Par Antoine Sauvetre
Published on August 4, 23 at 9:21 pm See my news Follow L’Orne Hebdo Patrice Brodin and Alain Lecler will travel 650 km by bike to import some ideas for useful arrangements for cyclists passing through the Damigny railway station. ©DR
Link the useful to the pleasant. This is how, since last summer, Alain Lecler has designed part of his holidays.
At 74, the dean of the municipal council of Damigny, near Alençon (Orne), is not afraid to swallow the kilometers on a bicycle. This year, with his traveling companion, Patrice Brodin, he will join his town in La Rochelle.
650 km to cover in nine days with one principle: only use greenways!
The green route by bike to pick up good ideas
On Tuesday August 1, 2023, the two cyclists set off from the old Damigny railway stop by taking the Véloscénie, towards Domfront en Poiraie.
From there, they will branch off on the Vélo Francette, which connects Ouistreham to La Rochelle via Laval, Angers, Saumur and Niort…
On the journey, it’s not just the calves that will work. Because the councilor for town planning and buildings will have an eye on everything around him.
Landscapes, of course. But not only.
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The purpose of this trip is above all to pick up some good ideas that you might come across along the way.
Alain Lecler
10,000 tourists per year in Damigny
Because the municipality of Damigny, crossed by the greenway, has every intention of taking advantage of this tourist avenue financed by the Department.
“According to a count carried out by the Orne Departmental Council, 29,000 bicycle crossings were recorded in 2022 in Lonrai. »
Taking into account the counts carried out a little further on, we can estimate the number of non-local cycle tourists at around 10,000 who have passed through Damigny.
“We can’t miss it”
Over the first six months of 2023, nearly 12,500 bicycles were counted between Damigny and Lonrai, including “probably a third of cyclists”. They are the ones that the municipality would like to “capture”.
Such an opportunity, “we cannot miss it”. And there are not a multitude of solutions to bait them.
Already 800 km by bike last year
Alain Lecler and Patrice Brodin know something about it.
Last year, they already put their legs to work, covering the 800 km which separate Damigny from Mont-Saint-Michel.
As users, we stop where there are useful services! But especially where these services are correctly indicated.
Electricity terminal, water point, picnic area, shelter, bicycle repair area or grassy corner to “pitch the tent for the night”… There are many ideas, and the best ones already exist… elsewhere!
I have already seen that Brittany and the Pays de la Loire were much more advanced than us on this point.
“Cyclists pass by us. Let them stop now. »
Another observation: wherever the cyclist stops, he consumes.
The principle of cycle tourism is to travel light. If we stop to fill a bottle of water or to go to the bathroom, there is a good chance that we will take the opportunity to buy a snack or drink a coffee.
“But we know that cyclists pass by us. Let them stop now! he smiles.
The “country stopover” as a rallying point
The subject is not new to Damigny.
The municipality has acquired the old stopover, which it intends to renovate, and the adjoining land to make it a place of rest for walkers.
This is where the ideas picked up by Alain Lecler should grow. “The goal is to have something concrete for the 10th anniversary of Les Elles de l’Orne, in 2024.”
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