My wife Janet, and I (Robin) headed of o Europe for a cyclecamping tour this spring. I did post a few snippets as we went along, but I will try to post the whole story in this thread over next few days/weeks.
As an intro, we are 57 and 50 years old, and only really got into long distance cycle touring last year when I was made redundant, allowing us more time. I will introduce more info about us, and our kit as we go along.
2017 European Tour
Thursday 27th April – Day 0
Time for the off. Bicycles fettled, kit sorted and packed. No training done at all – we were away in the alps for the ski season, so have not been on our bikes since last October! Plan is to take camping gear, head down through France to the Med, then decide where to go from there.
In the afternoon we loaded everything including the bikes onto our little green Fiat Qubo, picked up our daughter who was to drive the car back, and have use of it while we were away. Down to Newhaven for the 11pm ferry to Dieppe. Ferry left on time, but with just reclining seats we did not get much sleep.
Friday 28th April – Day 1
Dieppe to Forges les Faux
Ferry arrived at 4am, and my first miscalculation - I had thought leave the port by 5am, and it will soon be light, however in that calculation I had forgotten about changing the clocks – on the French side it gets light an hour later!
So, at 4.30am we disembarked into a very dark, cold, and damp Dieppe. We were to follow the “Avenue Verte” to start with, but having lost it in town we rejoined a few miles inland. As we rarely cycle a night we have only basic “be seen” lights, so we used our headtorches to see by, and were reassurred by our belisha beacon like visibility with all the reflectives on the panniers, tyres etc. We cycled the first 20km along the cycle track in the dark, and rain before stopping at Neufchatel en Bray for a cuppa (tea for Janet and coffee for me), and a croissant from a boulangerie. Leaving the town we then encountered our first mechanical problem – Janet's Hollowtech bottom bracket started coming apart! Tightening it by hand would last about 3 or 4 kilometres each time, but we didn't have the tools to fix it. Luckily we came acros a bike hire shop, who tightened it up for us for no charge.
The weather brightens a bit, so we stopped at round about lunchtime at Camping la Miniere at Forges les Faux. A doze for a coupleof hours, then a visit to a supermarket for food and we are set for the night. 62Km fully loaded is plenty for a first day with no training.
Saturday 29th April – Day 2
Forges to Bresles
After a cooked breakfast we packed away, a bit slow as we were out of practice, and were on the road at about 10am. The Avenue Verte followe hilly back lanes to Gournay en Bray, then a nice cycletrack to Beauvais, where we lost the route and ended up on a dual carriageway. After navigating by map for a while we rejoined the route and followed the Avenue Verte again to Bresles to camp at Camping La Trye at Bresles. A reasonably sunny day, but a headwind all the way. 81km today (total 143km), further then Janet would have liked, but we did an extra 7 or 8 around Beauvais, and the campsites are not closely spaced around here.
Sunday 30th April – Day 3
Bresles to Pierrefonds
We started out on the Avenue Verte, but today we needed to leave it to head east (to the north of Paris). Very open an exposed cycling across huge arable fields, strong headwinds made it hard work. We had our picnic lunch sheltering by a sports field, then found our own route across the Oise valley and into the Foret Domainale de Compeigne and on through the shelter of the Forest to St Jean aux Bois, where we found a bar to stop for a very welcome beer! From there it was just a short ride to Camping Municipal de Batigny at Pierrefonds, but the killer hill was most unwelcome at the end of the day. 62Km today (total 204km).
The hedgehog is our mascot, you'll see much more of Seabreeze, the adventuring hedgehog!
Monday 1st May – Day 4
Pierrefonds to Soissons
After our usual cooked breakfast we headed off along hilly country lanes through empty countryside. It was a bank holiday, so everything was closed. After a few hard days we wanted a bit of a rest so headed to the Municipal Camping at Soissons. As it was only 40km (total 244km) we were there before the site reception opened so ventured into Soissons for some sightseeing. It was almost completely closed, and seemed a dismal sort of place, so we found the only bar open and had a couple of beers before heading back to the rather dated and cheerless campsite. Weather remaining dry, but cold and windy.
Tuesday 2nd May – Day 5
Soissons to Guignicourt
Another day of making our way along country lanes through deserted countryside. This part of France seems very sparsely populated with few facilities, food shops are very few and far between, we even struggled to find boulangeries for our elevenses pastries here! At least it was sunny weather, and we reached the Camping Municipal at Guignicourt after 60km (total 303km).
Our camping setup - new Berghaus Peak 3.3 Pro tent, Chinese ebay chairs, Nemo air mattresses, Vango Venom 200 down sleeping bags with lightweight microfiber liners, two gas stoves and full cooking stuff.
