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Cycle Tour 2025 - Western Europe and East/Southern Africa

Home Page > Bicycle Touring > Cycle Tour 2025: Western Europe and East/Southern Africa > Part 5




Part 5 - Europe: France and Belgium

We had two options at first this morning, 66 km would get us to Dax but our actual route was 120 km long to Dax and wound all the way along one side of the River Adour and then back the other side to Dax. Seemed like too much river. But 66 km seemed too short. We had some more ridicuous hills in the 2 km it took us to get to the main road from our campspot which made us hate the EV 3. But once we were on good roads winding our way through the rural paradise that is the French countryside we were happy. It was a beautiful day and we just felt like riding. We stopped in Saint Palais, Aldi for brekky and were both sneezing thanks to the glorious lush countryside.

Mike tweeked the route here and there and found that we could have the best of both worlds, staying on the quiet, decent farm roads and then turning onto the river route for about the last 40 km into Dax. The river route was wonderful. We have only cycled in France once for a few days in 2013 when we were on a tour of Central Europe but it feels right to be cycling here again. France, Germany and the Netherlands all have this special feel about them in the rural landscape. It feels sustaining in a way that is hard to describe. It is undemanding, as if it is not going to ask anything of you except than to relax and enjoy it. We popped into an artisan boulangerie for a bread which we ate later with jam and cream cheese sitting near the river while people picniced, fished and cycled by. The French are friendly too, they will readily make eye contact and smile when greeted. We saw many road cyclists today. As Mike says, you know you are on the right route when you see the road bikers and you will never see one on the EV 3. So we had a superb ride into Dax and straight to our hotel. There were some road closures in place for "cycling day" in Dax where people can cycle round the city free of cars which was nice to see. Dax is a spa town and every hotel has access to thermal spa water with all the healing qualities they are supposed to offer. You can go to the original thermal fountain which was just walking distance from our hotel, it is a large pool, with orginal walls surrounding it and 6 taps that spout water over 60 degrees all day and night which you can access to drink or wash your hands in. The thermal waters were of course first discovered here by the Romans and that empire is no more, although it seems they valued cleanliness.

We had a rest day in the hotel as well as rain was forecast. We are enjoying being in France!


Check-out time at the Grand Hotel Dax was 12 noon! So we went out to Decathlon on the other side of the river this morning and I got some new merino wool pants for sleeping in and Mike got a new merino wool buff. Decathlon has a brand called Forclaz which makes a lot of merino stuff and is very reasonably priced and the quality is good. Dax has a complimentary shuttle bus which takes people over the river and we took that but still had just over 1 km to walk to get to the store. We caught a regular bus back, it cost 1 EUR each which is still cheap. So we were back at the hotel at 11:00 and had second breakfast, coffee and a shower before checking out.

The riding today was just great. Pretty flat, perfect little roads and mostly surrounded by a green tunnel of forest. We picked up a bread to eat and later shopped at Aldi. We joined a rail trail from Mont-de-Marsan which was sealed for the 15 km that we rode on it. It was a great track and well-used by many people who were running, cycling and walking. French people are very polite and everyone greets you and smiles. It is a very nice atmosphere. The weather was good today too. There are picnic areas along the trail with water taps.

It was tricky finding a campspot but in the end Mike found one in some cleared bush just out of a village. We really like the EV 3 route now after hating it before. Now that we are in the flatlands it is a great route.


We packed up and headed to the closest village park to make breakfast. The park was next to a kindergarten and it was school drop off time so many little kids were walking by with their parents. We headed back to the rail trail, which was a beautiful tunnel of green, but the track was unsealed and quite rocky so after a few kilometres we headed back to the road. We stopped again for tea in Labastide-d'-Armagmac. The village had a beautiful old square with gorgeous flowers and the sun was out. On the roads now the honeysuckle blooms, beautiful scent. After leaving the village we visted the church of Notre-Dame des Cyclistes. This is a lovely church in a peaceful setting. The statue of Mary stands sending blessings for cyclists which we appreciated!

We decided to stick to the roads which were hillier than the rail trail but easier to ride. The day passed as we trundled along various rural roads, everything always green, neat farms. We picked up water in Poudenas and some food in Mezin. A local man chatted to us about our trip, he'd had returned from hiking in Chile yesterday! We had some uphill stretches as we wound our way into the forest and found a place to camp in a pine forest.


