(David) The train for Milano has just crossed the lagoon carrying us and our bikes (hanging in a special rack) on the first leg back home. There are tears in my eyes at the realisation that the trip is over and although we reached our destination the journey had become a way of life which we will really miss.

The last stages seemed calculated to avoid actually reaching Venice and we wandered off to the south and into the delta of the Po and Adige rivers. The landscape became even flatter and the skies even more enormous. The countryside had a raw, unfinished, frontier feel to it, dotted with old farms, quite a few of which were in ruins, a lot of industrial development large and small, power lines, gas pipes and – something we had seen very little of previously – new housing. According to the altimeter on the GPS most of the area is below sea level, protected by levees along the rivers and around the coasts, with large areas of salt marsh. Apparently this area is gradually rising, partly due to human effort and partly from the silt brought down by the Po and Adige on their journey from the Alps on the other side of the country. We enjoyed staying in three more agriturismi with, once again, very welcoming, very hard-working hosts: La Pila near Villa Bartolomeo, Millefiori near Rovigo and Corte Papadopoli near Porto Tolle.

Finally we couldn’t go any further and, on our final day of cycling, turned north toward Venice, cycling along narrow strips of land with water or marsh on all sides. The weather had been deteriorating for several days and we cycled through the marshes pursued by rain storms and huge, green horse flies. These seemed to be attracted to our lycra-clad bums (the only living creatures that had) and couldn’t be swatted at without risking falling off the bikes. Scary! Although we had one of our longest days, 114km, amazingly we escaped serious soaking until we finally reached Lido di Venezia where the heavens opened and we had to shelter in a bar just 5 minutes from our destination, the Hotel Rigal. Ironically we had chosen Venice as our journey’s end without realising that it’s virtually impossible even to take bikes into the city let alone get around it so the only time we were there with our bikes was on the journey today from the main parking area at Tronchetto/Piazzale Roma to the station. The rest of the time we were staying on the Lido and Burano.

(Cath writing on the Venezia-Milano train) We had rented a lovely traditional house on Burano, way out in the lagoon and it was quite an adventure to get out there in the stormy weather. (Many thanks to Chris and Anna Wayman, Pigi, Tina and Barbara – all of whom were incredibly helpful and patient as we tried to coordinate our arrival on Burano and for renting us the house. Thanks especially to Tina for a very welcoming supper on Sunday night when we were feeling pretty low and for giving us two children’s books on Venice to help us appreciate the city even more than usual.) But we soon realised that we were not in the mood for tourism and the weather was dreadful: rain, wind and as cold as it had been in northern France when we set off six weeks before. We decided to cut short our planned relaxing week and instead to set off home using ‘regionali’ trains which take bikes without needing to pack them in special bags or boxes. We have chosen a route from Venice via Milan ,Turin , Bardonecchia, then across the Colle della Scala on the bikes again to Briancon and hopefully a night train to Paris, then Calais, Dover, Maidstone (to see my Mum) and finally London by Sunday (26^th June).

We had to plan our departure from Venice station like a military campaign. In fact we spent most of Monday researching the options, working out that we needed to leave from the Lido on the car ferry to Tronchetto, checking the route from Piazzale Roma to the station, discovering the side entrance to the station to avoid the steps, working out which trains took bikes and finally buying the tickets. We were warned that we may need to buy two tickets for the planned journey back to Bardonecchia as there was a time-limit of six hours for the journey. Unfortunately in our haste to board the train, we forgot to ‘convalidare’ (punch) the tickets and the ‘capo treno’ has just warned us that he should fine us Euros 200! Luckily he didn’t!

In fact yesterday (Tuesday) we did spend a fabulous day in Venice in the bright, bright sunshine at last. We had bought a 48-hour boat ticket so we ‘rode’ the boats until it ran out and then walked and walked and fell in love with the city again. Despite enjoying the day enormously, we were also very aware of the huge problems we tourists create. Lucio Sponza, a Venetian friend gave us a delicious supper (thanks, Lucio!) and we discussed the issue with him too. He has returned to Venice, where he was born, after his academic career in the UK and he admitted that although he disliked it, the city needed the money from the enormous cruise ships and the giant advertising hoardings cladding even the Doge’s palace, to restore the historic buildings. Sadly it means the dwindling number of, mainly aging, Venetians feel under siege and few are friendly to the tourists, at best blanking them out and at worst being quite rude. It definitely helps to speak Italian and we were able to have some interesting and friendly conversations on the vaporetto and in a restaurant. The big complaint is the cost of housing as a flat in Venice costs the same as a small villa near Mestre so young families are all transferring to ‘terra ferma’.

