We arrived at Paris' Gare du Nord station and lugged our bikes off for the transfer to Gare L'Est (a few hundred metres too far from each other), in a light rain - the bikes in the bags are very heavy and unwieldy to carry. Lunch was at Gare L'Est whilst waiting for our 13h17 train to Chateau-Thierry. This train wasn't so crowded, and we arrived in Chateau-Thierry just after 14h00, where it took us 40 minutes to re-assemble the two bikes.

We rode into town and located the tourist office to find directions to the campsite, then found a bike shop where we bought a lock. En route to the campsite we stopped at the local Carrefour to get some food, washing powder and dishwashing liquid. Shopping in a foreign language was an interesting experience!

The campsite was situated behind the McDonalds (we didn't eat there!), next to the Marne river. Accomodation for the night was 8.50eur. In bed and asleep by 21h30.

Our first proper day of riding up ahead. We packed up and rolled out of Chateau-Thierry at 09h00 on the D3, through Brasles, Gland, Mont-St Dere, Jaulgonne, Trelou and Dormans, where we grabbed lunch on the side of the road.

Great quiet riding, slightly overcast - perfect for cycling. After Dormans we turned onto the D980, through Ville-en-Tardenois. The sky was clearing and it was getting hot as we reached Reims (say RRRance!) at 15h30 after 72km of riding. The ride into town leads you up to the superb Notre Dame cathedral - huge and impressive.

We located our hotel (Hotel Crystal - hotelcrystal@wanadoo.fr) at 86 Place Drouet D'Erlon. Small, but clean, with friendly staff , and TV - we got to watch some Tour de France highlights! Our bikes were stored in a locked cellar area under the hotel. 45eur for the night was well worth it. We explored Reims a little on foot and had crepes and beer for supper at a busy brasserie.

Got on the road by about 09h00 for our first stop - the champagne house of Mumm - for an early morning tour and tasting. Very interesting and well worth the 5eur.

We then cycled in circles navigating the southern suburbs of Reims trying to find the D9 out of town, eventually giving up and heading out on the busy N51. Despite the narrowness of the road and the large number of trucks, the French drivers are incredibly considerate towards cyclists and all passing vehicles gave us a wide berth. We filled up water bottles at Villers-Allerand, and turned off for a lunch stop on the side of the road. Baguettes, cheese and tomato (to become our staple diet!), as well as couscous salad which is available in all of the supermarkets, and pretty good value.

On the quieter roads now we road eastwards towards Ludes, greeted by a sharp climb coming out of the town. Too much for Nicole at this early stage of the trip, and I took turns riding both bikes up the hill while Nicole hiked. Through Ville-en-Selve, Vauremont and Germaine. Back onto the N51 for a short while until the turnoff to Champillon where we stopped to enjoy the great view over Epernay. All downhill then, through Dizy, Magenta and into Epernay, bringing up 52km for the day. Quite a hot day, with not too much exciting scenery, so not the best of cycling days.

We located the campsite, to be our home for the next 3 nights, set up the tent and went for well-earned showers. The whole town is busy setting up for the arrival of the Tour on Wednesday - lawns are getting mowed, flags getting hung up, etc.

Up at 07h30 for breakfast. About 09h30 we rode out along Avenue du Champagne, past Moet et Chandon, Mercier and a few other famous, and less famous, names. We rode through Chouilly, took the C5 to Cuis, and cycled up to Cramant with its huge champage bottle, which was built for a champagne festival at the end of the seventies. We carried on through Avize, where we stopped for croissants, through Oger, Le Mesnils-sur-Oger, turned onto the D238 to Gionges, Villers-Aux-Bois, Chaltrait, Charmoye and to Chateau de Montmort. We bought some baguettes and cheese and ate lunch on the edge of an open field.

We took the busy D951 back to Epernay with a glorious tailwind, through Pierry (where we couldn't find the chocolaterie mentioned in the Lonely Planet book - very disappointed!), and back to Avenue du Champagne, where we stopped at Mercier to do the tour. We paid our 12eur (for both of us) and got a fairly slick presentation in a small train that rolls around the caves, narrated by a boring tour guide. We tasted the obligatory glass of champagne afterwards - it wasn't as nice as Mumm (the champagne or the tour).

We headed back to the campsite via the Carrefour after about 64km of riding. Supper was flavourless packet soup, with bread and some cheese & tomato sandwiches, washed down with a bottle of Bordeaux. The campsite was starting to get full, with Tour followers arriving for the night.

Woke up at about 08h00 after a rainy night, with lots of noisy late arrivals into the campsite. We waited for the rain to stop and left the campsite at 09h30. We rode through the Tour departure area, which was full of activity with everyone getting ready for the day's proceedings. We rode out of town on the N3 for about 10km and found a spot on the side of the rode where we set up, ready to wait for the Tour. A mobile L'Equipe van sold us the day's news, which included all of the start times etc. The weather was a bit peculiar - hot one moment, and cold the next, so we had our jackets on and off for the rest of the day.

About two hours before the riders arrived the Tour caravan started to roll through, throwing out all sorts of junk emblazoned with sponsor's logos. The first team came through on schedule, and we started timing them to compare their relative performance. Mapei were eagerly awaited so that we could shout some encouragement for Robbie Hunter. We had our SA flag out and gave him a good shout, he reciprocated with a thumbs up as he flew past.

The last riders came through at about 15h45 and we packed up and headed back. 3km down the road Nicole got the first puncture of the trip, from some glass. We met some fellow cycling South Africans back at the campsite. In fact they were indirect relations of Nicole! They were heading up to Belgium.

Up at 06h30 to beat the toilet crowd. The weather was starting to look good too. All packed up by 08h00 and off to the station for another train day. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our train from Epernay to Paris L'Est took bikes fully assembled (the last of the good train news for the day!). We arrived in Paris at 10h33 and made our way down to the Metro station for the trip across town to the Gare Montparnasse station. Nicole queued for the tickets and I did a speed bicycle disassembly job, and got both bikes bagged inside 20 minutes. We then had to make our way up and down several thousand stairs with bikes and panniers - THESE ARE NOT THE EASIEST THINGS TO CARRY!! We finally arrived at the platform after negotiating the metro station maze, and squeezed onto our metro, Nicole almost taking a woman's kneecap off in the process. Things were going swimmingly (trying to be positive here :-)), until the last stop before Montparnasse there was some kind of delay - about 5 minutes.

We arrived at Gare Montparnasse with 10 minutes to spare - just in time to negotiate another maze of steps and travelators to reach our platform just in time to ... MISS THE TRAIN!! FUCK!! By now we were both in serious pain, like just having done too much in a heavy weights session. I couldn't feel two of my fingers, and Nicole had some awfully red looking shoulders, with matching blue-bruised legs (from the bikes in the bags).

So we found ourselves a seat, and opened up a tin of coke that had made the trip with us from Epernay. It didn't last long! I then headed to the counter to change our tickets to the next TGV to Angers (a simple swop - no extra charge), and we settled into the luxurious comfort of our wooden train-station bench for the hour wait.

By now we needed some carbohydrate replenishment, so my well-trained nose led me to the pizza slice bar. 6.95eur bought us two large slices of pizza, which were scoffed down in seconds (our first pizza since we left Cape Town). We got our bikes and bags onto trolleys, and got comfortable on our seats. Eventually we got ourselves, and all of our kit, onto the train, and found our seats. Nicole dozed off for a power nap and I stared with glazed eyes at the blurry scenery.

Eventually ... Angers arrived.