157Grenoble, Montélimar
163Avignon, Nîmes
171Marseille, Avignon
Various online maps are available to download, at a scale of your choice. A strip map of the Swiss stages can be downloaded from www.veloland.ch, while the French stages can be found at www.viarhona.com. Particularly useful is Open Street Map www.openstreetmap.org, which has a cycle route option showing the route in its entirety. This cannot be downloaded directly from OSM but it can through the Viewranger App (for iPhone or Android) without charge.
Guidebooks
Switzerland Mobility and Werd Verlag publish a guide with maps to the Swiss part of the route, available in French or German (not English). La Suisse a Vélo/Veloland Schweiz, volume 1 Route du Rhône/Rhone Route, ISBN 9783859325647. A guide in French to the ViaRhôna by Claude Bandiera is published by Biclou, ISBN 9782351490006.
Most of these maps and guidebooks are available from leading bookshops including Stanfords, London and The Map Shop, Upton upon Severn. Relevant maps are widely available en route.
Accommodation
Hotels, guest houses and bed & breakfast
For most of the route there is a wide variety of accommodation. The stage descriptions identify places known to have accommodation, but are by no means exhaustive. Hotels vary from expensive five-star properties to modest local establishments. Hotels usually offer a full meal service, guest houses do sometimes. Bed and breakfasts, chambres d’hôte in French, generally offer only breakfast. Tourist information offices, which are listed in Appendix D, will usually telephone on your behalf to check availability and make local reservations. After hours, some tourist offices display a sign outside showing local establishments with vacancies. Booking ahead is seldom necessary, except in high season, although it is advisable to start looking for accommodation no later than 4.00pm. Most properties are cycle friendly and will find you a secure overnight place for your pride and joy.
Prices for accommodation in France are similar to, or slightly cheaper than, prices in the UK. Switzerland is significantly more expensive.
Grand Hotel du Lac in Vevey (Stage 5) was the inspiration for a Booker prize winning novel
Youth hostels
There are only nine official youth hostels on or near the route (five Swiss and four French). These are listed in Appendix E. To use a youth hostel you need to be a member of an association affiliated to Hostelling International (YHA in England, SYHA in Scotland). If you are not a member you will be required to join the local association. Rules vary from country to country but generally all hostels accept guests of any age. Rooms vary from single sex dormitories to family rooms of two to six beds. Unlike British hostels, most European hostels do not have self-catering facilities but do provide good value hot meals. Hostels get very busy, particularly during school holidays, and booking is advised through www.hihostels.com. The cities of Lausanne, Geneva, Lyon and Avignon all have privately owned backpacker hostels.
Gîtes d’étape are hostels and rural refuges mainly for walkers. They are mostly found in mountain areas, although there are three near the ViaRhôna at Evian, Culoz and Pont-St Esprit. Details of French gîtes d’étape can be found at www.gites-refuges.com and in Appendix E. Do not confuse these with gîtes de France, which are rural properties rented as weekly holiday homes.
Camping
If you are prepared to carry camping equipment, this is the cheapest way of cycling the Rhone. The stage descriptions identify many official campsites but these are by no means exhaustive. Camping may be possible in other locations with the permission of local landowners.
Food and drink
Where to eat
There are thousands of places where cyclists can eat and drink, varying from snack bars, hot dog stands and local inns to Michelin starred restaurants. Locations of many places to eat are listed in stage descriptions, but these are by no means exhaustive. English language menus are often available in big cities and tourist areas, but are less common in smaller towns and rural locations. Bars seldom serve food, although some offer snacks such as sandwiches, quiche Lorraine or croque-monsieur (a toasted ham and cheese sandwich). Tipping is not expected in Switzerland. In France, since 2008, tips are by law included in restaurant bills and must be passed on to the staff.
When to eat
Breakfast (German Frühstück; French petit déjeuner) is usually continental: breads, jam and a hot drink with the optional addition particularly in Switzerland of cold meats, cheese and a boiled egg. Birchermüesli, made from rolled oats, nuts and dried fruit, is the forerunner of commercially produced muesli.
Traditionally lunch (German Mittagessen, French déjeuner) was the main meal of the day, although this is slowly changing. Service usually ends by 1.30pm and if you arrive later you are unlikely to be served. Historically, French restaurants offered only a number of fixed price two-, three- and four-course meals at a number of price points. These often represent very good value, particularly for lunch if you want a three-course meal. Almost all restaurants nowadays also offer an à la carte menu and one course from this menu is usually enough at lunchtime if you plan an afternoon in the saddle. The most common lunchtime snacks everywhere are sandwiches, salads, quiche and croque-monsieur.
For dinner (German Abendessen, French dîner) a wide variety of cuisine is available. Much of what is available is pan-European and will be easily recognisable. There are, however, national and regional dishes you may wish to try.
What to eat
Fondue made with Swiss cheese
As francophone Switzerland is mainly an agricultural area, regional dishes tend to make use of local produce, particularly vegetables and dairy products. Varieties of cheese include Emmental, Gruyère and Vacherin. The high Alpine valleys provide good conditions for drying hams and bacon. Rösti is finely grated potato, fried and often served with bacon and cheese while raclette is made from grilled slices of cheese drizzled over potatoes and gherkins. The most famous cheese dish is fondue, melted cheese flavoured with wine and used as a dipping sauce. Papet Vaudois is a dish of leeks and potatoes usually served with sausage. For meat, veal sourced from male calves produced by dairy cattle herds, is popular. Geschnetzeltes (veau a la mode Zurich in French) are thin slices of veal in cream and mushroom sauce. The most common fish are trout from mountain streams and zander (often referred to as pike-perch) found in Swiss lakes. As Swiss cooking uses a lot of salt, it is advisable to taste your food before adding any more. Switzerland is rightly famous for its chocolate and the headquarters of Nestlé, the inventors of milk chocolate bars, are passed in Vevey (Stage 5).
French Savoyard cuisine is similar to that of neighbouring regions in Switzerland and many of the same dishes can be found. A local speciality is tartiflette, a casserole of potatoes, bacon lardons and onions covered with melted Reblochon cheese.
ESCOFFIER TO NOUVELLE CUISINE
France is widely regarded as a place where the preparation and presentation of food is central to the country’s culture. Modern-day French cuisine was first codified by Georges Auguste Escoffier in Le Guide Culinaire (1903). Central to Escoffier’s method was the use of light sauces made from stocks and broths to enhance the flavour of the dish in place of heavy sauces that had previously been used to mask the taste of bad meat. French cooking was further refined in the 1960s with the arrival of nouvelle cuisine which sought to simplify techniques, lessen cooking time and preserve natural flavours by changing cooking methods. This was pioneered at