London to Barcelona recommendations.

Planning on riding London to Barcelona leaving in a few weeks. Anybody ridden all or part of a route down there? Any recommendations as to which route is best/worst, places to stay/camp etc?

Thanks

Did this a few years ago, got the ferry to dieppe. Went down through Le Mans, Tours, Poiters, Limoges, Mountauban, Perpignan then down the coast. Would reccomend going over the Pyrenees rather than round if you have time, roads in that southern corner and down the coast were quite busy. Campsites through France are easy and plentiful, the cheapest being the municipal ones, we played it by ear with no issues.

A map of the main cycling routes :
http://www.af3v.org/CarteAF3V/carte-detaillee.html

I would cross the Pyrénées using the Aude valley,
if you want to cross closer to the sea here's a permanent route:
http://www.departements-regions-cyclables.org/index.php?p=65&ref=56
never got close to Barcelona by bike,
I suspect I'd take the train for the last few km.

I've ridden down to the south west of France a couple of times and live there now. The network of minor roads is really good and a direct route is pretty easy to plan. I've managed navigation with no more than a list of town and village names.

'N' roads are national trunk routes and equivalent to major 'A' roads in the UK and best steering clear of (most have been upgraded to the point where cycling is not permitted anyway).

'D' roads are regional and can vary from single track to dual carriageway. Using Google maps, it is worth avoiding spending too much time on any 'D' road shown in yellow as eventually someone is going to be blasting along it at 140 kph and they may or may not move out as they pass. The rest are in general pretty pleasant to use as direct routes from town to town but they can be busy by the coast or during rush hour (which generally lasts twenty minutes). The drivers treat cyclists very well and are more likely to terrify oncoming traffic rather than pass close.

The remaining 'C' roads often provide the best cycling. The two problems are that they may not be particularly direct and they may not be much more than gravel paths, however if you navigate from village to village the signs will point you down the best roads. If you are planning a route, using the most direct road shown on a map between any two villages will be pretty reliable. You can cover some big distances very efficiently and at a good speed on these minor roads. Beware 'priorité à droite' on these roads.

As the years have gone by it has become more difficult to get in and out of the larger towns by bike - more and more roads have been upgraded which are now either unpleasant to ride on or where cycling is prohibited. The alternative cycle routes can be as shoddy as anything in the UK with poor continuity and signage. Maintenance has been a problem in the last few years and a couple of the cycle routes around here are now impassable. If you need to get into a large town it will be worth doing some homework to make sure you have some accurate turn by turn directions that tally with whatever infrastructure is on the ground and avoids the main roads and by-passes.

In general it's worth staying twenty or thirty kilometres in from the coast to avoid heavier traffic and being quite so exposed to the weather. Accommodation is likely to be cheaper as well. If it's hot then I'd recommend travelling through the Marais Poitevin.

Thanks so much @benborp. I leave tomorrow and looking forward to the ride. Mapping it out has been great and seems the route down there should be beautiful and fairly straight-forward.