Originally Posted by
jefnvk
Can't say to the Atlantic coast, but we started in Never after taking the regional train from Paris last summer, and it was roll-on roll-off for the bikes. The train cars had the hooks that stood the bikes upright. We stopped in Nantes, due to the logistics of crossing the bridge and in general spending another day and a half to get to the ocean and back to continue on with the next part of our trip. Do know if you take the buses across with a bike, reservations are required. There is also an on-demand taxi service, although I cannot recall the name right now.
The train the OP is talking about to St. Nazaire is a TGV. Your train to Nevers wasn't a TGV. If a TGV accommodates bikes, you must make a paid reservation. Many TGVs do not take full-size regular bikes at all. Many
TER regional trains in France have free roll-on roll-off service.
Intercités trains sometimes do, sometimes don't. And sometimes it's free, and sometimes you have to pay. (Actually, I'm not sure how loading a bike works on an
Intercité
s train which requires a payment. They used to always be free.) The SNCF has been changing the bike rules a lot in recent years, and it's gotten harder to take a bike on their trains, and payments are now sometimes required on trains which used to have free bike service.
The French regional page whose link I posted earlier in this thread explains that the bike & passenger shuttle (
navette in French) across Loire bridge at St. Nazaire will resume on June 18, 2019 and continue until Sept 9. Other language states the shuttle existed in 2017 but says nothing about 2018, so I presume the service didn't exist last year. The page also says the shuttle is free, you don't make reservations, and it can accommodate up to 8 passengers and their bikes but not tandems. There will be 9 crossings in each direction each day.* As I previously wrote, my friends & I biked across the bridge.* I don't recall any great fear on that crossing, but it was many years ago.* I do recall some other bridges I've biked across that I really hated.
Another thing: I've found that it is
not normal for restaurants in France to open for lunch before 12 noon, but it is normal for service to go beyond 1pm, certainly for people who are already eating.* Other than bakeries, small-town food shops are sadly disappearing in France and have been replaced by large supermarkets on the outskirts of towns that people typically drive to. Small food shops which still exist typically close at 12:30pm for a siesta. We usually did picnic lunches and always made sure we stopped at a
boulangerie prior to 12:30pm so we would have fresh bread.
*