What to Pack

The idea of packing enough stuff for a month of cycling in France into two panniers is an intimidating prospect for a first time tourist. Perhaps I can relieve some anxiety with a few tips we have learned from our many tours.

There are several basic premises to remember when preparing to pack. First, you don't pack for a month; you pack for two days and then recycle everything fifteen times! It doesn't matter that you're wearing the same outfit you wore last night. You're in a different village and so you're the only one who knows! Second, you'll be travelling in France, not in eastern Rwanda, so if you've forgotten something you can pick it up at the local Intermarché. Finally, if you are travelling with your spouse (or "significant other"), you are not packing two panniers. You and your partner are packing four panniers (and two handlebar bags). Many of the things you'll both need (shampoo, corkscrew, tool kit, etc., etc.) only one of you needs to carry.

Here is a rough summary of the stuff we would bring for a month in France and some of the preparations we would make for transporting it.

Bike Stuff

The airlines usually insist on some sort of packaging on this side of the Atlantic. We prefer the large polyethylene bags (like a giant clear garbage bag) for the bikes, available from the air carrier, rather than a cardboard bike box. We feel that the baggage handlers treat the visible (in the bag) bike better than the boxed one and it's a lot easier to wheel the bike into the bag than to dismantle it for the box. Returning from Europe, the bikes are occasionally "naked". The attitude of the French is : It's just a bike. Why would it need to be packaged? (This must be said in French with an appropriate Gallic shrug of the shoulders! "Pourquoi? Ce n'est qu'un vélo!") In more than two dozen trans-Atlantic flights, the only 2 times we experienced semi-serious problems were when the bikes had to be changed to connecting flights in London. We try not to have connecting flights. Anything that cannot be attached to the bike must, of course, be packed in your panniers or your handlebar bag. You'll have to bundle the panniers together for the flight. We bought a very large duffle bag of light rip-stop nylon at an outdoor outfitters.  It's big enough for us to put in all 4 panniers plus some extra stuff, yet it fits into a bag the size of a small handbag when rolled up empty. The air carriers prefer these large stuff sacks because they're easier on the baggage handling system. The bundled pair of panniers counts as one piece of luggage. The bike used to be the other free piece of "luggage" but in recent years all carriers have been applying a surcharge for bikes - usually about $50 US/CDN.

Picnics

Our usual lunches include a carrot,  a small tomato and a yogurt each (and occasionally some country paté or cheese with bread), and a pear or nectarine, all purchased late in the morning and consumed, picnic-style, in some marvellous setting (or just off the side of the road in the shade of a tree - it's not always idyllic!). We bring two plastic cups (for the very rare occasions we decide to have wine at lunch); two metal spoons (for yogurt and for eating melon) - plastic ones break; salt and pepper (mixed together in a single plastic shaker); a Swiss Army knife (an absolute must - but remember to put it in your checked luggage because they'll confiscate it at airport security); a corkscrew. We try to do the bulk of our cycling in the morning so that on those infrequent occasions that we have wine at lunch, we don't have far to go afterwards. (

Cycling Clothing

Roughly, I bring one long sleeved and two short sleeved Polartec cycling T-shirts (from Canada's Mountain Equipment Co-op), two pairs of cycling shorts, two pairs of socks (orlon or polypropylene and cotton mix are best - 100% cotton takes too long to dry), a pair of cycling shoes, my helmet and a pair of cycling gloves. I also bring a Gore-tex jacket in case it's cool or raining. If you choose to wear regular shorts (without the chamois liner in the crotch), you'll also need underwear but remember that every piece of clothing between you and the saddle comes with seams, piping, etc., which may soon cause great discomfort. I wear cycling underwear that has the padded crotch and I wear loose light nylon shorts over them. The shorts are very comfortable and don't accentuate my substantial 'butt' the way spandex does. My wife's cycling attire matches mine fairly closely although I haven't yet been successful in selling her on the idea of wearing spandex shorts. Too bad! We used to have rain suits for the very rare times it rains but I found mine to be a portable sauna. I'd end up wetter from the suit than I would have been from the rain. Now we carry only very inexpensive thin plastic ponchos that fold up into a package smaller than a wallet. Packed, they're small and light and since it rarely rains and even more rarely for any length of time, they work just fine for us.