So, London-Venice on a bike - 44 days away, 2,125km cycled, loads of wonderful, memorable experiences and we can’t wait to plan the next trip…

(Cath) I want to describe the experience we had in a very small village, Cumignano sul Naviglio, in Cremona province which seem to me to highlight a few themes in Italian life – both contemporary and historical.

It was during the hot spell and we were having problems finding the right road. We rode into the village which was decked with gold and silver ribbons and rosettes – every house, fence, gate, tree – and there were also some long tables being laid up at the community centre for a meal. So we stopped to ask the way and find out what was going on. A very proud lady explained that her nephew was coming to say Messa (mass) in the church that evening. He was 27 years old had been confirmed as a priest the day before by the bishop in Cremona. After mass there would be a ‘spuntino’ (snack but more substantial than the word conveys in English) for the whole village. She also said that another young man from the village (26 years old) had become a priest the previous year and that both young men would be sent off to other parishes, usually in the province but not necessarily. Their village priest was also young (39 years old) and looked after three parishes in the area. Obviously there is no shortage of young people joining the priesthood, at least in country districts, and they are still held in great esteem.

We then stopped for an ice-cream in the local bar/gelateria. Sitting at the next table were four women also enjoying an ice-cream chatting in another language, not Italian. Later we saw one of them pushing an old man in a wheel chair down the main street. The bar lady confirmed that they were ‘badanti’ (carers) from Romania having a few hours off. Just as there are now lots of Indian and Egyptian cowmen, Italy has recruited an army of Romanian workers, many of them young women ‘badanti’.

At another table were a group of young men playing ‘scopa’ (card game) and arguing loudly in the local dialect. According to all the statistics, dialects are dying out in Italy but in our experience they are still alive and well and used by young and old for all communication. I guess the statistics reflect the situation in the big cities although we heard a lot of Venetian in Venice which seems also to be a way for the locals to maintain a distance from the incoming hoards of tourists, foreign and Italian.

As he was leaving the bar, an elderly man came to chat to us – first in dialect but when I said we didn’t speak dialect, in Italian. He said he was 87 years old and had been a ‘mungitori’ (literally ‘milker’, i.e. cowman). He had been in the Bersaglieri regiment in the 2^nd World War (the one with the elaborate feathers in their caps) and was taken to Germany after the ‘otto settembre’ (8^th September 1943 when Mussolini fell and the Germans occupied the peninsula) and put to work with 60 other Italians in a match factory. He had befriended a young German fellow-worker whose parents owned a farm and he had helped them milk their cows and been given two good meals as a reward. When the Americans and the ‘Inglesi’ arrived he’d been moved to a ‘campo di concentramento’ (literally ‘concentration camp’ i.e. a prison camp) where they lived in tents but were well fed and didn’t have to work. He was one of the first prisoners sent home to Italy and had taken up his farm work again until he retired at aged 65. His pension was Euros 1,080/month because it included his late wife’s contribution too. He then began a familiar diatribe against the Italian government – we heard it more than once – who were ‘ladri’ (thieves) and they ‘fregavano’ (cheated) and how if he was in charge he’d have been worse than Hitler! He was definitely in the first stages of dementia but we heard these sort of complaints several times - the inadequate pension, the dislike of immigrants and the treachery of the government. We also saw many ‘Lega Nord’ posters in all the three regions and it looked as if the Lega Nord controlled several of the Comuni we passed through.

Finally, on a more positive note, a small family came to the bar for an ice-cream – possibly Egyptian – Dad, Mum and small boy dressed beautifully in his Sunday best. A local man immediately sat down to chat to them and the bar lady was also friendly. The Romanian women ‘badanti’ had also been greeted very warmly by other customers so it’s likely that the majority of Italians are friendly to the ‘new Italians’ and appreciate the work they are doing to help look after their elderly and keep their farms productive.

One hour in one small village…a snapshot of modern Italian life?

Happy birthday, Lucy - 28 today!

(Cath) Venice has started to appear on the road signs and we're near Verona, in Veneto, the Venetian region so the end is in sight and we are pleased to have nearly reached our goal but can't believe the trip will soon be over and certainly don't want it to end.

Veneto is our third Italian region, the first two were Piemonte and Lombardia. Because of Italian history, the differences between regions are significant and most people are still very attached to their region - history, culture, food and dialect etc. They also identify closely with their 'provincia', the next administrative division down. Yesterday I asked a lady if she was speaking Bresciano (the dialect of the province of Brescia) and she said that it was a mix of Bresciano and the dialect of Cremona as Cremona province was only a kilometre down the road 'and you know people have even married across the border'!

