Well, it started out to be a great trip.

The month of June 97 was known as the wettest June on record in France. For those tennis fans out there, you may remember that Wimbleton was mostly rained out that year. This is our story of two weeks on two bikes in a country that was just too wet.

I found myself with a huge airline credit in the Fall of 96. After some checking around, I found that Susan and I could fly to England with our bikes for only a couple of dollars more. And so, our cycle planning started, as we dreamed of touring down the Loire River Valley sampling all that France had to offer. We chose June, as the days are quite long and there is less traffic at that time of year.

I've done a fair amount of cycling and cycle touring, so I know how to box a bike up for travel. Susan arranged to have hers boxed at the place she originally purchased it in the interest of time and since it was there getting checked over anyway. We headed to the trains station in Ottawa to catch a bus to the Airport in Montreal. A couple of hours later, we were headed out on our way to London, via Amsterdam. The stop over in Amsterdam proved quite useful, as I was able to purchase a new camera there for far cheaper than I had seen in Canada. We arrived at Heathrow and were met by some good friends there who picked us up and took us back to their place in Maidenhead for a little jet lag nap.

We unboxed the bikes and discovered that Susan's bike didn't make it over quite as well as planned. The bike had a few new scratches in it and the odometer wires were broken. Well, certainly not a show stopper, but it did raise a few questions about the person who boxed it up. My bike arrived completely intact. After unpacking from the duffel bags and repacking into panniers we were ready to head south the following day to catch the ferry from Seaford to Dieppe

We got off to a late start the following day and missed the fairy from Seaford/Brighton, and we ended up at the ferry dock at Dover instead.  Just as we were about to board the ferry, it poured rain and the temperature dropped about 5 degrees C. On board the ferry, things were looking up as we left cold wet England and headed off to sunny warm France. When we landed in Calais, France was everything we expected, it was warmer and sunny and our months of planning were about to pay off. We cycled that evening down the coast to Boulogne and got our first campsite. Now, if you have never camped in France, there are a few things that you should know. Campsites are typically just fields with very few trees. The spot that you get is usually very small and there are no picnic tables at the site. And the toilets, well, that was an experience.

As you are not allowed to fly with camp stove fuel, en route to the campsite, I tried to buy Coleman fuel (naphtha gas) for my stove. This is apparently something that is not readily available outside of North America. No problem, as I had a nozzle for Kerosene with me. Well, Kerosene is equally hard to get hold of. With our broken French, we were able to get some type of fuel which resembled Kerosene, but I don't think it really was. In France, the camp fuel of choice is GAZ and it is available just about anywhere. Next time we'll know.

The next morning, we headed off....    I'm still working on this one.. . Check back later .

George Farnsworth has an excellent bike site for travelling with bikes.

Our Itinerary

June 15th   Maidenhead to Dover to Boulogne            42.9km
June 16th   Boulogne to ? then train to Paris              42.3 km.
June 17th   Paris to Versailles by trai n                       11.0 km
June 18th   Versailles to Chatres                             104.2 km
June 19th   Chatres to Meung sur Loire                   108.3 km
June 20th   Meung sur Loire to Cande                       70.5 km
June 21st   Cande to Veigne                                      81.7 km
June 22nd  Veigne to Chinon                                     67.1 km.
June 23rd  Chinon to Samur to Tours                         45.1 km.
June 24th   Tours to Rouen to Mount st. Michel        73.8 km.
June 25th   Around Mount St. Michel                           0.0km
June 26th   Mount St. Michel to Portsmouth England  59.7km
June 27th   Portsmouth to Maidenhead                         4.1 km
June 28th   Around Maidenhead                                    0.0km
June 29th   Maidenhead to Heathrow to Amsterdam to Montreal to Ottawa. Wahooo... home