summer heat.
We pointed out goal towns on the map so they could clearly follow along with our progress when we stopped for water.
And we went for a reason, either to explore a fortified town, have a lunch or find a winery.
As always, lots of snacks and water were indispensable. In addition to apples and Yo Yos we packed from home, we tended to make up a baguette with brie or chevre so they always had a lunch if the ride dragged on or they weren’t interested in the seafood.
Where to rent bikes?
We rented four bikes from 1+Cycles and picked them up in Le Bois-Plage-en-Ré. They have a delivery option too. The adults were on beach cruisers which suited the week and made my husband Andrew wonder why there’s a high bar on men’s bikes anyway. The 4 and 6 year old were on 16’ and 20’ bikes with gears, locks and helmets. All bikes functioned perfectly and the staff were efficient and friendly.
If driving, it may be nice to have your own bikes. But I prefer trains especially in France.
Where to stay?
We stayed at Sunelia Interlude in Plage de Gros Joncs. Located on on of the most calm and blue Atlantic coast beach I could ever expect. This was “French Camping” at its best. If you want to hear more about why French Camping is not camping at all I have another blog on it. The camping resort has pools, a kids club, the best restaurant I’ve ever been to at a “campsite” and a shop where you can buy hot croissants to devour on the beach in the morning.
How to get there?
We took the Eurostar to Paris and did some urban adventuring, before taking a 3 hour sunrise train west from Montparnasse station to La Rochelle. Then we took a bus, which was long and stop-start. I would recommend a cab if your stomach gets swirly on buses.
We choose to fly back from Bordeaux with an extra day to taste local wine. But honestly, we both wished we were getting back on the train rather than a plane.