Our journey from Torino seems to have gone very quickly and in fact we've been averaging around 16-18km/hr which is fast for us as the landscape is as flat as a pancake. We intended to go along the Po, following the river quite closely and possibly using cycle paths along the bank but we've abandoned this idea for several reasons (a) the cycle paths are unreliable, badly signed and often unpaved which is no good with our bikes and luggage; they're designed for short circular trips, not long distances (b) east-west routes are difficult avoiding the main Strade Statali (A roads) and these absolutely have to be avoided at all costs (c) the landscape is in fact quite boring - very flat, with very few trees for shade and occasional large farms called 'cascine' which used to have populations of about 100 people working for the landlord but now have one or two families and a lot of tractors. We have taken to craving for some hills and actually enjoyed riding 400m yesterday up a steep hill to the site of a famous battle in the village of Solferino. Solferino was one of the key battles when the Piedmontese and French armies drove the Austrians out of Veneto in 1859 and also where the idea of the Red Cross was born, thought up by a Frenchman, Henry Dunant, horrified by the dreadful slaughter. So we've tried to plot a route each day of around 70km avoiding the main roads and taking us in approximately the right direction and this has worked well and we've been to Casale Monferrato, Pavia and Crema and then to two 'agriturismi' which are kind of luxury farm homestays, one in Cremona province and the other in Verona province.

We really liked Casale and Crema, small towns with historic centres and plenty of life to observe from the cafe in the main square. In Crema especially everyone cruises around on sit-up-and-beg bikes, sometimes with babies or children on board, dressed elegantly complete with high-heeled shoes (women), meeting and greeting. On Sunday morning at the stroke of 12 midday, like Cinderella, the piazza emptied, the shutters of the shops were rolled down and everyone disappeared for lunch! It was quite spooky.

The first two days were punishingly hot - 35 degrees and extremely humid - and we make a habit of leaving at around 1pm, the hottest time of the day, arriving at our destination half-melted and exhausted at around 7pm and checking into the first hotel we find. Yesterday the humidity had dropped and it was hot and sunny, much fresher, but today it's raining (hence the blog update) and the forecast isn't good for the rest of the week.

Unsurprisingly we've found France and Italy quite different and I thought it would be fun to list some of the differences here:

First and foremost - France: quiet and peaceful with hardly any people around (even in the towns) but lots of animals - cows, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, chickens; Italy: lots of people and above all lots of fast cars: even on small country roads everyone drives extremely fast and they don't slow down even if they see a sharp bend with a tractor coming towards them and us cycling along in front of them. We are definitely expected to throw ourselves into the ditch (or canal in this region) rather than oblige the car to lose any speed. Obviously this difference is mainly due to the population and land size - France is big and empty - Italy, especially northern Italy is densely populated and intensively farmed. Farm animals in Italy live in 'stalle' (barns etc) and not in fields. We have cycled through one of the main dairy areas of the country and all the cows and calves were under cover, eating their food through metal racks. We've seen half a dozen horses, a couple of pigs and a few chickens in hundreds of kilometres. One fascinating thing is that the cowmen (?cowherds - in Italian 'mungitori' which literally means 'milkers') are from India or Egypt! We've seen women in shalwar-kameez, men in turbans and had the smell of an Indian meal floating out of a house, in tiny rural villages. Apparently the local people have steadily left the land, especially the small farmers who couldn't keep pace with the EU regulations, and the few remaining big farms started importing this labour about 10 years ago. During the fruit harvest, just like in the UK, workers come from central Europe. It's a huge change for a country that used to export their own labourers - to the US, Australia and more recently Germany and Holland.

Crops...as we cycle along we're really taking a lot of interest in these: France: all the crops were of course green or unripe: wheat, barley, first shoots of maize, lots of peas, cherries; Italy: all the crops are golden and ripe and even being harvested (wheat and barley), the maize is nearly head-height and the trees are loaded with ripe cherries, peaches and in this region grapes and kiwis. We spotted a crop we couldn't recognize that turned out to be soya, grown for animal feed. One of the main crops of the Po valley is rice and we've cycled through miles and miles of rice fields (should these be called 'paddies'?) some completely flooded and some part flooded and some with the green shoots already a few inches high. We kept expecting to see people with conical hats and, in fact, apparently there are some Chinese workers in the rice areas these days.

