Car and motorcycle tours in France and Spain

Wines of Anjou, Bordeaux & La Rioja 6 Night Tour - Bed & Breakfast

Your itinerary The following pages contain general information about your car or motorcycle tour and the locations where you will stay. The order in which they appear may not be the order your hotels have been confirmed for you - for your individual itinerary please refer to your holiday documentation.

SantanderBilbao

Western LoirePoitou

Charentes

Aquitaine

La Rioja

Cantabria

Castilla y León

Pais Vasco

Plymouth

Cork

PoolePortsmouth

La Rochelle

Niort

Saintes

Bordeaux

Biarritz

San Sebastian

Burgos

Libourne

RoscoffSt Malo

Cherbourg

Caen

Nantes

SaumurDoué la Fontaine

Pau

Laguardia

La Vid

Burgos

Maps and route planning To help plan your trip we provide an excellent map of France. It's also useful to go to travel websites such as Google maps, viamichelin.com* or www.theaa.co.uk.

*Motorway tolls, where applicable, are indicated on this site.

Hotel directions With your travel documents is an information sheet for each hotel we have booked for you giving directions together with some further details.

Arrival Unless stated, you will be expected to arrive at each of the hotels pre-booked for you by 6pm each day. This should allow time for a fairly leisurely drive between hotel stops but if you find you will be arriving later than this please ring the hotel so your room is held for you.

This tour is on a bed and breakfast basis.

The itinerary has many highlights with the focus on some of France and Spain's most prestigious wine producing areas. Along the way you can discover the majestic scenery of the Loire Valley, the Gironde region around Bordeaux then to the south west of France near the Pyrenees and across the border into the north east of Spain. There you'll stay in the beautiful Basque country famous for Rioja Alavesa wines and Castilla y León where Ribera del Duero wines are grown.

Here we give some ideas of places to see in and along the way for each of your overnight stops.

Doué la FontaineIn the heart of the Anjou region and well situated for châteaux visits, this small town has the highly regarded Bioparc zoo in the setting of a former quarry and is also famous for Les Chemins de la Rose - in season these gardens are amazing with a

huge variety of roses in bloom. Louresse Rochemenier (8k) is a picturesque troglodyte village with an excellent restaurant and salon de thé. Less than 20 minutes from Doué, in a stunning setting beside the Loire, Saumur has an elegant château high on a bank overlooking the river. The town has lots of history and museums and whilst here you can visit one of the sparkling wine cellars which are open for guided tours. France's Cadre Noir national cavalry school is in Saumur so you may see some of the magnificent horses in training. The area also has many troglodyte properties built into the white tufa stone making ideal living conditions - warm in winter, cool in summer, and perfect for wine storage and mushroom growing.

En route to your overnight stop at Libourne you may like to visit Saintes (30k), a great cultural centre on the river Charente with a famous Roman amphitheatre which is well worth seeing. Or you can choose to take a shorter route (in distance) after Saintes avoiding motorways and perhaps visiting the brandy centre of Cognac on the way to Libourne.

LibourneDriving time to/from Doué le Fontaine approximately 3 hrs 10 Distance 181 miles / 292k

This fortified town on the Dordogne is the wine making capital of the northern Gironde region, Close by is the charming village of St Emilion which is a World Heritage site - its vineyards were planted as early as the 2nd century AD by the Romans and it is one of the 4 principal red wine areas of Bordeaux. There are numerous wine producers offering tours and tasting, many of these have tours in English and some (but not all) require you to book in advance so it's worth doing some research before you go. In addition, there are various tours of the vineyards which are always interesting.