We had a brilliant day's ride today, mainly along the river route which runs along the old tow path by the Canal Lateral a la Garonne. What's not to love about a great river route, beneath a canopy of towering plein trees, their bright green new foilage forming an arch above our heads? The best thing of all was that it was flat. Before the river route though we passed through Barbaste. We crossed the beautiful Pont Vieux Bridge towards the Moulin de Henri IV. After picking up food for the day at Lidl in Lavardac, we came back passed the mill and across the bridge to have morning tea at a lovely park which had views of both. They are nearly finished creating a brand new rail trail (fully sealed) in this area and we had glimpses of it as we rode along country lanes through the gorgeous village of Vianne, but we could not use it yet, unfortunately. Soon though we were on the Garonne river route and forgot all about it.

The river route was quiet, quite a bit of bike traffic coming towards us. We spent about 60 km on this route which goes all the way to Bordeaux, turning off it at La Reole. We picked up water there and headed off on the first real climb of the day out of town and into the farmlands. We came across an area of thick grass, next to a horse paddock but not farmed. In between the grassy area and the road was a derelict tennis court. We pitched our tent on the grass and were getting organised when a car pulled in to the horse paddock. The car was there for about a half an hour before driving off and we could relax. We can hear the horses cantering around their paddock. They seem curious about us. Mike had a tick attach to his ankle, our first attaching tick of the trip! When I went to get the tick card out I couldn't find it. We think I left it in the laundry in Pamplona as there was a tick card on the counter there when we left but I didn't think it was ours. Such a stupid thing to have done! It must have come out of my handlebar bag when I was getting change out. We even joked that we should take it but I was thinking, well we already have one! Anyway, Mike got the tick off by gently nudging it with tweezers. We ordered a new tick remover tool from Amazon tonight.


Mike found three more ticks today on his legs and ankle. They are teeny tiny, the size of poppy seeds. We bought some more tick remover prongs this morning at a pharmacy. It is amazing that we have had ticks around for so long but they have only now started attaching. Maybe, as we are in France, we should just say, "Bon appetit!" to the ticks! We left our campsite and the friendly horses next door to have breakfast at our first town, Sauveterre-de-Guyenne. There was a park at the start of the Piste Cyclable Roger Lapebie where we had breakfast. As we were packing up, a local Frenchman came to chat to us about our route. He thought we should learn to speak French. He may be right about that. Anyway, we managed to understand some of what he was saying about our route and his brother and four children who moved to Australia. The Piste Cyclable Roger Lapebie (named for a Tour de France winner from the '30's) was an amazing completely sealed rail trail route which went for nearly 50 km all the way to Bordeaux, we would turn off after 20 km but were tempted to keep going. What a great little ride! We could see now that many people would ride the river route (like we did yesterday) to Bordeaux and the rail trail back (or vica versa) which would be wonderful. Although we were not going to Bordeaux, we were not deprived of vineyards for we rode through vineyards all day and can say that the farming activity is the most we have seen so far in Europe! We turned off towards Guillac and crossed the Dordogne River at Le Port de Branne. The villages and farms we passed today were very beautiful. So many varieties of roses blooming everywhere in the most unique colours and perfumes. Another perfume we get all the time is that of the honeysuckle which is prolific here. The rosebushes seem to bloom wildly and without effort.

We had lunch at Libourne, too large a town to be a pleasure to be in and rode on, village to village until we rested at the river in Guitres. We lay on the grass to have a snooze and a young woman came over to us to invite us for a shower in her house. This was very kind, however we still had a way to go. Actually, we weren't sure how to take this. Did she think we were going to be sleeping in the park? Did we look in need of a shower? Probably both. A climb followed out of the river valley and we were soon up in the farmlands again and even forest now. We stopped about 7 km from our end point to pick up water and were pleased with where we had picked to camp, a gravel track in some forest where we could even lean the bikes up against a guard rail. Plenty of lovely sunshine for Solly for a few hours. We are however 100 m from a high speed rail line. The trains thunder passed regularly and sound like aeroplanes!