Flora and fauna...France: one of the joys of the trip through France was the huge variety of wild flowers in the verges. I don't know a thing about wild flowers but I enjoyed spotting the different kinds and next time I'll definitely take a pocket guide with me. Italy: there are hardly any wild flowers in the verges, except poppies and some large purple flowers. We're not sure if this is because it's later in the season which is most likely (see crops above) or because they use more herbicides. In compensation the 'tigli' (lime trees) are very common and have the most wonderful scent, like jasmine. In the absence of wild flowers we've taken to spotting birds and again next time I'll take a pocket guide as we only recognize the very obvious ones like the grey heron, very common along the canals and in the rice fields. There is a heron-like bird in the rice fields with a very white body and very black beak and long black legs and also lots of large crows(?) with black heads and wings but brown bodies. We've also spotted two lapwings and a very exotic smallish water(?) bird and several 'rapaci' - buzzards or hawks of some kind. (Sorry Di and Brian, very feeble I know!) One spectacular sighting though was a huge nest with a stork and two babies on the top of a belfry. I only saw it because I was wandering around the village while David adjusted his bike seat.

Food and lodging...our favourite subject, well food anyway: France: as we've said at great length, we had quite a lot of difficulty finding shops and cafes and restaurants when we needed them; Italy: no such problem! Every village has a small bar, usually open (except on Mondays) and often a 'gelateria' too. I never used to like ice-cream very much but now I'm converted to a two-dollop sorbet after 50km cycling in the heat of the day. There are more villages with shops and restaurants too. Food is of course taken very seriously in both countries which is great and we're eating the most fantastic meals, especially with our Italian friends in Bardonecchia and Torino and in our last 'agriturismo' where everything was home-grown and home-made. These are the rules of the 'agriturismi' but unfortunately most of them only serve meals at the weekend. This area (near Verona) is famous for its 'tortellini' and tonight the local restaurants were hosting a dinner for 4,500 people on an ancient bridge built in 1393 over the river Mincio and the guests - ticket only - were being offered all the tortellini they could eat (and a commemorative plate) for Euros 65. We saw them preparing the 600m of tables across the bridge yesterday and unloading the crates of bottled water but we head today that the weather forecast is so bad they've had to put off the dinner and everyone's going to be eating in the local restaurants instead!! Extra note on water: obviously we've been drinking a lot in this heat and we're carrying three 3/4-litre plastic bottles which quickly run out. We were given an excellent tip in France by Thierry (our cycling friend in Villerest) that cemeteries in France are always open and always have fresh water. We've tried the same in Italy but were warned that the water may not be potable so we've been asking for top-ups in the frequent bars.

A separate note on lodgings and prices: France: we did a lot of camping and tried only to go to hotels when we were in the main cities. The hotels cost Euros 60 for small room plus bathroom; Italy: we haven't done any camping and the hotels cost from Euros 70. The rooms are bigger and include air conditioning (thank goodness). We're disappointed about the camping but there are no campsites outside the tourist areas and wild camping is difficult as the fields have all been covered in crops - mostly rice and water! We feel too self-conscious to camp on the local football pitch or near the cemeteries which often have a patch of grass and shade. Also we have to admit that our tiny tent is not very inviting in this heat and with the high risk of mosquitos. Our friends told us to stay in Bed & Breakfast (they use the English term in Italian) but we haven't found any when we needed them. Agriturismi are great, though not cheap, and we highly recommend the two we've stayed in - Colombarotto near Cremona and now Casa Pierina near Verona.

Last but not least...road surfaces and weather: France: most of the road surfaces were good, except for some roads where they'd used a coarser tarmac which was hell on the hands and bums. We decided this was because they were so little-used (no people, see above). The weather for the first two weeks was freezing cold and then warmed up and we were very lucky and had hardly any rain and a following north-east wind; Italy: the surface of the main roads is often terrible, especially the right-hand side where we have to cower to avoid being flattened. The smaller roads we've managed to find now are much better but on two occasions the paved surface has run out and we wished we'd had mountain bikes as we wobbled along the rutted tractor tracks. The wind unfortunately has also swung against us but luckily it's not too strong so we can't really complain. It's also been very hot and we've had more rain - heavy storms in Torino a small shower when we were cycling the other day and now a poor forecast.

I don't want to give the impression that we preferred France to Italy. That's absolutely not the case although we probably took a little while to find our feet (or should I say 'wheels') in Italy and get used to all the differences after more than five weeks in France. In both countries we've had a very warm welcome with everyone interested in our trip and wishing us 'bonne continuation'/'buon proseguimento' and lots of small and large acts of kindness. One in particular, outside a huge oil refinery somewhere south of Milano, a Neapolitan was selling trays of fruit from the back of the lorry. We were hot, sweaty and dusty and dying for some fruit but we couldn't possibly buy a whole tray of apricots or half a water melon. 'Prendi quel coltello, e taglia due fetti - il mio regalo' (take that knife and cut two pieces - my present) he said pointing to the water melon. It tasted fantastic! (Interesting note: he could call his mates in the south of Italy at 3pm or 4pm one day and have a fresh batch of fruit trucked up overnight to sell by the morning. Excellent business, apparently a cooperative.)

