France 2008 - advice for 1st time tourer going all around

kluged

Hello, I am finishing a job at the end of May and, before getting another one, have decided to take a few months out to travel. I am planning to ride all around France during July and August.

I haven't planned my route in any great detail yet - in a nutshell though I am planning on going there/back by ferry (Dover<->Calais). Once there I intend to ride down through the western countryside and head to Montpellier, then follow the riviera roughly around to Cannes, then ride up through the alps and after that head off to Paris and home.

I am not an experienced cyclist and have never bike toured before. I was fairly into mountain biking a few years ago but haven't ridden at all in nearly two years.

I am going to be riding my new thorn sherpa and will be carrying camping gear which I intend to use most of the time along the way. I would like to try and have a go at wild camping and am thinking of spending 4-5 days doing this followed by a 1 day/night stay at a proper campsite where I can have a rest from riding and use the facilities.

I'm fairly confident that I have most of my research done (apart from the detailed route planning) and would just like people's opinions on what I am doing. I have a few specific queries listed below but would otherwise just like people's opinions and any suggestions/tips you might have.

Camping - What is the situation in France with wild camping? The adventure cycle touring handbook says it's not too bad due to the low population density. What are other people's experiences, and are there any particular areas where I should avoid doing this?

Computers/GPS etc - I would like to take something with me that will let me 1) get GPS data and match it up with maps, 2) let me get online at the nearest free Wifi hotspot so I can check email etc. I don't want to lug around a laptop and I am thinking that the best solutions is:
- PDA
- "hockey puck" GPS receiver (the cheap ones that just transmit the data to your computer and don't have a screen)
- Solar charger (any opinions on this - http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/products/solar_chargers/freeloader.asp?)
- PCMCIA wifi card (unless its built into the PDA)

With this I think I should be able to get online for email, use the PDA for comparing the GPS data to maps and easily move data from a digital camera to memory sticks etc. Is this right or is there a better solution?

Many thanks in advance for your comments.

daviddd

Kluged, there's quite a lot of info about camping etc. in my blog (link below) though you may have to fish around for it with keywords. Wild camping is great - no disturbances from lager louts and safe and secure if you choose sites properly.

kluged

Hey, thanks for that link - it'll keep me busy for a good couple of hours I think

andymiller

To be a bit prosaic about it: you can get a place in a decent campsite with a hot shower for 7 euros. I can understand wild camping if you get stuck somewhere and there's nowhere to stay for miles or you're in a really remote area, but personally I wouldn't relish the prospect of not having a shower for a week.

I've never encountered lager louts in a French campsite.

Gites d'étape are often excellent and a real bargain (eg 25€ for B&B and a good dinner).

I have an Acer n311 and a separate GPS (eTrex Legend or Venture - can't remember which). I think it's probably the best combination. It will run both the IGN Georando and Memory-Map. You can't however download tracks from the GPS to the PDA (although there may be a way if you have sufficient ingenuity).

vernonlevy

kluged wrote:

Camping - What is the situation in France with wild camping? The adventure cycle touring handbook says it's not too bad due to the low population density. What are other people's experiences, and are there any particular areas where I should avoid doing this?

Computers/GPS etc - I would like to take something with me that will let me 1) get GPS data and match it up with maps, 2) let me get online at the nearest free Wifi hotspot so I can check email etc. I don't want to lug around a laptop and I am thinking that the best solutions is:
- PDA
- "hockey puck" GPS receiver (the cheap ones that just transmit the data to your computer and don't have a screen)
- Solar charger (any opinions on this - http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/products/solar_chargers/freeloader.asp?)
- PCMCIA wifi card (unless its built into the PDA)

With this I think I should be able to get online for email, use the PDA for comparing the GPS data to maps and easily move data from a digital camera to memory sticks etc. Is this right or is there a better solution?

Many thanks in advance for your comments.

Wild camping is not officially endorsed or encouraged and in someinstances a stealth camp is nigh on impossible as there's nothing to hide behind. I had to make do with a pile of rubble to shield me from the road in a vast area of tree and hedgerow free rolling plains.

The campsites are are cheap especially the municiapal camp sites. They tend to be very quiet. Lager louts are non existent. Cyclists are well looked after in most campsites.

I'm not sure about the density of free wifi hot spots - can't advise you there. I made do with the pages torn out of a motoring atlas for my navigation from the channel to the med riode alst year. I relied upon there being many campsites that are never far apart from each other and the two instances of wild camping were diue do me losing faith in the liklihood of a camp site materialising when i wanted one desperately.

The second stealth camp was in a walled vineyard. Why not take a few memory cards with you? They are more compact than a PDA and don't need rgular recharges.

I used my mobile phone for email and sent a grand total of three messages and read half a dozen or so in the fortnight. I didn't anticiapate mission critical communications via email and the people important to me had my phone number anyway.

Enjoy your trip. I loved my fortnight in France and will return in the very near future.