Or if you prefer a city visit, another magnificent UNESCO listed site is Bordeaux, 40 minutes by train from Libourne if you prefer not to drive, with some awe inspiring architecture including the St André cathedral. many museums and art galleries. The busiest shopping area is Rue Ste Catherine, a pedestrian street built on a long Roman road. For parking information there are various websites including www.car-parking.eu

PauDriving time to/from Libourne approximately 2 hrs 25 Distance 151 miles / 243k

This historic university city had great importance in centuries gone by because of its strategic position not far from the Spanish border and the Pyrenees. A great place to visit, Pau is divided into 2 parts which are linked by a free funicular railway taking you from the lower to the upper town where the impressive castle and main part of the city is - on clear days there are fabulous mountain views as you walk along the Boulevard des Pyrénées. Saumur

Pau

Bordeaux

A 10 minute drive away to the south west of Pau is Jurançon, renowned for its sweet and dry white wines.On the way to/from La Guardia you may like to stop at some of the following places: St Jean de Luz is a picturesque fishing port with a beach and some typical Basque streets and squares. The upmarket seaside resort of Biarritz has excellent surfing beaches and hosts a number of international competitions. The promenade has elegant hotels and villas and you can follow a clifftop path for stunning coastal views.

Not far across the border into Spain, San Sebastián (or Donostia) is a stylish beautiful city built around a bay with fantastic beaches, fine architecture and an endless choice of places to enjoy some of the best cuisine in the world (over 15 Michelin starred

restaurants). The greatest views of the city can be seen from Monte Igueldo, reached in 3 minutes by funicular. Also amazing is the Parte Vieja, a network of streets filled to the brim with bars, restaurants, cafés and pintxo bars (the Basque equivalent of bite size, very delicious tapas) - there's a great atmosphere here by day or night. Vitoria-Gasteiz is a delightful city largely undiscovered by tourists in the heart of the Basque country. There are wide, tree-lined pedestrian areas, central plazas and some wonderful parks and gardens. A local speciality is txakoli, an effervescent wine which is great accompanied by some of the tempting pintxos which are excellent here.

LaguardiaDriving time to/from Pau approximately 3 hrs 25 Distance 201 miles / 323k

Laguardia, in the Basque region, has not changed much since the 13thC with its walls and 4 entrances remaining intact. This is a gateway for exploring the Rioja wine area and with the Villa Lucia bodega and museum here in the village it's an excellent starting point. In the Middle Ages residents dug deep into the rock below their homes to create places for storing

food and to take refuge during times of siege. This resulted in a maze of tunnels later found to be ideal for fermenting and storing wine. As well as wine tasting you might like to try one of the many spa treatments popular here based on wine and olive oil.

10 minutes away in the village of Elciego is the Marques de Riscal hotel and winery, housed in a striking modern building designed by Frank

Lannion

Gehry who was also the architect for the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. Tours and tasting are available.

Half an hour to the west of Laguardia is Haro, a picturesque little town renowned for its fine red wine and also for its annual festival held at the end of June when a 'battle' takes place and lots of wine is consumed as well as thrown around!

La VidDriving time to/from Laguardia approximately 2 hrs 15 Distance 132 miles / 212k

En route to/from Laguardia you may like to stop at the city of Burgos. There is some stunning architecture including an amazing 13th century Gothic cathedral and the Arco de Santa Maria gateway. The tiny village of La Vid is in the Ribera del Duero region which enjoys a worldwide reputation for its high quality wines, in particular rich purple Tempranillos from the most famous of Spain's native grapes. Your overnight stay at the charming boutique hotel El Lagar de Isilla may well be one of the highlights of your tour. It is part of a well known bodega where you can expect a friendly welcome and take a guided tour in English with tastings. You can of course also buy some wine to take home if you choose. Next door to your hotel is the very beautiful monastery of Santa Maria which is open to visitors for guided tours.

Just to the east of La Vid is one of Spain's undiscovered gems, El Burgo de Osma. This small ancient city has a fantastic cathedral and medieval walls, floodlit at night and there are the remains of a Roman bridge over the river Ucero. This is all overlooked by a castle on a hilltop on the outskirts of town. Also on the wine route near La Vid (on the way to Lerma) is Aranda de Duero which has many wineries open to visitors and a network of cellars under the town centre which were built between the 12th and 17th centuries.

Laguardia

San Sebastian

Marques de Riscal, Elciego

El Lagar de Isilla, La Vid

El Lagar de Isilla winery