Marais de Grande Brière Mottière and Marais Salants and Atlantic coast 142 km

This cycle tour for the road bike takes you through and around the Marais de Grande Brière, through salt marshes, and along the Atlantic coast. It is quite long, but largely flat and easy to ride, on minor roads, cycling paths (with an occasional very short stretch of semi-paved cycling path) and occasionally larger roads. The route includes a ferry ride between Pen Bron and Croisic. See waypoint for ferry times (note: only in summer) and prices. Plenty of places to eat and drink something, primarily on the coast, and a bit less so inland. The Marais de Grande Brière is a national park with marshland, canals, islands in the marshes, birdwatching, thatched houses with roofs made of reed. You get the best impression of the marshland in the last 36 km of the tour. In the salt marshes you can see a lot of birds, but also actual salt production in a traditional way. At the start is a parking.
From the start at the parking in La Chapelle-Des-Marais you ride to Saint-Lyphard, initially on a larger road passing Les Fossés Blancs, part of the marshland, and later on minor roads. From Saint-Lyphard you go east to Pompas, passing the Marais du Pont. Through slightly undulating terrain you ride on to the Maris Salants du Més, an area with salt pans. You follow a signposted cycling route on mainly minor roads to Mesquer and Kerbacellec. Here you find oyster farming, mudflats and salt marshes. You ride on to the Pointe de Merquel on the edge of the Étier de la Barre bay for a look, and then turn back and follow the cycling route along the coast to Kerdrien. You keep following the coastal route to Piriac-sur-Mer, and then on to La Turballe. Here you ride inland to first cross the Marais Salants de Guérande towards the Pen Bron peninsula. You ride on to the end of the peninsula where a ferry takes you across the Étier du Milaret to le Croisic. You ride around the peninsula following the rocky coast line all the time until you get to the N171 taking you off the peninsula to Batz-sur-Mer past Le Moulin de la Falaise. From Batz you follow another route through the Marais Salants de Guérande, including a dead-end stretch to the hamlet of Sissable. In this area, a lot of people were working the salt pans in a traditional way. You cross the salt marshes to the Guérande side, and then turn back across the salt marshes on a busy road to Trégaté. You pass water tower with painting of the salt marshes and continue to the coast. You follow the rocky and more touristic coast to Le Pouliguen, at the edge of La Baule. Here you leave the coast along the Étier de Pouliguen, and then take a cycling path towards the east of Guérande. Here you reach the highest point of the route at 55 meters. Then you follow mainly minor roads on the south side of the Grande Brière national park through quiet countryside and sometimes with views of the marshes all the way to Loncé. Here you take another cycling path to Saint-Malo-de-Guersac. At the end of the cycling path you follow roads on the edge of the marsh area, across ‘islands’ in the marsh with little villages on them. From Île D'Aignac you go to Île de Fédrun, then D'Aignac, and Île de Pendille. Here you make a roundtrip to Île de Mazin and back and then follow the D50 road back to your starting point in La Chapelle-Des-Marais, with a short excursion to Camerun and Camer, also islands in the marsh. The D50 offers you good views of the marshes.