We really liked our camp spot last night. The high speed trains stopped overnight and there were no ticks. We hit a new rail trail, our "voie verte" (greenway) as they are called here in less than 2 km from our campsite, and it was probably the best we have had. Brillant surface and convenient to the villages we passed by. The weather is steadily good everyday, mornings are always hazy or misty but that lifts pretty quickly and the days are sunny and very pleasant. We had a stop in Chevanceaux after 15 km to collect a parcel. We left breakfast and ate it there, sitting in the pretty market square. It seemed the entire town came out to buy their fresh vegetables and meat. The parcel was in order to replenish some equipment before leaving Europe. It is hard to think that we leave here in less than three weeks. Brussels still seems a long way away, but we have done the sums and rechecked them and we will be able to cover the 1 200 km between now and there in that time! Most of the stuff was technical eg. Rohloff oil and cleaning fluid, then we each got a new pair of Assos cycling shorts. Mike got a pair of overshorts too but alas they were not the correct fit. The place we order from, Bike24, makes returns really easy. You print out the return slip and a prepaid label and stick the thing back in the post, no cost to the purchaser. Mike went to the post office nearby to try to buy a padded envelope to use (the return postage is by carrier DPB not the French postal service). When he showed the lady behind the counter the information to explain he needed to post something back, at first she said, well it's not through the French postal service, but once he explained that all he needed was an envelope she was so helpful, understanding his predicament. She got him to e-mail her the return slip and the parcel label and printed these off for him and then she went and found a used cardboard postal package and taped it up to be the correct size, taped the parcel label to it which she had printed off and sealed the package for him. No charge! By the time she was finished there were 4 people patiently waiting in line behind Mike! What terrific service! Totally customer focussed, and he wasn't even her customer! We could not drop the package off at the Coop supermarket where he had picked it up, but we could do that in a village coming up, there were many drop off points. Luckily all this time Solly had been charging in the sun. I got some buns and cheese for later and we set off back on the rail trail. A short while later we stopped at a picnic area to eat the most delicious buns and cheese.

The rail trail came to an end and we had a climb passed some vineyards before dropping down into another river valley, La Charente, at Chateauneuf. We followed the river along a magnificent trail all the way to Angouleme. It was just terrific riding this trail which cut in to the vineyards now and then. Many people were out and about being Saturday. The river itself was very beautiful, deep turquoise, it looked very inviting! Many people were fishing and you could see the fish in the water. We also had quite a big and terrified snake dash across the path between us. After Angouleme we joined another rail trail for a bit as we left the city. We had a climb for a few k's to end the day but found a track closed by a boom into the forest and a cleared grassy area to camp next door to a picturesque water tank.


More riding through wheatfields and vineyards today. Very quiet roads and very peaceful. We saw a few cycle tourists. There were rolling hills today, so up and down a bit but nothing too challenging. We stopped to shop for the day early on as it was Sunday so most shops are closed. It was a nice days ride. Many villages with central church, many herds of cows. We arrived at Confolens and our first campsite of the entire trip at around 15:30. The campsite was lovely and we booked in for two nights as we were due a rest day. Nice to have a warm shower! There were another couple of cycle tourists at the campsite. It is on River Vienne, a very pretty spot. Next day we did the laundry and rewaterproofed our wet weather gear and then went to buy some food. The weather was good and it was a relaxing day.


There were 5 pairs of cycle tourists in the campground last night, including us, and a group of 4 motorcyclists. Another good weather day today, clear for the morning, clouding over in the afternoon. We rode from village to village, each one as picturesque as the last. Beautiful flowering rose bushes growing everywhere, their strong perfumes hanging in the air. The route followed the same river as we camped on last night, the Vienne. It is a beautiful river. There were quite a few campsites along it at various spots. It is a popular fishing area and we saw a few fishermen. We stopped at a park for breakfast after 15 km and then after another 15 km at the Coop, shop of the day. Most of the hilly stuff came in the first 30 km. We had something to eat after shopping at the Coop and met a pair of Swiss cycle tourists heading for Bordeaux. First cycle tourists we have met that smoked!

The route stuck to quiet rural roads. There is mainly wheat farming and also some sheep and beef. We rested in a lovely park by the river for quite a while over lunchtime.

We filled up our water bottles at an ancient cemetery which is full of rough stone sarcophagi. There are apparently hundreds of them, so many that they were used stood upright to form the boundary wall of the cemetery. Placed along the walking paths in the cemetery, lids askew, they are quite a creepy feature. The legend is that hundreds, even over a thousand years ago, there was a big battle in the area and many were killed. The sarcophagi rained down from the skies to bury the dead on. Pretty interesting stuff! In the cemetery we also saw our very first squirrels of the trip, three red squirrels.

Later on we picked up more water for the night at another cemetery which was a bit more normal. The end of the day was a climb up from the river again into some forest. Mike had pinpointed a place in an area of forest which we cycled through and via a track found ourselves in a beautiful oak forest which let in a lot of light and was the perfect campspot.


Very peaceful night in beautiful oak forest. It turned out to be quite an overcast day, although it was blue skies when we left the forest. We did have a major tailwind all day which was brilliant and barely any climbing, so all in all a pretty cruisey day. We stopped after 20 km at Chatelleraute and had Special K and fresh milk for brekky. It was a pretty big town, a city really. We went to a few stores and then were on our way. We are still deciding about some last minute items to buy before leaving Europe. One can't overthink it but 4 to 5 months cycling through Africa makes you wonder if you don't need another this and that in case this or that wears out and, well, then you are in Africa and can't get your hands on one.

