Our bikes are wearing seatbelts! You have to marvel at the simplest of solutions in Europe. There is, afterall, an answer for everything. We are going to St. Malo and Mont St. Michel for the weekend before coming back to Paris. We are taking our bikes of course. The process has been reasonably painless albeit expensive. We bought tickets for ourselves, and it's 10€ each for the bikes. Not all trains take them but you must reserve a spot for them (so they get th...

Above the waist, below the waist. That's how Wobbly Wheels packs each pannier. It's become a defining factor of the trip and makes me laugh not least for a brief insight into the ridiculousness that sometimes possesses the man I married. I've explained my 'less is more' approach to packing, cyclewear in one bag, casual wear in another, etc. I think it's easy but maybe this too is odd and it is as much my idiosyncrasy or oddity as the above is for WW. Socks, jocks...

In Paris you can spend four hours waiting in line to go up the Eiffel tower, half a day waiting to get tickets into Musee D'Orsay, or the Louvre, pay $20 for a bad coffee on the Champs Élysées and crowd around the Arc de Triumph for an obligatory photo. And you should, it's what Paris is famous for and you don't take a 24-hour flight to miss these and several other amazing experiences. But there's a reason to come back to Paris each year, whether it's the shopp...

Riding into Paris is guaranteed to be adventurous and a buzz. There will be numerous wrong turns, questionable directions and necessary detours. As you'd expect the arterial roads get thicker and the traffic seems faster. The closer you get the further away you feel. You'll find yourself on major roads with no shoulder and an exit plan consisting only of the grassy verge running adjacent. You will be scared, frustrated, happy, angry, desperate, smug and eventuall...

Summer arrived in the north of France today at exactly 11.49am. By 1pm it wasn't just warm and sunny but scorching hot and dry. Oh how easy it is to b**** and moan about the weather twice in one day. This morning's 11 degree start was foggy and cold and the 35 degree finish was too warm. Life is enjoyably tough as a tourist isn't it? With the sunshine and clear skies came the bugs. Tiny little midget-like things that love the taste of suncream. Hundreds of them w...