My flight was a red-eye... Overnight... and I didn't sleep a wink. To boot, I arrive in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and it's pouring rain.

I unpack and reassemble Titus at the airport... install the 4 saddlebags... and decide to take the train from Charles de Gaulle airport (way up north of Paris) to the "Porte d'Orléans" in the south of Paris and hence avoid the traffic on this lousy day.

As I cycle a bit in the rain from the train station looking around for a place to crash, I'm finding that handling the weight on Titus isn't easy at all... maybe I should have practiced before leaving...

Stopped at a bike store and got a few maps, at a small grocery for stuff to make a sandwich that I eat on the sidewalk, then I find a half decent student hostel and crash, sleeping all afternoon. Got up for dinner in the hostel's cafeteria, and went back to bed. In the morning, things look a lot brighter... though not the weather as it is still raining. Nevertheless, I cycled a half decent day.

From Paris' Porte d'Orléans south to Estampes I cycle the N20 (a national road). Most of the ride is under a drizzle. The N20 is narrow at spots. Some trucks and cars wizz by honking, but generally vehicles passing give me space.

This day starts out grey, humid and cold, but it isn't raining. A few kms out, the drizzle starts, then high winds from the southwest that slow me down to less than 10 kms/hour. By noon, I'm wet, cold, hungry, and near fainting. I stop at a small village having cycled only about 30 kms and enter a pastry shop for some food, a couple of rich pastries and milk. There are only two small inns in this village (about 20 houses in all), but I decide to check them out since I'm too discouraged to continue in the afternoon... Well, both are full up, and there are no other facilities around... By this time, the food had done me some good, so I decide to continue on, before though, I change into a polar sweater and my full rain jacket and pants. The rich food and proper attire does it and I manage another 43 clicks to Orléans.

I learned a couple of things today...

First, always carry food with you on the bike, and I've never cycled since without dried fruits (I particularly like dried figs) and chocolate (the no-name supermarket bulk brand) with me.

Second, if it's raining, wear the proper attire. You tell yourself that it will pass, but in the meanwhile you get all wet and cold and waste a lot of energy just maintaining body warmth... It's worth it to take the time and change often while you're cycling.

I took a day off here, since my knees are hurting. I guess I'm not used the regular stress of touring yet... Anyways, Blois' a nice village with lots of old buildings and churches, so I spend most of the day just walking around town.

The following morning's still raining and my knees are still hurting, but it's bearable. So, off I go cycling towards Tours.

I keep seeing these caverns on the side of the road, carved into the rocky hills. They're all set up as wine cellars and restaurants. There are a lot of them especially between Mosne and Tours. As I take a break near one of them, I ask a fellow about these caverns, and he tells me that they were carved out of the hills in the 13th century to get the rock to build castles, these quarries were then recycled as wine cellars (ideal, as they're cool and humid).

At Tours, I shack up at the Youth Hostel (I haven't camped yet since it's been more or less raining since I've started out). Dining in the hostel's kitchen with the other guests is pretty neat, sharing wine (that I bought in one of those caverns) and getting into wild discussions... This is much better than the inns I've been chancing so far, and a lot cheaper as well...

Still raining, still windy, knees still hurting... I head south on N10.

At Chatellerault, I take a room at a "Formula 1" road inn... Really weird... New type of accommodation, so clean, it's antiseptic. The walls are plastic, easy to clean... The shower/bathroom stalls (shared, outside of the room) are made of moulded plastic, ceiling, walls and floor and once you've finished using them they're automatically sprayed with an antiseptic cleaner. You get a room by sliding your credit card in a machine that provides you with a key. This is novel...

Still raining, still windy, knees still hurting... So I decide to take another day off. Poitiers has a Youth Hostel, so it's cheap and the people are fun. As it wasn't raining too much, I spent the day cycling around town.

The next day's pouring rain again, but I decide to leave anyways. In the afternoon, a cop stops me and tells me to get off the "nationale" else he'll have to give me a ticket... Seems bicycles aren't allowed on "nationale" roads... Ah well, I've been riding these south since Paris... I guess that's why I've been honked at so much so far...

Well, raining again. I decide to stop at Angoulemes after half a day's ride. It's a pretty neat town. It's got a Youth Hostel (cheap) and the "Centre National de la Bande Dessinée" (a Comic Strip Museum). In the evening, I'm treated to one of the most beautiful rainbows I've seen...

First day without rain, but cloudy all day. Also, the road is getting very hilly and I have to push my bike up some hills, my knees still hurting. The scenery is getting much nicer though, with little forest along the way. I stop at Challais, and treat myself with a small bottle of red "Pineault des Charentes" in the shape of a bunch of grapes... too bad I'll have to throw the bottle away !

The day started out real grey, but by 10 AM, the sun was out and it got warm. A pleasure to ride.

Raining again, all day... But the road was relatively flat, and the wind died down, so I made my best distance yet.

Stopped at a little B&B in Parentis, owned by Catherine, an aging 70's hippy that married a Chilean refugee. Real nice folks...

The morning was rainy again, and to boot, I had my first flat (front tire). Nevertheless, by noontime the sun was shining and I beat yesterday's mileage. As a reward, I treat myself to a beautiful dinner of garbure (a Landish specialty of veggies in a duck broth) followed by Landish and Bayonne cold cuts. The main dish was roast duck with fries and dessert was a Basque tort. Isn't this the good life !

Well, here I am, on the beach, near Biarritz, there's a Youth Hostel in Anglet (which is filled with young surfers, so it's not quiet) and the sun is shining, so I decide to take another day off and enjoy the beach.

From Anglet, I cycle 36 kms down the coast to Hendaye. I spend the night in this little border town to use up my remaining French currency. Tomorrow... Spain.

These first couple of weeks, basically my time in France, were gruelling. It rained all the time, was generally cold with highs no higher than 15 deg.C., I was fighting a strong west wind most of the time, and both my knees hurt constantly from the effort. In retrospect, I realize that it was an excellent training period. I learned how to handle Titus with the weight of the four saddlebags, how to eat properly to support the exercise, how to dress appropriately and basically got into a routine.

I spoke the language so it wasn't lonely, enjoyed some scenery when it wasn't raining and sampled a wide variety of wines...

Wines presented a problem though since I was travelling alone... You can't really buy half-bottles since they're not common, you don't really want to carry leftovers with you and as I quickly found out, you don't really have a productive day cycling if you've had a full bottle of wine to yourself the evening before... So I got to sharing a bottle with other travellers at hostels, or paying for wine by the glass at restaurants. Either way, well worth it...

By the way the only mail package I sent home, while travelling, that didn't get to destination, was from France... So I lost about 8 rolls of film... Which is why I don't have many pictures from my first 2 weeks in France...