The day passed quickly, village by village. This French rural cycle touring is pretty perfect. Roads are great, quiet country lanes but excellent quality. Water available in every cemetery. I still can't believe the variety of roses you see and number of blooms on each bush in very ordinary gardens. Like, it doesn't look as if everyone is a rose expert but every rose bush is just churning out blooms of the most marvellous colour and each one is perfect. I guess it's the soil.

We had sort of planned on a 90-odd km day to a forest, but an area around a overhead, high speed train line looked pretty good and Mike saw that there was an underpass the same size as the road underpass but with no road, just there for a small stream. We followed the road via the underpass and then walked across a meadow with our bikes and there was this flat area for camping where we could lean our bikes against the concrete wall. It drizzled a bit and we were pleased for the shelter. It was an early finish for us before 15:00, but we actually felt in need of some time to relax and a shorter day was great!


It was a little cloudy to start with but the day cleared to a magnificent spring/early-summer day, warm and sunny, no wind. It is Ascension Day today and a national public holiday in France, which seems strange as we think of France as pretty secular. As it was a day off for most people and great weather, they were out and about cycling in family groups and having picnics. It was a lovely atmosphere. We stopped about 10 km from our campspot to make breakfast in a village park which had a small family of goats in an enclosure that were cute to watch. We did the day's shopping there too, at the supermarket not the goat enclosure.

Most of the ride was pretty flat and we hit Tours which is a big city, very cycling friendly, after about 30 km. We spent some time there, sitting in a park and making some decisions for the remainder of our time. We have about 800 km left to ride in Europe, but too many days in which to do it. That is a luxury we enjoy having! So our options seem to be 1) taking a side trip to somewhere to increase the remaining km's and spin the tour out til 11 June which is when we are due in Brussels, 2) ride shorter days or take more rest days and 3) visit Paris. We have been unsure whether to go to Paris as we will be in the area during the French Open and it will be a very busy time there, we would probably prefer visiting out of spring/summer. However our route passes west of Paris through a town which is on the edge of the city public transport zone (so only 2.50 EUR each way into Paris) and we have found a very reasonably priced hotel opposite the train station. It all seems too good to be true! By the end of today we will be three days ride from that town, so we have booked in for three nights, Sunday to Wednesday. Now that we have made the decision we are looking forward to our visit. It will be very hot then in Paris, forecast temps are high 30's.

We exited Tours along the Loire River route and rode along the river for a way. It was a good quality, wide cycleway. Many people hire bikes in Tours and go riding. We saw a few cycle tourists today. We stopped in a village after Tours that had a great undercover area, with wall sockets, a toilet and water. So basically all we need! We set about charging our electronics and had lunch. There is free public wifi in Tours and this extended to this village on the outskirts as well. After this we were on a rail trail for a few km's and after some up's and down's we found ourselves out of the Loire Valley completely and back in the wheatfields. There was the usual mix of forest and farmland. We stopped at a cemetery to pick up more water and it had a Commonwealth War Grave section. We found a good place to camp along a powerline trail between some forest areas. We picked up our new tick removal tool yesterday from an Amazon pickup point and Mike tried it out this evening as he found two ticks on his tummy. It worked very well! Due to our long breaks today we only got to our campspot after 19:00. From tomorrow we have three days to get to our hotel from where we will travel into Paris by train (without the bikes).


Such a cruisey day it almost feels that we never rode anywhere! The rural flatlands and rivers of France are a pleasure to cycle. It is really riding for riding's sake, just for the enjoyment of it. Today we rode chiefly along Le Loir River, not the same as La Loire of yesterday. Setting off today I had a squeak coming from my pedal, I thought. Mike serviced both pedals by the roadside as when these oneup pedals start squeaking they can seize up. This took about 15 minutes but the squeak remained, so he cleaned my belt and tightened the fuel bottle and the squeak disappeared. Great to have a bike mechanic on board! We were delighted to have breakfast by a shallow stream in the exquisite village of Lavardin with it's ruined castle on the hill. Since Tours the countryside has changed in that we are seeing more ornate buildings and the first chateaux of the trip. Perhaps northern France has historically been more affluent? Larger farming estates? We stopped in the next town to buy bread and also iced coffees and some food for the day. Shortly after this we turned down a road through a village which was suddenly fenced off due to some road work or other infrastructure. No warning sign or suggested deviation. The section under repair was only a 100 m long and then another fence blocked the other side. We have no patience for this kind of thing. If they want to close the road they should inform road users and provide options. Mike was able to push open one side and moved the fencing and we could walk through pushing the bikes. No such luck on the other side though, where a group of cyclists coming towards us looked bemused through the fence. Mike did not hesitate in taking out some pliers and unscrewing a bolt holding the fence shut and then pushed it open so that we could all squeeze through. They were pretty impressed with his can-do attitude! (Or rather pissed off attitude).

