Family Killick French Cycling Adventure 2014: Day 1: Bayonne to Ondres-Plage

The coach dropped us off very late in Bayonne due to a number of reasons- delays at the ferry port - the ferry we should have travelled on reversed into a wall. Heavy traffic on motorways for the start of the French get-away and a rather 'jobs-worth' Gendarme stopping the coach and questioning the driver for some time on the weight he was carrying / arguing the law. Eventually European bike express came out on top of course, saved by their French speaking boss!

By the time we had sorted ourselves out, put the bikes and luggage back together the rest of the passengers that got off in Bayonne with us were long gone! We were eventually ready to head off at 1.30pm. The next couple of hours just confirmed my opinion that I hate technology and cycling/navigating my way around a busy city by bike (when you don't know where you are). Adrian's GPS is proving useless as it's not showing any of the cycling route... What a waste of money! Back to the old fashioned map reading then! The French do do cycling routes well though so after cycling in the wrong direction down a busy duel carriageway (in the wrong direction rather than against the flow of traffic!), we eventually found the bike path that took us safely out of the city. We found our first velodyssey sign and after that it was plain sailing all the way to the first campsite. 9.18 miles cycled today.

The coach journey had certainly taken its toll and by the time we had set up the tent, we were really flagging. Straight to the pool then for a couple of hours relaxing, followed by pizza and chips from the campsite takeaway as we couldn't face cooking. Hannah was again asleep in seconds. We retired shortly after. Knackered!