FRANCE COAST TO COAST

Coast to Coast in France

It's a 4am start for the trip to Gatwick and our flight to Bordeaux. I am doing this trip with my friend Ling. It is her first cycle tour and claims to have never cycled more than 20 miles in a day but in her defence unlike me she has never cycled into a canal or crashed into a perfectly visible barrier using her chin to stop herself. So we should do well between us.
Surviving the 4am start which is a personal achievement though helped by feeding my latte addiction we arrived to a sunny day in Bordeaux.
Awaiting excitedly for our luggage and bikes we find that our chinese laundry bag which contains panniers etc into one bag has ripped open. We don't seem to have lost anything but will need to find another chinese bag. By the time we sorted out the bag we thought we had better get the bikes but were disappointed to find them not there. They arrived at the hostel some 30 hours after we did. It was a good start.
We spent the day on the usual city tourist stuff and today with much more enthusiasm than me for city touring Ling set off on a marathon of bus, tram and ferry tour, we thus parted at lunchtime for me to return to the hostel and sort the bikes out. All went well and there was only minor damage with one rear reflector broken. It was only when I wanted to lock them up did I realise in an act of supreme numtyness I had brought 2 locks one a newly bought very expensive very heavy lock but had managed to leave the keys behind!
One expensive new heavy lock later courtesy of the local cycle shop we are ready to go!