Welcome to the diary and pics from our July 2002 trip to Amsterdam, Brussels, and mostly France. Amsterdam and Brussels were explorered on foot, but for France we took our bikes with all the way from South Africa. For friends, enjoy the pics and diary. For others, we hope that our experiences and info we've given here help to make planning your trip a little easier.

We were originally planning a conventional holiday overseas, until I had the good fortune to spot the Lonely Planet Cycling France book in a bookshop, which really got the planning juices going. We had bikes, a reasonable level of fitness, France sounded great for riding, we could get to see some of the Tour de France, ... it sounded like the perfect holiday!

Our bikes were both regular mountain bikes, which we'd taken the front shocks off. My 7-year old Kona Cindercone was fitted with front and rear racks, and Nicole's 1-year old Giant Yukon with a rear rack only. The rear racks were Topeak Explorers, and my front rack was a Blackburn lowrider. Attached to these racks were Karrimor panniers that we'd ordered via mail-order from www.cycling2000.co.uk. Unfortunately panniers are not available at all in South Africa. The panniers weren't cheap (even less so after SA customs slapped a 30% duty and 14% VAT on them), but hopefully they'll see service for many years.

Obviously since we were riding on-road only, knobblies were replaced with slicks. Nicole had some cheap 1.5in wide ones, and I had heavier (but thicker and more puncture resistant) Continental Avenues. We bought a spare slick tyre (fold-up) in Amsterdam, just in case (these aren't available in South Africa).

For transporting the bikes on trains we made ourselves bike-bags (more on this in the trains section). The better option though is to plan around trains that take bikes, as the bikes are very unwieldy to carry in the bags.

For accomodation we took a 4.5kg 3-man tent, which was probably overkill, but we were always comfortable in it. You hardly notice the extra weight while you're riding anyway.

To help us with planning our itinerary we used two books, the first and most important being Lonely Planet's Cycling France. We got additional information and maps from the Let's Go France Guide. Both books were invaluable, and the LP book made the trip with us. The LP books features several suggested itineraries, and we took their 5 day Loire trip (we added an extra day up front), and one of our rides from Epernay was from the LP book too. Using their cleverly planned routes got us onto some beautiful quiet roads, but sometimes it also made you pay too much attention to finding the (often unsignposted) turnoff you needed to take to get onto the lovely quiet road.

Some useful websites we found whilst researching for the trip included the following:

• www.sncf.com - the French rail site, where we bought tickets online
• www.ns.nl - the Dutch rail site, also bought tickets here
• www.castexhotel.com - where we stayed in Paris
• www.kenkifer.com - usefil tips from an experienced tourist
• www.teamsnail.com - the travel diary of team snail
• www.mayq.com - more useful touring tips, including instructions to make a housse

As far as the best time to travel to France we can say this about July. The weather was generally great, but beware French school holidays! Many of the campsites, especially the ones in bigger towns, were filled with groups of noisy French kids on summer camp. For us (and many other cyclsits) it had to be July, because we wanted to see some of the Tour de France, which starts at the beginning of July.

We saw it written several times while we were planning the trip that France is so suited to cycle-touring, that little knowledge of the place is necessary, and to a greater or lesser extent, this is true. There are so many quiet roads to ride on, and the French drivers are so considerate to cyclists that should you find yourself on a busy road that you'd rather not be on, you will generally still feel safe. There are campsites almost everywhere, and the standard is generally good.

We had a fantastic time doing the trip, and now that we've got all the kit we'll be doing more. We're thinking Australia for next time ...

Happy surfing (and cycling!),
Nick & Nicole