Paris - the city famous for romance, fashion, culture; there is so much to see and do it can be hard to know where to start! We arrived to the Paris Gare Lyon train station and started cycling towards the Airbnb we had booked for the next week.  We stopped for a picnic lunch in a small park, under a rather impressive water feature. It all seemed rather idyllic until we noticed a homeless man taking a poop in the bushes a few metres away.  This is the stuff that they don't put in the brochures!

I think everybody knows this one...

We started our week by orientating ourselves with a free walking tour around some of the main sights of Paris. We have spent hours on this trip mocking and cursing tour groups at various attractions - they walk really slowly, they get in your way around the best attractions, they take way too many selfies, they get to skip the lines; we consider ourselves more intrepid and edgy compared to that crowd. We decided to cross to the dark side for a few hours and actually really enjoyed it. Our guide was knowledgeable and entertaining and even taught us how to keep an eye out for scammers. Maybe there are some positives about tour groups!

Notre Dame

Alberto - our native Mexican, English speaking, Parisian tour guide.

View from Arc de Triomphe

We spent the next few days ticking off some of the various art museums Paris have to offer. We choose to visit the Lourve, Musee de'Orsay and my personal favourite the George Pompidou centre.  They are amazing places, with so much to see its hard to do any of them justice - it would take days to fully explore each of these places. The Mona Lisa was better than I expected and the people surrounding it were just as interesting. My personal favourite was the middle-aged Asian gentleman who was systematically photographing every painting and caption in a room, without breaking his stride, while wearing a safari style hat inside a museum. What is he going to do with all those photos ?!?! The number of selfies and glamour shoots made me wonder what it would have been like to visit in a time before smartphones and cameras; when people came to experience a moment without having to obsessively collect evidence to skite with later on. I guess I am showing my age....

This was before the heated argument about how to best tackle the lines.

George Pompidou centre

But what does it mean ?!?!

Musee d'Orsay

The one and only - Mona Lisa

We headed out to Versaille to visit the opulent royal chateau, made famous by Louis XIV - the sun king. The lines were long for security, but moved surprisingly quickly and the palace itself wasn't too crowded. The palace and the hall of mirrors were full of gilted candeliers and antique furniture. I found it all a bit tacky, but I guess fashion has changed substantially over the past few hundred years. It's probably still better than my current home; which is a tent.

The line for security screening...

Fully armed soldiers who were casually checking their phones

The sun king

Between seeing the big tourist sites, we tried to soak up the atmosphere of the city and spent a lot of time walking around exploring. It's easy to underestimate the sheer size of a city like Paris, and the number of people is mind-boggling for a small-town New Zealander.  We also celebrated Dave's 29th birthday while in the city, with an Indian feast (a long standing craving of Dave's) and a few quiet beverages. The food in Paris was fantastic and we enjoyed our multi - cultural neighbourhood where we had a choice of cuisine from all over the world.

Sacre- Coeur

Almost everyone you can see in that little tower was playing Pokemon Go... seriously

Space Invader sighting

We celebrated Bastille day by joining crowds of Parisians in a park near our accommodation - Bellevue Park miles away from the Eiffel Tower, trying to catch a glimpse of the magnificent fireworks. We could see the tower in parts, and at times, while on tippy-toes at the exact right angle (if we were lucky). Despite the sub-optimal views it felt like an authentic big city experience with people of many different religions, skin colours, and sexualities gathered in the park enjoying the show. We were shocked to hear of the horrific attack in Nice when we arrived home, as we imagined the atmosphere in Nice would have been similar to one we had just experienced.
It was saddening to be in France during such an awful time. We were unsure how we should react the next day, however after checking the news we went out and life seemed to be flowing on normally. After such a hateful attack on innocent people's lives it was hard at times not to be fearful, especially when we encountered fully-armed soldiers in a shopping mall. If travelling has taught me anything, it's that what makes us all different to each other is much less than what makes us all the same; and with an open mind and a little understanding, what seems foreign at first, is not so scary after all.

 -  Sarah

We set off further up the valley with a detour to the Château de Chenonceau on the way to our next stop - Blois. We wondered if we would feel ridiculously under dressed exploring a grand castle in our sweaty bike gear, so were pleased when we saw quite a few other cyclists with the same idea.  This was a fairytale-like castle with some grit, having been used as a hospital in WW1. It is built over the  River Cher, which marked the border between Nazi territory and Vichy territory in WW2 and was used as a passage to smuggle people to the free zone. It was a beautiful spot and well worth the extra few kilometres on the bike.