We ate lunch on a small bench by a church in Vendome and then rested later by a river. The day grew quite warm, it reached 28 degrees C. It was fairly humid, no wind but we were not too hot. Later still we stopped to buy a cold drink and then filled up with water at a cemetery. Mike had pinpointed a track to a river were there were some fishing spots. We see many people fish along all the rivers we cycle passed, but no one was here. It was a pretty quiet spot and a good campspot for the night.


We were woken after 06:00 by fishermen arriving near out tent so had an early start! Another cruisey day in France, village to village, flat riding. Hot and humid today and we had cloudy weather but you could see rain falling in the distance. We saw some impressive chateaux today and ate well. The highlight of the day was visiting Chartes Cathedral which was imposing and very beautiful, also not very busy which was good. The town was nice too, easy to ride in and out of. We relaxed in the shade near some Padel courts as we left the town. We left after 18:00 to head to our forest campspot. As we arrived we could hear thunder in the distance and it rolled overhead for ages before it started raining. We were in the tent by then. It should cool things down as by the end of the day the humidity was uncomfortable. Tomorrow we have a hotel stay for three nights just outside Paris. We are looking forward to a hot shower and clean clothes more than Paris itself!



We set off for Plaisir in cooler weather after the rain last night and had a lovely cycle there. We stopped to cook breakfast at a picnic site after about 18 km and a group of cows rushed over on the other side of the stream and to have a look at us. So curious! We took another break for morning tea later on. Our route took us passed a very grand chateau and through its grounds and then later as a divided cycle route along a main arterial, so it was a good mixture. There were cycle routes signposted to Versailles and Paris, but we were happy to stay out of the city in Plaisir. In the end it was a 4 hour ride in cooler conditions.

We chose our hotel for its situation across the road from Plaisir Grignon train station. We could pick a train that travelled to Paris Montparnasse stopping only at Versailles which took less than 30 minutes and only cost 2.50 EUR and was valid for 2 hours unbroken, so that meant we could get off the train and take the metro to the Eiffel Tower for one cost. Each train/metro transport trip in Paris is 2.50 EUR and we travelled 30 km for that price, very cost effective! We decided to get the 06:06 am train next day to the city, so we were at the Eiffel Tower by 07:00. It was amazing being in the city early, it was very quiet, hardly even any traffic. We could almost have walked across the street to the Arc de Triomph, but we used the subway.

It was a lovely cool morning and we did a lot of walking, Paris seems to lend itself to that. We were impressed by the open space and generous seating areas, but then it was very early and barely even any tourists around. We sat on a bench on the Champs-Elysees for ages having coffee and biscuits and watching the people and cyclists going to work. I got an espresso from the best MacDonalds we have ever seen. Very smart! I guess that's what you get when it's over the road from Dior and Louis Vuitton. Did think the standard 4.50 EUR everyone seems to charge for a cappucino was a bit steep. Paris prices I guess!

It was interesting timing as Paris Saint--Germain won the Champions League final (for the first time) against Inter Milan in Munich on Saturday, 31 May. This resulted in carnage in Paris as fans went wild, celebrating by setting vehicles on fire (we walked passed a completely burnt out van on Monday), as well as rubbish bins and smashing windows of shops on the Champs Elysees and other places. Hundreds of arrests were made, police in riot gear driving back crowds etc. Two deaths, one a teenager in Dax where we stayed a couple of weeks ago. Then on Sunday, the day we arrived, the team was permitted to hold their victory parade anyway (this is football for you!) through the city and the fans limited to 100 000 on the Champs--Elysees got upset about the cut off too when over 100 000 pitched up. We knew nothing about this, which was a good thing! So we were pleased that we had not wanted to cycle into Paris what with it being a bit of a warzone! But we saw the evidence everywhere. The exclusive shops along the Champs have their own special window barricades which range from metal grids to chipboard and which were all being dismantled on Monday morning. The shops which were unprepared often had broken windows and there were some reports of looting. The streets were being cleaned as there was rubbish all over and everyone seemed a bit muted. There were still crowd barriers up all over. We walked trough Place de la Concore to the Louvre, relaxing in Jardin des Tuileries on the way. Mike liked to see the roads and route that the Tour de France takes when it finishes in Paris from every vantage point. We have to say that the cobbles on the Champs look far easier to ride over than any we have been on yet this trip! We ended up in Montmartre and the Basilique-du-Sacre-Coeur, then we took the metro back to Montparnasse and the train back to our hotel. We would recommend the hotel, it was very nice and a lot cheaper than anything in the city. We liked Paris a lot and will return at a quieter time of year. It would be a good city to fly into as then you definitely know the date you are getting there and can book to go to a gallery or whatever. But it was enough for us to enjoy the sights just walking by and so good to avoid crowds. It is unfathomable how much all those statues and buildings would have cost way back when, you can kind of appreciate why there was a revolution! It was great to have a second rest day in our hotel on the 3rd June, we have not spent three nights in one place since we arrived in Barcelona!



