Did I say plan? Plan is too grand a term. I don't intend to plan the trip in detail, in fact I'm not even certain exactly how long I'll stay; though five or six weeks is what I have in mind. And as far as routes are concerned, I have only the broadest notion of what I'll do. In outline I'm thinking I'd like to ride all the way south to the Pyrenees and spend a few days there, maybe doing a couple of the famous cols like the Tourmalet and the Aubisque. Then turn north and west, taking in Bordeaux and the Loire valley before getting the ferry home from either Caen or Calais. That's as specific as it gets, really, I aim to meander around as the fancy takes me for perhaps 500 or 600 kilometres per week.
For the occasion I've bought a new touring bike. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the Thorn Nomad I've had for several years, but I aim to travel fairly light this time and the Nomad is more of a heavyweight than I really need for a trip like this. Plus I'd like to be on something a bit lighter on the days when I leave the bags in the hotel, or whatever, and ride up a mountain or two. So the bike for this trip is a Condor Heritage, a traditional drop-bar touring bike in dedacciai steel.
For the technically minded, the gearing is a Shimano 105 road triple (50/39/30) with a 12-32 cassette, giving a low gear of around 25 gear inches. That's a bit higher than I'd normally regard as ideal for loaded touring, but I intend to keep the load down to between 10 and 14 kilos, so it should be fine. I haven't yet decided whether to take camping gear or just to hang the expense and stay exclusively in hotels, hostels etc. If I do the latter I can travel very light indeed.
Nothing much to do now beyond spending some time refurbishing my French.
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