Château de Checonceau over the Cher river

We headed to Blois, where we had booked an Airbnb for a couple of nights to allow us to do a day trip to our next castle, Château Chambord. Blois was a picturesque spot with some nice old town buildings. Unfortunately, that often comes with a few stairs and some of those lovely cobblestones we love to bike on so much to add an extra challenge to the end of the day.
We set off without the panniers for a day trip to the the Château Chambord. We had packed ourselves a picnic lunch to eat on the grounds and enjoyed the ride through the countryside. We were rather annoyed at ourselves when we went to go inside and realised we had left the locks for the bikes at the apartment, 25km or so away! We decided to risk it and used our spare bike tubes to tie our bikes to the rack in the hope it would act as a visual deterrent to the stupider criminals and hope for the best while we explored the grounds.

Maybe we should upgrade from two wheels to four....

After a few lookouts from various towers in the castle, we were relieved to find our bikes just as we left them when we returned. I guess we will never know if it was those tied up bike tubes that did the trick!

We headed back to Blois and planned to cook a meal in our apartment and utilise the rare luxury of a T.V. to watch the Euro 2016 semifinal - Germany vs. France. As you probably know by now, France won, and for the next half an hour we could hear endless cars tooting their horns to celebrate. We caught a bit of football fever ourselves and were looking forward to watching the final in a few days time.

Blois

We headed further up the Loire Valley and enjoyed our last day on the cycle trails. It was a hot day and we were heartbroken when we turned up to the campsite and saw the "Complet" (full!) sign. We meekly asked if they had any spots for us and to our relief they told us they always have spots for cyclists - they even offered us the "best spot in the campground".

Nuclear power plant - didn't see any three eyed fish in the Loire though!

The best spot: I was a bit worried about how close those swans were getting...

We said goodbye to the Loire Valley and rejoined the traffic to head northeast to Fontainebleau. It was a little intimidating after spending so long on dedicated cycle trails, but the roads were reasonably quiet and the drivers courteous. Our first choice of camping ground had been flooded out, so we settled for what can only be described as a French trailer park. However, we had a nice spot in the shade by the lake, which partially made up for the condition of the toilet facilities.

So much serenity... The view from the tent at sunset

After a hot day walking through the forest of Fontainebleau (Dave wanted to check out the famous bouldering area), we found a tiny local pub to watch the Euro 2016 final - France vs Portugal. We enjoyed watching the theatrics of the football game and found ourselves quite disappointed when France eventually lost after extra time. After a bit of a sleep in, we were excited to catch the train to our destination for the next week - Paris!

 -  Sarah

When we booked our hotel in Nantes it was late in the evening, with crappy internet, a low battery on our tablet, and in 30 degree heat. So we weren't too surprised to find it was about 7km from the centre of town - something we hadn't registered when booking. The hotel was nice enough though; and we were stoked to find our new tent poles had arrived.

Château des ducs de Bretagne in Nantes

We had two nights booked so we took a bus into the centre of Nantes the next morning and started the day with a visit to our first château. We walked around the walls of the 500 year old castle admiring the views of Nantes before exploring the city properly, by way of a self-guided walking tour which followed a neon green line painted on the ground around the city.

Public art showing refugees in Nantes

After the tour we visited 'Les Machines de l'île' (The Machines of the Island) on an island in the Loire. This is a giant artistic project in the former shipyard warehouses that has been producing massive 'machines' that can be riden & operated. They include a giant spider, a carousal full of sea creatures and a huge elephant that actually walks around the island.

The elephant of Les Machines de l'île

The next day we began following the well-signposted 'Loire a Velo' trail as we made our way towards Paris. After some tedious scenery coming up the Atlantic Coast, it was a nice change to cycle past the interesting architecture and cutesy villages of the Loire. We ticked over the 4000km mark at some stage during the day and made sure to take a few pics. Our aim for the trip was to get over 4000km so we were happy to have achieved this about halfway through our trip!

Total distance - 4000km

Loire river

Over the next two days we cycled past wheat-fields, vineyards and château towards the touristy (but nice) village of Amboise. The weather was overcast and drizzly much of the time but we weren't complaining - it wasn't enough to get us wet and was far better than the 30 degree heat we'd experienced further south.

We're making sure to sample all the different baguettes; here's Sarah with a particularly big one.

We cycled through a network of tunnels in limestone caves on the banks of the river

Villandry vege gardens

From our camp at Savonnières we visited the Château de Villandry - a château know for it's extensive and meticulously manicured gardens. The château was pretty good, but the gardens were the star of the show; the geometric shapes of the vegetable garden were a highlight.

