Getting to France

Verity and I could get off early to drive to Canterbury to stay with our old College friend Estelle but Tom and Helen only got there at 1am. We had the pleasure of a tour round the ancient city and attending Evensong with Justin. He must have had trouble walking because he needed a big crook to lean on.

The next day we had to cram our bikes and luggage into the back and the four us into the front. Cosy....

The it was a simple ride in the rain to the port and hanging around for three hours waiting  to board. After a nice meal and a good night's sleep we woke to see St Malo (almost) appearing out of the mist. Warning! Do not attempt to clomp down the ferry's stairs in cycle shoes if you don't want to fall and graze your elbow.
Km cycled 0 Injuries 1.
Then off down the ramp to start the real holiday.
BTW this is the second attempt after the post got deleted. Let's hope it works.

A long bike ride (on long bikes)

The Idea

Last year Verity and I had thought about doing a Lands End to John o' Groats as part of our sabbatical but this would have eaten in to the time in America. But the idea took root and we then thought of doing an End to End in France where the weather, food and wine should all be better. Tom and Helen were keen to join in on their tandem and so we got planning.

The Route.

There is an established route from St Malo all the way down to Nice and escorted tours run regularly with luggage being transported and all the accommodation booked ahead. The tour operators published a fantastic book with rough maps, route descriptions and details of where to eat, stay and find shops. The guide is packed with enticing pictures, ideas of what to visit and even places to swim - they also publish a wild swimming guide to Britain.
We of course would carry all our own stuff and find accommodation as we went. They suggest various itineraries to complete the trip spread over 14 days or even 10 days for keen cyclists who don't want to stop and enjoy what France has to offer. We chose 21 days!

Getting there and back

If  we didn't want to add another few weeks cycling down to Portsmouth to the ferry and all the way back from the Med we needed to get ourselves and our tandems to the start and back again. Moving tandems nowadays isn't easy because of restrictions to carrying bikes on trains. So we eventually worked out a plan.
1. Drive to Canterbury in our campervans with tandems in the back. 2. Stay overnight in Canterbury. 3. Leave the campervans in Canterbury 4. Pick up a rental van for a one way trip to Portsmouth with the tandems (and Jim) in the back. 5. Set off . The return involves the European Bike Express which has a pick up point in Montpellier and would whisk us and tandems back to Dover to pick up our campervans for the drive home. This meant we would not go all the way to Nice but would be able to visit the Camargue (remember the film about the boy riding the wild white horses?) as Verity had always dreamed of.  Only 1500km. Simples.
We start the actual cycling on 30th August so look out for posts showing wonderful scenery, delicious food and glorious sunshine. There may even be further useful information for anyone else tempted to do something similar.