More to follow....
As an intro, we are 57 and 50 years old, and only really got into long distance cycle touring last year when I was made redundant, allowing us more time. I will introduce more info about us, and our kit as we go along.
2017 European Tour
Thursday 27th April – Day 0
Time for the off. Bicycles fettled, kit sorted and packed. No training done at all – we were away in the alps for the ski season, so have not been on our bikes since last October! Plan is to take camping gear, head down through France to the Med, then decide where to go from there.
In the afternoon we loaded everything including the bikes onto our little green Fiat Qubo, picked up our daughter who was to drive the car back, and have use of it while we were away. Down to Newhaven for the 11pm ferry to Dieppe. Ferry left on time, but with just reclining seats we did not get much sleep.
Friday 28th April – Day 1
Dieppe to Forges les Faux
Ferry arrived at 4am, and my first miscalculation - I had thought leave the port by 5am, and it will soon be light, however in that calculation I had forgotten about changing the clocks – on the French side it gets light an hour later!
So, at 4.30am we disembarked into a very dark, cold, and damp Dieppe. We were to follow the “Avenue Verte” to start with, but having lost it in town we rejoined a few miles inland. As we rarely cycle a night we have only basic “be seen” lights, so we used our headtorches to see by, and were reassurred by our belisha beacon like visibility with all the reflectives on the panniers, tyres etc. We cycled the first 20km along the cycle track in the dark, and rain before stopping at Neufchatel en Bray for a cuppa (tea for Janet and coffee for me), and a croissant from a boulangerie. Leaving the town we then encountered our first mechanical problem – Janet's Hollowtech bottom bracket started coming apart! Tightening it by hand would last about 3 or 4 kilometres each time, but we didn't have the tools to fix it. Luckily we came acros a bike hire shop, who tightened it up for us for no charge.
The weather brightens a bit, so we stopped at round about lunchtime at Camping la Miniere at Forges les Faux. A doze for a coupleof hours, then a visit to a supermarket for food and we are set for the night. 62Km fully loaded is plenty for a first day with no training.
Saturday 29th April – Day 2
Forges to Bresles
After a cooked breakfast we packed away, a bit slow as we were out of practice, and were on the road at about 10am. The Avenue Verte followe hilly back lanes to Gournay en Bray, then a nice cycletrack to Beauvais, where we lost the route and ended up on a dual carriageway. After navigating by map for a while we rejoined the route and followed the Avenue Verte again to Bresles to camp at Camping La Trye at Bresles. A reasonably sunny day, but a headwind all the way. 81km today (total 143km), further then Janet would have liked, but we did an extra 7 or 8 around Beauvais, and the campsites are not closely spaced around here.
Sunday 30th April – Day 3
Bresles to Pierrefonds
We started out on the Avenue Verte, but today we needed to leave it to head east (to the north of Paris). Very open an exposed cycling across huge arable fields, strong headwinds made it hard work. We had our picnic lunch sheltering by a sports field, then found our own route across the Oise valley and into the Foret Domainale de Compeigne and on through the shelter of the Forest to St Jean aux Bois, where we found a bar to stop for a very welcome beer! From there it was just a short ride to Camping Municipal de Batigny at Pierrefonds, but the killer hill was most unwelcome at the end of the day. 62Km today (total 204km).
The hedgehog is our mascot, you'll see much more of Seabreeze, the adventuring hedgehog!
Monday 1st May – Day 4
Pierrefonds to Soissons
After our usual cooked breakfast we headed off along hilly country lanes through empty countryside. It was a bank holiday, so everything was closed. After a few hard days we wanted a bit of a rest so headed to the Municipal Camping at Soissons. As it was only 40km (total 244km) we were there before the site reception opened so ventured into Soissons for some sightseeing. It was almost completely closed, and seemed a dismal sort of place, so we found the only bar open and had a couple of beers before heading back to the rather dated and cheerless campsite. Weather remaining dry, but cold and windy.
Tuesday 2nd May – Day 5
Soissons to Guignicourt
Another day of making our way along country lanes through deserted countryside. This part of France seems very sparsely populated with few facilities, food shops are very few and far between, we even struggled to find boulangeries for our elevenses pastries here! At least it was sunny weather, and we reached the Camping Municipal at Guignicourt after 60km (total 303km).
Our camping setup - new Berghaus Peak 3.3 Pro tent, Chinese ebay chairs, Nemo air mattresses, Vango Venom 200 down sleeping bags with lightweight microfiber liners, two gas stoves and full cooking stuff.
More to follow....