Early morning light on Château d'Amboise;

We arrived in Amboise to a big campground with heaps of fellow cycle tourers - they even had a special section for us all. The town was busy with tourists but we managed to find a terrace seat at a bar to watch the sun set over Château d'Amboise.

  -  David

Cycling past the towers at the entrance to La Rochelle's harbour was a great way to enter the city. We passed through the bustling marina and old town to our Air BnB where we'd booked in for a couple of nights.

La Rochelle's impressive harbour fortifications

We visited all three of the 14th century towers the next afternoon after a lazy morning at the local markets. We had to sample some of the local seafood so for lunch we went for 'moules frites' (mussels and chips) and fish at a restaurant beside the old port.

'Moules frites'

The next few days of cycling were relatively uneventful and at times pretty boring! At one stage we almost ran over a +1m long snake crossing the road in front of us, as our attention was on the huge fields of hemp we were passing through! We traveled for long stretches through swamps and along canals, spending a lot of time with headphones in our ears listening to podcasts. Current favourites include Sound Opinions (music news, interviews, and reviews), Uhh Yeah Dude (comedy), Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, The Enormocast (climbing), and Radio New Zealand (night and Sunday morning shows). Sarah's also been enjoying a few of these, plus some Hamish & Andy (comedy), Sawbones (medical history), Anna Faris is Unqualified (Sarah's guilty pleasure) and Stuff You Missed In History Class.
One evening, as we were nearing our campground for the night, a Frenchman pulled up beside us where we were stopped to read our map. After establishing that we were camping and hadn't booked anywhere he offered us his lawn to camp on for the night. We accepted and followed Didier to his nearby house. After briefly pondering how wise this decision was (sorry Mum), we settled in on Didier's lawn and enjoyed his hospitality and broken English. Thanks again Didier!

At Didier's place

Which way next? Lots of options for cycle touring!

The next day we welcomed the change of scenery as we arrived at the mouth of the Loire Valley. Here we started following the `Loire a Velo` system of cycle ways up the valley as we headed to Paris.

St Nazaire Bridge crossing the Loire river mouth

Industrial and agricultural scenes at the Loire river mouth estuary

Arrival in Nantes

We were glad to arrive in Nantes after a couple of nights of rain making us wonder how long our broken tent would hold up. Luckily we had new tent poles waiting for us at our hotel in Nantes!

  -  David

From San Sebastian we headed up the coast and crossed the Bidasoa river into the French side of the Basque Country. Our plan was to follow the Velodyssey cycle route up the Atlantic coast towards Nantes. The Velodyssey is part of the EuroVelo network; a series of cycle routes throughout Europe. It is a mixture of dedicated cycleways, cycle lanes on roads, and quiet roads. We were looking forward to less traffic and easy navigation.

Bayonne

As there was bad weather forecast, we stopped in Bayonne for a couple of days resting and exploring the town. The highlight would have to be the artisan chocolate which was worth the expensive price tag (5 euro for two small pieces!).

We set off again feeling refreshed and completed our first +100km day (103.1km to be exact). I didn't think I would have been able to bike this far when we first started! It must of taken its toll, because clumsily managed to snap a pole of our tent that night. The tent was now rather misshapen and we were seriously concerned about its ability to keep water out. After no rain the first night, we decided to truck on and hope there was no rain while we figured out how to get the tent fixed.  Our destination for the evening was the Dune du Pilat - the tallest sand dune in Europe.

Dune du Pilat

It was a lot more fun going down than up!

The dune was quite impressive and there was great views all around from the top. It was pretty hard work climbing up to the top, but lots of fun running back down again!

We started to see more cycle tourers along the Velodyssey route. It was a good opportunity to check out other cycle setups and I was pretty jealous of the couple who somehow carried chairs on their bikes (while we struggled to get comfortable on our tarp on the ground)! We managed to arrange some new tent poles to be sent from N.Z. to a hotel in Nantes and hoped there wasn't too much wind and rain in the meantime - thanks Zempire for helping us out!
After cycling through kilometres and kilometres of fairly monotonous scenery in +30 degree heat I had my first swim in the Atlantic Ocean. It was very refreshing and it was even worth the faceplant after being bowled over by a big wave. I guess the french chic needs a bit more time to wear off on me!

Atlantic Ocean

Ferry across the mouth of the Gironde river

Kiwi ingenuity

Fort Louvois - only accessable at low tide

Towers at the entrance to La Rochelle's old port

The change of scenery when we got closer to La Rochelle, the "white city", was welcomed. We had scheduled our next day off the bikes and looked forward to a day exploring the city.

 -  Sarah