It was raining lightly when we left around 10:30 but didn't last long. There was no wind as we climbed the gentle slope out of the plains of Versailles. The villages are now more like towns and the area feels different. It is also more industrialised. We were sometimes on cycleways on busy roads. The rural idyll that marked our days south of Paris seems to be over. Our route joined the Seine River Route for the last 30 km. We were expecting this route to be perfect as it is a popular touring route, following the Seine from Paris to the coast, but the paths were gravel, mostly good condition but it did not have a manicured feel. We struck another unannounced road closure at a bridge but could pass by dismantling the metal fencing closing it off. Once again, no actual work was going on, it just seems they were halfway through the job and stopped. It beggars belief that this sort of practise can go on in France with it's cycling culture. After this the route ran alongside a busy road, nice wide cycleway though.

Mantes-la-Jolie was a beautiful town, gorgeous church, very delicate with high, slender columns towards the top. Here the cycle route was perfect and we crossed the pedestrian bridge before picking up water at a tap that ran through a wine vat! The route ran alongside the river again, narrow little dirt track before jumping onto a rural road and then dropping into forest. We found one of our favourite campspots yet, along a walking path which led to an open area at the lake. There was a bit of pine forest so we could camp on the pine needles. The lake was fill of huge schools of tiny fish. We relaxed under the trees until pitching the tent after 20:00.


We had breakfast about 8 km down the road at Vetheuil, also on the Seine River. We bought milk to have with the cereal we had with us and I bought the most beautiful bread we have seen in France for later. I walked into the boulangerie, thinking I would get a pain or baguette, not too big, in case we needed a snack before reaching Gisors, town of the the day. When you walk into a boulangerie the selection of breads is staggering, to an Australian anyway. Then I saw the row of pain Epi, laid out like fronds of orchids. It was so beautiful I could only buy it.

The famous Giverny is just along the river from Vetheuil, but we decided to leave the river and save some distance. We had a bit of a climb before joining a rail trail at Bray which took us to Gisors. It was perfect quality and formed part of a cycle route called London- Paris. You can ride from Paris along the Seine and Oise Rivers to Dieppe where you can take a ferry to Eastbourne, UK and cycle to London. We saw quite a few cycle tourists on this route today. At Gisors we shopped for food and Mike collected two parcels, some additional gear we ordered, including another tyre (Africa) and mozzie protection spray for clothing (Africa!). It started to rain in Gisors and would rain lightly on and off all day before heavy rain overnight.

Afer Gisors we were back on rural roads again. We are in Normandy now and back into rural splendour (yesterday's less interesting bits were, as it turns out, an anomoly). Lots of beautiful cows. Normandy is the dairy of France. Just after Saint-Germer-de-Fly, we turned onto another rail trail and after 4 km found a lovely oak forest to camp in. Luckily we arrived around 16:00, the rain started in earnest at 17:00. We both fell asleep after eating.


