Touring around france

France can include the Pyrenees and Alps - if you are thinking of riding a fully loaded bike up big cols and if the bike's gearing isn't low enough, your knees will suffer. Either that or you'll end up walking.

Do you have a route in mind?

If you are camping in France there is no real need to carry cooking gear.
You can keep the load down by using a very small tent such as the Gelhert Solo, a 3/4 length mat and a light sleeping bag. This can all be carried on a seatpost-clamp rack. If your bike has normal rack fittings, these are far stronger so use a proper rack.

The only reason to cook for yourself is if you are on a very tight budget.
There are almost always cafeterias, restaurants and bars where you can eat within range of a campsite and local cuisine is one of the attractions of French touring.
Most campsites are commercial or municipal. Very few are primitive and wild camping is only allowed at altitude.
Coffee, bread/ croissants are available in most campsites or along the way.
I only found one site out of range of anywhere and I carried some iron rations to get me through unplanned emergencies (tin of sardines, cereal bars, biscuits etc). If I had planned the overnight stay I could have stocked up on better food before.
The only food-related utensils I took were a Swiss army penknife and a plastic spoon or spork.
You could take a simple stove (eg solid fuel) and small pot/cup for drinks and Just Add Water cooking but any cooking brings extra bulk and weight.
I have camped with full cooking kit, its a totally different style, quite enjoyable but much more heavily loaded.

marcandre wrote:

any further thoughts?

I'm guessing that you want someone to tell you that you can have your cake and eat it. But (and I know this risks being simplistic) you chouce rally boils down to:

- carry less stuff eg stay in B&Bs etc, don't carry cooking equipment;
- get a bike that can carry more stuff.

For what it's worth, I certainly would not put panniers on my Cannondale System 6, I think it would be very unstable, particularly on steep descents and with windy conditions. What the other guys have already said rings true.
You use a touring bike or go B & B.

Hi I live in France,I have a colnago c40 and tour with it .10Kg with panniers using a topeck rack off my seat stem and works well and a handle bar bag . All my kit is light weight , tent, sleeping bag ,ect . you don't need much stuff . I do have a cycling B&B .www.bluebicycleholidays.com

There is the alternative: Formule 1 hotels, credit card in jersey pocket and bar bag for a pair of light trousers for the evenings, waterproof and bike lock. Buy or beg maps as you go, rinse out your shorts nightly, grow a beard and anything in excess gets put in the post to go home. Things get desperate, there's always Decathlon, Go Sport or a hyper somewhere close and the credit card will see you through. Once upon a time you would have organised gear drops in post offices along the way but I doubt that this will work now.

Take a look at Its not about the Tapas http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-About-Tap ... 0385339925. It is about Spain, not France, but Polly Evans followed a plan much like mz-jo outlined and seemed to have a great time.

mz__jo wrote:

There is the alternative: Formule 1 hotels, credit card in jersey pocket and bar bag for a pair of light trousers for the evenings, waterproof and bike lock. Buy or beg maps as you go, rinse out your shorts nightly, grow a beard and anything in excess gets put in the post to go home. Things get desperate, there's always Decathlon, Go Sport or a hyper somewhere close and the credit card will see you through. Once upon a time you would have organised gear drops in post offices along the way but I doubt that this will work now.

Actually IME 'poste restante' works very well in France.

It's well worth carrying a list of Decathlon and Intersport brances but they tend to be in industral estates/out-of-town shopping malls in larger towns so you will probably have to make a conscious detour to find one. Similar thing with Formule 1 hotels - the chances are you'll get a perfectly good deal at a normal hotel.

i wouldnt really tour on a lovely road bike, putting panniers or a decent size saddlebag on, and the back end oddly turns to jelly,
trailer good option, can be purchased from amazon from around £160 ,
otherwise a cheap tourer bike, need not be new , just serviceable.
have a great tour, and if passing us, pop in.

FWIW I did La Manche -> Le Med a few years ago (http://lucusj.wordpress.com/tag/france/page/6/ for blog) staying at several chambres d'hote an F1 and a couple of hotels.

As much as I love my road bike I'd do it the same way again; ie in a bit more comfort at the expense of a little speed. That said, I could have used a little less luggage, but not much.

To my mind touring's touring & racing's racing; by necessity, not through choice.

On the tech side, I would only load a rack on a road bike with well under 2 x 10kg panniers and wouldn't use < 25mm tyres.

I've toured on a CAAD7 frame and its fine - the rear end is stiff, so it won't flop around as many say. But of course you are limited in weight - I never carried more than 10kg. I used an oldmanmountain rack (which is designed for mountain bikes, but works perfectly well on road bikes. I'd use slightly tougher than normal tyres, like Michelin Krylions.

You can also, if you are willing to invest, go for custom luggage options. You can fit a sleeping bag and even a tent into a good handlebar bag-roll, and you could go for custom bags to fill the frame. Porcelain Rocket [url=Ihttp://theporcelainrocket.wordpress.com/]Ihttp://theporcelainrocket.wordpress.com/[/url]) is just one of a few custom bag manufacturers - they work brilliantly so long as you are disciplined about what you carry. You may also need to invest in some very light gear - tarptents, for example, are great for cycle touring.

I personally wouldn't use a heavy trailer with a road bike, I'd be worried about the impact on the rear stays. That said, I was in France last week and I saw people touring with Bobs on roadbikes. An Extrawheel might be a better alternative: http://www.extrawheel.com/

I've toured on proper touring bikes and on road bikes. If you have the discipline to keep your load really light, touring on road bikes is great, you cover so much more ground and its more fun, if a little less practical.