Relax Bike Tours & Rentals The Canal Du Midi Bicycle Tour Experts

19/05/2024

24/04/2024

More and more clients want to use their phone while cycling. Yesterday I got a call from a client saying that the bike is not working. The gears are not shifting. This problem has been there from the very start of their trip, 3 hours earlier, they say. Why wait 3 hours to call? The gear is stuck on the biggest sprocket, so you are pedaling 60 rpm to move forward (i.e. pedaling a lot to move a little), for 3 hours. Of course, 3 hours after bike delivery I am 80 Km away already moving luggage for other clients. I tell them to proceed to the next village and I will be there in an hour or so. They say that they feel abandoned and are cold. So I ask for pictures of the rear derailleur to see if it got damaged by a stick or something. All looks good in the pictures, derailleur is straight and not damaged. The chain is on the biggest rear sprocket and will not descend. That means the cable is under maximum pressure, and thus the problem is not a cut cable. If the cable was cut, there would be no pressure on the cable and the chain would automatically descend to the smallest sprocket. In 13 years of working on this same model bike I have never heard of this problem before. So I go back to the clients 80 km one way by car. I find them and the bikes at a restaurant. After checking the bike in question it immediately becomes clear that the phone holder is blocking the gear shift leaver! I moved the phone holder to another position and voila, problem solved. 5 seconds of work, 2 x 80 km on the road for that. And after that they say, "was this on your way?" No, it was 160 Km out of my way.

29/03/2024

Our first bike tour of the year started earlier this week. There is still snow on the Pyrenees, which can be seen easily from Beziers or even from the beach between Sete and Agde (see picture below).

Note photographe Michel Desnos a "shooté" la station du Cap d’Agde par temps clair, depuis la plage de Sète. Un cliché qui offre une perspective magnifique.

06/01/2024

Every first weekend of the month train tickets are 1 euro per person in 2024.

L’opération des trains TER à un euro reprend du service en Occitanie ce week-end du 6 et 7 janvier 2024. Comme chaque premier week-end du mois, les voyageurs peuvent profiter de billets à tout petit prix. Lancée en 2022 par la Région et la SNCF, cette offre rencontre un franc succès.

22/06/2023

A new bike path from Agde to Bessan just opened up. In the future it will go all the way to Pezenas.

Après quelques semaines de travaux à peine, il est désormais possible de rejoindre Bessan depuis Agde et le château Laurens. Une première liaison, en attendant de pouvoir arriver à Pézenas, à l'horizon 2025.

15/06/2023

https://www.midilibre.fr/2023/06/14/tgv-des-billets-renfe-a-9eur-en-france-et-19-eur-pour-aller-a-madrid-et-barcelone-au-depart-de-la-region-11262463.php

The deregulation of the railways is opening up the tracks to "foreign" train companies. SNCF will no longer have a monopoly, which is good news. Soon it will be only 19 euros to go from Beziers to Barcelona or Madrid, with RENFE, the Spanish company.

Beziers is the only city on the Canal Du Midi served by this new connection. Not Carcassonne, and not Toulouse, just Beziers.

Renfe will serve ten stations in France, including five in Languedoc-Roussillon: Perpignan, Narbonne, Béziers, Montpellier and Nîmes. Between these ten stations (Marseille, Lyon, Avignon, Aix-en-Province are four others, we can imagine that the tenth is Valence), the one-way ticket will be charged 9 euros.

The deregulation of the railways is a European mandate by the way.

La compagnie espagnole fait monter la pression avant son arrivée en France, avec ses AVE. En attendant la date de son premier train, encore secrète mais qui interviendrait en juillet, elle dévoile une grille tarifaire...

01/06/2023

The Canal Du Midi has been undergoing some big changes the past year, making it better for cyclists. The towpaths are made wider and smoother for example. They just finished a section close to Puicheric last month. And, lo and behold, there are now actual signs along the bike path! These signs have been put in place last month, and I am not sure if they are all along the Canal Du Midi towpath just yet. But here are some pictures, including some pictures of the bikepath improvements a few days before its completion in Puicheric.

27/03/2023

Some AI (artificial intelligence) images created today showing the Canal Du Midi and a bicycle.

18/03/2023

The low cost OUIGO train is coming to Beziers starting this month. Tickets for Paris-Beziers are, supposedly, going to be only 19 euros. Tickets can only be bought online, not in person. I think the article also says that you can buy tickets using the machines at the train station.

À partir du lundi 27 mars, le train low cost de la SNCF desservira cinq nouvelles destinations : Sète, Agde, Béziers, Narbonne et Perpignan, dans le cadre d'une liaison Paris-Perpignan. Les réservations sont d’ores et...

22/02/2023

https://actu.fr/economie/occitanie-ce-site-touristique-mondialement-connu-va-se-refaire-une-beaute_57291908.html

A few more millions of euros will be invested on the Canal Du Midi the coming years.