The rail trail had signs up warning of processional caterpillars in the forest. We have not seen any sign of these critters in France as yet. Catalonia, Spain had a real problem with them and we saw them in Portugal on occasion too. When Mike was packing away the tent he found two on the tent, sheltering under the cap and flicked them off with the trowel. We have never had them on our belongings before. We saw a deer on the trail as we left the camp spot and later a deer with a death wish ran across the road in front of a car and skidded across the bike path in front of us! Phew, close call. We were on the rail trail for another 20 km this morning, as far as Beauvais, a big town. The rail trail has a great surface and we stopped for breakfast at a bench. We each found a little stowaway in the form of a slug hitching a ride on each of our top tubes! Today we saw more content cows, more wheatfields and more oak forest. The scenery is all of a pattern. It feels like a hazy green dream the whole country. It has been beautiful and pretty easy going, almost a holiday from the holiday! We stopped at the most amazing boloungerie patiserie. The range of tempting tarts, biscuits, donuts and meringues was unbelievable. There were probably 50 or more diifferent kinds of sweet treats you could buy. Something for everyone. The bread of course was good too. It's amazing that you can buy a pretty big pain for 1 EUR and it is delicious. They made these massive meringues, the size of a small hedgehog I suppose. They came in chocolate, plain, berry, banana and coffee favours. We stopped a couple of times to rest and have a bite to eat and Mke collected another Amazon order at an Intermarche supermarket, this time it was a roll of transparent "second skin" film as we needed to replenish ours for... you guessed it, Africa!

We noticed today that the building styles have changed to small brick houses with pitched roofs. These small bricks are typical of Flemish or Dutch houses. Also the landscape is changing, it seems flatter and more open. Roads go straight ahead. We were on many cycleways which ran alongside roads, seperate from them. The end of the day saw us back on the River Oise and we found a place to camp just off the river route. We watched a few barges pass by.


It rained most of the night and pretty hard from about 06:30 to 07:00 this morning and we wore wet weather gear setting off, but the rain ended up being quite light. We spent almost the whole day along the Oise Canal and it was a fabulous day's riding. Fast and effortless. The route was superb. We rejoined the road for a period and that was great riding too. The rain came and went but we had a strong tailwind which made things very easy. We saw a few cycle tourists today, two pairs and some other solo riders. We stopped to buy breakfast about 12 km from our campsite and ate it at a park further on. The man who was inspecting the playground equipment was from Morocco which was cool. We also stopped to shop a few km's from the end of the day at Intermarche and again at the next cemetery to fill up with water. French cemeteries can be relied apon for easily obtainable tap water. After this we joined a very pretty railtrail and a little way along it we found a beautiful place to camp at a fishing hole right next to a weir. Later in the evening two young boys came to fish.


It rained very, very heavily overnight. The tent was pounded by it! Better weather today, with the sun coming out now and then, but it was pretty cold all day. We did have that tailwind still for the most part. We saw many cows today and more beautiful farmland. We were on a railtrail almost all day. We stopped for second breakfast in Guise. We finally left the railtrail in Hirson, which had a number of road closures due to a street parade and was a pain to get through. However, the route stayed on a car free road, it was like a railtrail but with very steep up's and down's. After Guise the route was called Axel Vert. It was a great route to take out of France.

We crossed the border into Belgium by a bridge over a teeny stream. Less than a kilometre on was our first free bivouac camp. In Belgium wild camping is strictly prohibited, it's prohibited in France too but more so in Belgium with an actual penal code for wild camping and a 125 EUR fine! However, they have set up bivouac zones in forests through the countryside and we are keen to make use of them. Our first was tonight! We arrived at 16:00 which is coincidentally the time you are allowed to get there! You may only overnight at a bivouac. Some you need to book into, but this one you did not. There was no one else there and quite a spacious area to camp. It was a very peaceful spot! From here we have three days to get to Brussels.


It was a pretty chilly night and cold this morning! We railed trailed it again today, honestly, it doesn't get any easier than this. Perfect weather, green all around, a Flemish rail trail with a perfect surface. There were benches and bins every few kilometres, even shelters and undercover areas. We are starting to get used the easy-going nature of cycle touring which we have had for the last few weeks. We can barely remember the days of having to climb a couple of thousand metres a day! We stopped often to relax and have Solly finally earn his keep steadily on a day with plenty of sunshine.There are still plenty of billowing white clouds about, but also blue sky. Makes us realise how dumbstruck Europeans must be when they visit our city, Perth, which never has a cloud in the sky all summer, just perfect blue overhead all the time! There were plenty of other cyclists and cycle tourists out today, it was actually a public holiday, Whit Monday. Took us by surprise but we stopped at a supermarket this morning and it was open. I was held up at the chocolate section. Chocolate in Belgium is of course next level. Home of Cote-d'Or. So much Cote-d'Dor. In so many flavours. And plenty of other chocolate too. Specaloos came from here. We have been eating Specaloos biscuits every day since France. Usually we buy a two pack pretty cheapily. Every store has a homebrand version. In Australia we only get the Biscoff kind which is pretty expensive. Today I bought a special Flemish make called Vermielen's Specaloos which claims to be the original or best or whatever. It was very nice indeed!/p>

We could hear a race track from far off and then we passed it, karting! Men racing these lightweight carts with tiny wheels around a track. Boy, they really flew! We watched for a while. A bit further on we came to a huge railway yard where they had steam trains and many other historic engines, pretty cool to see! We have also noticed that Belgium has many charging points available for e-bikes which we could use for our batteries, but we are managing with Solly now that the sun is out more often. The plug points sit on walls above bike racks.

