Hi Isabel,
My partner and I roughly followed the Voie des Plantagenets on our tandem bike camino from home (in Hampshire, UK) to Santiago this June/July. We passed through Angers too!
There is a walkers' guide to this trail, published by Lightfoot Guides, which I found useful when planning a route, but not particularly so on the road. While ours is a hybrid style tandem (or VTC en francais), we spent more than 50% of time on roads which ran roughly parallel to the walkers' path, since the surface of the paths varied from tarmac to grit, to gravel, to grass, mud, loose rocks etc. The Plantagenets Way goes as far as St Jean d'Angely. We then went via Royan and the ferry to the Voie Littoral (down the Medoc/Landais coast) to Bayonne, then traced the river valley up to St Jean Pied de Port. That was the first time we encountered significant numbers of pilgrims (bike or foot).
Once over the Pyrennees (upon which I could write a whole book!), our route varied between the trail and roads, with help from the English Confraternity of St James (which has two separate written guides to
Camino Frances for mountain bikes and road bikes respectively). The trail is slower, has varied surfaces and requires care and respect to avoid unnecessary conflict with walkers. But it is often beautiful and saves some sections which would otherwise be on rather busy roads. Where the roads ran close to the trail and/or were quiet, we preferred to use those. On the Frances, we met plenty of walking pilgrims at our frequent food stops and in our overnight accomodation (a mixture of albergues and small pensions/cheap hotels). We also gradually acquired a pilgrim 'family' of our own, of fellow cycle pilgrims who we met frequently and gradually got to know and shared tips and the occasional glass of wine/beer!
It was a tremendous experience. Culture, scenery, adventure and above all a tremendous sense of purpose, shared with the world and his dog en route to Santiago. I went from regarding it as a cycling adventure to being absorbed into the hugely positive camaraderie and (despite some initial cynicism on my part) spirituality of the camino and our fellow travellers.
I say
do it for 100 reasons! But respect it, it's a long ride! Make sure your bike is in good condition and that you know how to fix a puncture and, just like the walkers, travel as light as you dare. You can buy most things you might regret leaving behind along or near the Camino.
Good luck and buen camino!
Graham