I chose the west to east direction to take advantage of the prevailing wind. The prevailing wind did prevail. It would have been much harder going the other way. We were lucky with the weather.

We had no bike maintenance problems whatsoever, no punctures, no loose bolts. My "drive train" fell to bits after an October 2005 trip up to visit our son, Patrick in Sheffield. An off road trail ride, in the Peak District, the "Tissington Trail" in the rain finished it off, our bikes were spattered with limestone sludge. On our return, I replaced chain rings, cassette, free-hub and chain.

The current Michelin Regional[orange] series maps are now smaller scale than the old yellow variety: from 1:200,000 to 1:275,000. That seems quite a leap. Ludger pointed this out to me at Pont d'Ouilly. In some areas this is not a problem. In western Brittany it certainly was.

I kept a record of most of what we ate for dinner each evening. We cyclo-tourists need our food. After the event, here's another French food tale. Last Sunday, 12th Feb. 2006, i was doing our shopping in the nearby branch of Sainsbury's [supermarket chain], when i observed an elderly man pick up a shrink-wrapped four-pack of Heinz Spaghetti cans, from an end of aisle promotional stack. He looked at them for a second or so, as he turned them in his hand, then shouted to his unseen wife, "Cherie, C'est l'horreur!"

Happy cycling to all.

Mick