We ended the day at our second bivouac, this one on the lazy Hermeton River. There were more people about than last night, there is a popular walk along the river. But we were alone by 18:30. We had a lovely river swim to wash off. Only our second of the entire trip so far, and probably of the trip at all since river swims in Africa are best avoided for a host of reasons.


A lone hiker came to camp at the Hermeton site and was very quiet. We got an early start as it would be a long day and rain was forecast for late afternoon. We were on the most amazing river route for the first 50 km, all the way to Namur. The Meuse River had the most beautiful villages with very grand historic homes and chateaux. There were dramatic clifffaces as a backdrop forming the river valley. Everything in Belgium is well kept, verges are mowed and cycleways are mostly perfect. At Namur we ate lunch and then followed the Via Monastica, which felt like rail trail and is a camino route. From Jodoigne we were on good cycleways. There were a few deviations due to work on cyclepaths or roads but these were clearly marked. We liked the riding today, perhaps not as much as yesterday, but that was mainly as the wind really came up in the afternoon and with it the sense that the weather was changing and we had better get there and fast!

The bivouac we used tonight required us to book in online, as it was with last night's. There was a brutal but short 14% climb up to the forest and the bivouac area was clearly signposted, a handwritten note on the info board said it was closed. As we had booked in and had an e-mail confirming this, "in case of dispute", we pitched the tent. There were three little numbered campspots, and we picked number 3, only noticingwhen we checked the e-mail that this was coincidentally the site we had been assigned! We set up and had our shower. This bivouac has a pit toilet which is nice. Usually they do not have any toilet facilities, which is fine if there is a large area, but the bivouac we used last night was quite a small area and all on the river so we felt it was not really right not to have a pit toilet. Also, in a small area you feel that by the end of summer it is going to feel used.

Tomorrow is our last day cycling in Europe. We have less than 30 km from here to our hotel near Brussels airport. We e-mailed the Decathlon store nearest to our hotel and they confirmed we could collect two bike boxes tomorrow to pack up our bikes ready to leave. Also tomorrow morning we are to start taking our anti-malarial medication ready for Africa.


There was a very friendly cat at the bivouac last night that wanted to be friends, even following us to the toilet. The site is next door to the old forester's house which is now privately owned, so the cat probably belonged to them. In the early hours of the morning it began meowing pitifully. We didn't see it when we got up. It did not rain at all overnight which was strange considering all that blustery wind. We had such a short way to ride today. We were through the beautiful forest for a few kilometres and then into built up areas. The outskirts of Brussels. We were almost always on cycleways. It was a very pretty rural environment. It is amazing to see wheatfields sandwiched by houses. The towns invite the farms in! We stopped for breakfast and eaked out the last of our fuel to try to have a cup of coffee, but it fizzled out before the water was hot.

We stopped at a laundry on our way in, right at the central Brussels cemetery, which was huge! The laundry done, we headed a few km's north to our hotel where we could check in early, before 14:00 which was a help. Before getting there, we shopped at the Albert Heijn supermarket nearby. We chose a hotel close to the airport. We showered and then took the bus to the Decathlon store to collect our bike boxes. This store was very good and we also picked up some other items. The bike store was impressive. Then we walked the 3.7 km back to our hotel with the bike boxes, you couldn't get onto the bus with them. Luckily it wasn't hot. Later we packed the bikes so all good!

We had a rest day in the hotel and we really rested, only leaving to take a walk to nearby pharmacy to pick up some more items for the next leg, antihistamine and ibuprofen. And another food shop. We had considered going in to Brussels (we have been to the city before on a previous trip) but didn't feel the need to go in the end. We checked in online to our Qatar flight to Entebbe, Uganda, which we take tomorrow afternoon. As we are flying to Africa we get two items of luggage weighing 23 kg each, but our bikes do not comply with the size (total of dimensions) limit so we had to pay for the bikes.

This last month across France and some of Belgium has been like a holiday really. It feels like a dream all in shades of green, as if we crossed the entire region by railtrail and river route, fueled by the most delicious bread. We have't needed to really think about it, it has been easy. So we feel okay about the relative unknown we are going to enter into for the next 4 months, travelling south from Uganda.