The Family Bike Touring Guide

So we’re off. Jon and the kids slept well last night and for a long time! I slept on and off but that is normal for me! We woke to the sound of lots of rain! The plan was as follows, pack up and go and find coffee, have lunch then set off when the forecast was better.

It took a while to pack up, get the panniers sorted and put stuff we didn’t need in the car. A rainy ride into La Rochelle for coffee- we forgot our previous experience of trying to find little off beat local coffee shops that serve cheaper coffee and headed to the harbour where it was easy to park our bikes but a grand creme was €4.20!!!

Our original plan was to get lunch in La Rochelle, but keen to start the bike ride we set off, hoping we could find some where on route we could have lunch. As we set off it was looking a bit unlikely! The first bit of the ride was lovely, coastal, all cycle paths and lots to look at. Having only used a Garmin a couple of times on training rides I am still quiet a novice in using one, this caused quiet a few wrong turns and some ‘I need you to be able to navigate’ explanations from Jon! I found it hard to look at the Garmin, look at the road/cycle path and look for signs for the cycle path all at the same time.

After about 5/6 miles thankfully we found an amazing beach restaurant/cafe that was okay prices. One side muscles and one side burgers – perfect!

On we plodded with a good few miles to cover. I however got a puncture. Jon was annoyed as he had forgotten the adaptor to convert my inner tube from a “shrader to a presta valve” (whatever that means) so he had to fix it the old fashioned way which worked well. A German family stopped and offered to help, bringing out lots of bits, but none that did the job. They too were touring but the distance they were covering was more than us, and their children were younger.

We noticed a few people picking up things from the side of the road. Later we realised that these were snails. They were out because of the rain. I’ve never tried snails, not sure I want to!

We arrived at Rochefort at around 6.30 desperate for a coffee! When planning what to bring we had to decide what was ‘worth bringing’ re the space and weight it took up. We decided not to bring thermos cups, although a coffee/tea on route today would have been nice! Something else I’m missing is a good moisturiser, I thought I would be okay with after sun and the dry oil we have bought for insect repellant (amazing product from Avon apparently, that the Army use!) but my hands and face could do with a good application!

Rochefort seems to be historically very interesting, It will be nice to come back one day and spend some more time here. I think we’re going to a local market with our hosts before we leave tomorrow.

Tonight’s accommodation is with a Warmshowers host. Warmshowers is a website for people who are happy to open their home for free to cyclists. What a great idea. We have been registered with Warmshowers for four years, during that time we have had one request of a person wanting to stay, and unfortunately we were away. Where we are staying tonight, they get 3-4 requests a week during the summer – it seems no one wants to cycle through Coventry! A lovely family with a 3 year old made us feel so at home, they gave us a lovely meal and their English was amazing! They had completed a mammoth 6/7 month bike tour around France last year! WOW! After re-planning part of tomorrow’s route with local knowledge and having showers we settled down to sleep.

A good day, hardly any hills made the cycle easy (I hardly changed gear all day!) It rained most of the day on and off, but waterproofs kept us dry. So far so good!