France

J and I flew to the west coast of France right after my exams to visit my family, enjoy France's excellent bike paths and eat a lot of really, really good cheese.

We arrived in Bordeaux at around midnight, with the plan to cycle a little ways from the airport and find some wild camping. With a little help from GoogleEarth, we found this lovely campsite located about 15 minutes away from the airport. It had the added advantage of being a convenient place to store our excess baggage (a couple of bike bags needed to take bikes on trains in France). We gleefully ditched our bulky bags in the woods and cycled away.

About an hour into cycling we stumbled upon a fantastic local farmer's market, complete with accordion player (which you can hear in the short clip below). We bought lunch ingredients, ate them, and then went back for dinner ingredients.

One of the tastiest loaves of bread I've ever had.

Olives

Fresh veggies

Unfortunately we didn't think our camp stove was up to the task of cooking these tasty birds up, so we settled for some local sausages instead.

Why, oh why, can Canada not harbour more good cheese?

Vineyards

Fishing huts on La Gironde

We ended up camping at a municipal campsite in Blaye on our second night. We had the entire campsite to ourselves and couldn't even find someone to pay. The campsite had the added bonus of being located in the middle of a citadel, which also happens to be a UNESCO world heritage site.

Looking out over the citadel.

Citadel toilets.

Tiles

Some wine to go with our sausages and fresh veggies.

Sunset on La Gironde.

The following day we managed to stumble upon "La Fete des Asperges", which featured this rather large asparagus omelet.

The perfect bike touring lunch: duck, potatoes fried in duck fat and beer.

Lizards hanging out at the asparagus festival.

The cheese man with his cheese-art - they were beautiful.

J's bike Birdy ditched the water bottle for some wine.

My mom's cousin: actress, violinist, story-teller. All round good fun.

From Regine's home in Jonzac we headed west to the coast to catch a ferry across the mouth of the river Gironde.

Oysters at the ferry terminal pub.

Yet another stellar (and free) campsite, this one right on the Atlantic Ocean.

My first coffee in eight months. It was worth the wait.

More cheese and bread after a dip in the Atlantic.

There were loads of bike paths and we probably spent about 80% of our time off roads. Most of the paths were impressively smooth, but this one was the exception.

From the coast we headed in-land to Lac Lacanau and found yet another great camp spot.

Sunrise on Lac Lacanau.

The house my mom grew up in.

From Lac Lacanau we cycle around 'le basin d'Arcachon' to La Teste, the town where my mom grew up and where I spent many summer's as a kid.

Sand skiing on 'la dune du Pyla' - the highest sand dune in Europe at just over 100m.

Sand dune taking over the forest.

Strawberry tart stop on our cycle back to Bordeaux to pick up our bag in the woods and catch the train to Paris.