C'est parti pour de longues années de chantiers aux abords du Canal du Midi. D'ici fin 2027, le site va être entièrement être modernisé et valorisé. Ce qu'il faut en retenir.

15/02/2023

The new ebikes are coming in this month. Switching brands, from Winora to Giant. We are selling all our Winora E-bikes this month, so if you want one let me know. We are selling the Winora ebikes because working with 5 different models, in 3 different colors, with 2 different batteries and 2 different chargers is not convenient for me.

20/01/2023

The bike path along the Canal Du Midi has been almost completely redone. Some parts are even paved now.

28/08/2022

A gift from our clients that enjoyed our bike tour. Merci!

14/05/2022

Our website seems to be down. The problem is on the server side of my webhost, and they are working on it.

30/04/2022

We got some presents today from a group of 4 Scottish cyclists! Thanks!

18/04/2022

La piste cyclable est en cours d'aménagement le long du Canal du Midi. Un peu est fait à la fois, et les travaux s'arrêteront pendant l'été bien sûr. Voici des photos de travaux en cours au sud d'Argeliers. Les vélos empruntent actuellement la route à côté du canal, qui est une route très calme (je m'y arrête souvent pour manger mon déjeuner car c'est tellement calme).
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The bike path is being upgraded along the Canal Du Midi. A little bit is done at a time, and the work will stop during the summer of course. Here pictures of work going on south of Argeliers. The bikes currently use the road next to the canal, which is a very quiet road ( I often stop there to eat my lunch because it is so quiet).

17/03/2022

Nouveauté 2022 : Le Canal Du Midi à vélo en boucle. De Béziers à Narbonne au Somail et retour à Béziers, ou dans l'autre sens.

New for 2022: The Canal Du Midi circle bike tour. Going from Beziers to Narbonne to Le Somail and back to Beziers, or the other direction.

14/03/2022

La piste cyclable le long du Canal Du Midi est actuellement en cours de refonte. Cette photo est prise près du tunnel de Malpas. L'ensemble de la piste cyclable longeant tout le canal devrait être terminé d'ici 1 an environ. Les travaux s'arrêteront pendant l'été bien sûr.
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The bikepath along the Canal Du Midi is currently being redone. This photo is taken close to the Malpas Tunnel. The entire bike path along the entire canal should be finished in about 1 year. Work will stop during the summer of course.

30/11/2021

Nous sommes fiers d'annoncer que nous avons remporté une nouvelle récompense cette année. Nous sommes officiellement les gagnants de l'expérience de vélo de l'année. C'est la deuxième année que nous remportons ce prix !

We are proud to announce that we have won a new award this year. We are officially the Bicycle Tour Experience of The Year winners. This is our second year winning this price!

03/11/2021

https://www.lindependant.fr/2021/11/02/le-somail-le-cyclotourisme-une-tendance-en-plein-essor-au-bord-du-canal-9905204.php

Le Département en votant 7 millions d’euros pour aménager et sécuriser la voie verte (Argens-Argeliers).

English: 7 million euros are going to be spend on the part of the bike path along the canal between Argens and Argeliers.

You can read the article by right clicking on the page, and selecting "view page source" and then scroll down to find the text body.

Le vélo est désormais roi sur les berges. On estime à 19 000 passages la partie canal du Midi – canal de la Robine. Le circuit, "Canal des 2 mers", reliant Royan à Sète ou à Port-La Nouvelle connaît une forte...

10/10/2021

https://youtu.be/qTR44x3Xjao

28/09/2021

One of our clients from Ireland sent us fresh fish in the mail! It arrived today, frozen. We will be eating fish for the next few weeks. Thanks for the present and we are glad you had a good time cycling the Canal Du Midi with us this year.

10/07/2021

A big boat today in Sete, the end point of our Canal Du Midi bike tour. The boat belongs to Nancy Walton, from Walmart in USA. She will be back in September again with the boat.

https://www.ouest-france.fr/region-occitanie/sete-34200/sete-un-yacht-de-110-m-accoste-dans-le-port-le-plus-gros-bateau-jamais-vu-dans-la-marina-7339322

04/07/2021

Photos de nos clients qui ont fait le Canal Du Midi à vélo le mois dernier. De Carcassonne à Sète. Merci pour les belles images !

14/06/2021

The Canal Du Midi towpaths will be smoother soon.
https://www.midilibre.fr/2021/06/13/beziers-dici-2023-le-canal-du-midi-soffrira-entierement-aux-cyclistes-9603199.php

Le Département de l’Hérault réalise en ce mois de juin des travaux pour améliorer l’état des voies le long du canal du Midi. Une première phase pour relier, à terme, Toulouse à Béziers et Marseillan.