Cycling along the River Rhone

From the Rhone Glacier in Switzerland to the French Mediterranean Sea, this ride covers 850km (528 miles). The majority is on dedicated bike paths or secondary roads. Except for mountainous sections at the beginning, which can be easily avoided by using the train, or starting the ride further down the valley, the route is reasonably flat.

The route follows the Rhone Valley from the source of the river at Andermatt, Swizterland, down to Lake Geneva (Lac Leman), then out into France, to Lyon and then directly south to the Rhone delta in the wild Camargue.

The best map of the entire route through both Switzerland and France is Le Rhone a velo (ISBN 2970046504 only available in French). Cycling in Switzerland sell excellent guides to the nine Swiss national cycling routes (in French and German). National Route 1 follows the Swiss section of the River Rhone and is very well sign posted. A good map or GPS is essential for the French section of this ride.

There are plenty of tour operators who can provide guidance and support to those riders who prefer not to go it alone (see the ads on the right hand side for a few ideas). To make life easier for the independent ones, a detailed description of the route from Geneva to Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhone (on the French Meditteranean coast) is provided on this website. It is broken into sections according to how we completed it in Spring/Summer 2006:

Geneva, Switzerland to Culoz,France - 67 km
Culoz to La Balmes les Grottes / Travers – 85 km
Travers to Lyon – 53 km
Lyon to Tain-l'Hermitage - 92.5 km
Tain-l'Hermitage to Viviers - 79.5 km
Viviers to Roquemaure - 67 km
Roquemare to Arles - 60km
Arles to Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhone (42 kms)

An overview of the Swiss leg, which we completed during summer of 2005, is provided too:

Brig to Sion (75 kms)
Sion to Aigle (65 kms)
Aigle to Lausanne (60 kms)
Geneva to Lausanne (60 kms)