"Evening" Clothes

I bring one pair of slacks and one pair of shorts. Remember that they spend the day rolled up in the bottom of your pannier. Linen just won't do!! The best bet is a cotton - polyester mix that doesn't wrinkle too much. I also bring a shirt (again, watch the 100% cotton - some of them also wrinkle badly), two T-shirts, a cotton knit sweater, two pairs of socks, two underwear, a belt, and one pair of comfortable shoes. I also bring a bathing suit and a hat. My wife brings a two piece dress, a skirt and several tops. She's been more reasonable since she's developed knee problems and I now carry everything on my bike. All of these match well enough to give her a considerable variety of options. She also brings a pair of slacks and a pair of shorts. She has underwear and two pairs of comfortable shoes. She also brings a bathing suit and a hat. All the clothes are packed in plastic bags inside the panniers in case of wet weather. We save the bags made of a heavier gauge plastic all year long so that we'll have a good supply to choose from when packing day comes.

Miscellaneous

We also must remember to bring money. Years ago we used to bring Canadian dollar travellers cheques for most of our expenses, using Visa or Mastercard for emergencies only. The cheques were easily cashed in exchanges which can be found in most banks. However, in the past number of years we have been using credit cards for most of our expenses and bringing a much reduced amount of currency because we can now use ATM's to withdraw cash directly and we no longer bother with the travellers cheques.  (It's now 17 years since we last cashed one!) We must ensure that our passports are still valid and that both passports and airline tickets are on our final check-list so that we don't forget them. Depending on your needs, you may or may not wish to bring the following: maps (cheaper there than here) and guide books (be careful - the books are heavy and take up space!); a digital camera (with spare batteries or a recharger and large capacity memory cards); reading glasses (are we all at this stage?); an extra nylon "sports" bag with a shoulder strap that holds lots but rolls up into next to nothing when empty (one summer mine went to France in a pocket in one of the panniers and returned as carry-on luggage with a bottle of Cognac and six bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pâpe in it); a small first aid kit; an 'emergency' sewing kit. We used to bring pre-printed address labels for postcards we sent home but now we just e-mail. Men in Europe carry purses for all their stuff. It's a great idea for cyclists since those spandex shorts have no pockets and you need your passport, wallet, Swiss Army knife, etc. The bag I used to carry had a shoulder strap and I never took it off my shoulder when I was off my bike because I'd surely forget it if I put it down anywhere. Now I bring one that I wear around my waist instead. I recommend it. (I have reached the point where I now use it all year round, even in Canada.) We bring laundry soap (in a screw-top plastic container), 16 clothes pegs and a line. We do our laundry each day in the bathroom sink as soon as we settle into our hotel room, wringing the wet clothes out wrapped in bath towels (always in short supply in French hotels) and then hanging them on the line which I've strung across the room from one high point to another. Our hotel room looks like a Chinese laundry. We bring toiletries, of course - razors, toothpaste and brushes, shampoo, a potent sun-block, cosmetics, etc. If we bring anything electrical, we ensure that it has dual voltage since they use 220 V service over there. We also bring an adapter plug since their electrical outlets are shaped differently than ours. My wife brings a small hair dryer; I bring a rechargeable razor.

If we are going to travel by train, we check out trains on the internet before we go to find out which ones will allow us to take our bikes free since sending them ahead as unaccompanied baggage is so expensive and, since the shipped bikes don't travel on the same train as we do, there's no guarantee that they will be there waiting for us when we arrive. Check out my web page on 'bikes on trains' to learn how to identify which trains allow bikes as free "bagage à main" (accompanied baggage) in France.

I'd suggest a 'dry run' of packing before you try it for real. Lay out what you're going to bring, try to fit it into the two sets of panniers and the two handlebar bags, and then ruthlessly cull stuff until it all fits. Good luck!!