(David) We're in Turin with the Alps well behind us and having survived our longest ride (119km) and the steepest sustained climb of the trip so far - up the hill from Turin to Mauro and Emi's house: 5km at an average incline of 1 in 12 with a puncture (in Cath's rear wheel again - the sixth) providing a welcome excuse for a rest on the steepest section at 1 in 7. Now enjoying a second day without cycling to recover; not from the climb, but from the determined efforts of Italian drivers to stay as close as possible to the racing line on the bends. We were beginning to think we must be wearing some kind of Potteresque Cloak of Invisibility but at least my Italian vocabulary has been expanded: "pazzo" (madman) or possibly a loud "cazzo" (look it up!).

The going got hilly soon after we left the huge industrial estate south of Lyon. This is a hot tip for cycle route planning. It was a Sunday so there was no one working and the day-trippers tend to avoid them so roads are very quiet with birds singing, wild flowers growing on the verges; idyllic!

Half-way to Grenoble after a night in a campsite with a group of 20-somethings on an "enterrement de vie de garcon" (stag night) we were in even greater need than usual of a large breakfast coffee but we were in the middle of what seemed like nowhere (tout ferme) again. Then in a very tiny, unpromising village - the usual church, couple of barns, few cows, no people - we suddenly happened on a bar and it was open! Le Soleil des Trois Mamans was owned by Hermine a very friendly Cameroonian woman and her equally friendly French husband and their restaurant offered "cuisine du monde". Hermine brought us large coffees and huge piece of "pain beurre". Her daughter lives in London and works for Barclays Bank and we spent a happy hour and a half looking at photos of his recent visit to London - mostly of London pubs. The trip certainly provides us with plenty of surprises.

After we left this village, views of the mountains beyond Grenoble gradually appeared but it was when they began to be snow-covered that it brought home that they really are very high. In the event our fears were groundless. It was impossible to avoid travelling along the main road to reach the Col du Lauteret, Briancon, the Colle della Scala and Italy but the traffic was not constant and most of the way there is a margin along the edge of the road to cycle on, in some places a proper cycle lane. Even though we climbed almost 2,000 metres over two days it was a gradual incline and we were now in tourist, in particular cycle tourist, territory with plenty of opportunity for sustenance and lodging along the road. Our staging post was in Bourg d'Oisans with a view from the hotel bedroom window of the Alpe'Huez; a name any Tour de France followers will recognise. It's a sign of how fit we're feeling that we seriously contemplated taking a detour which involved doing the first 5 hairpins on the way up to the town (there are 21 altogether). There was a rally of 2,500 Dutch cyclists who were planning to do the climb four times on the day after and we decided that the road would be too busy. Just as well as by the end of the day we'd anyway cycled 59km, climbed 1,497 metres and spent over 9 hours doing it. At times we were going VERY slowly and the funniest moment came when passing some road-works we found ourselves on freshly laid tarmac with a huge steamroller coming very slowly down the road towards us. It was touch-and-go whether we could get out of the way before being squashed flat in very slow motion.

The scenery was amazing and we cycled past three of the few remaining glaciers in Europe in the Ecrins National Park, with views up to peaks of over 4,000 metres. Once over the top, the road down to Le Monetier les Bains also gave us the fastest speed of the trip, 67.5 km/hr (not me! - Cath) and we finished the day with a real sense of achievement.

We camped one more night in Nevache - the campsite was closed until June 15^th so we just put our tent next to the rushing river - and had supper and breakfast at an excellent restaurant, Le Creux des Souches, in the heart of this tiny village (50 inhabitants). It turned out that that night was the first night of their summer season. Lucky for us or it would have been stale bread and chocolate for supper. We would recommend you go to stay in their Chambres D'Hotes but they are booked solid until September.

The final Alpine pass was the Colle della Scala (the lowest pass between France and Italy) from Nevache to Bardonecchia which was a glorious ride in bright sunshine up through the pines, beautiful views all round, with almost no cars and just a couple of bikes passing us the other way, including a tandem. As we reached the summit, we saw a red squirrel with a pine cone. It's a fast, steep ride down to Italy and we were deviated along a very bumpy road as we reached the outskirts of Melezet (first village in the valley). It turned out to be "the" news of the valley as an ENORMOUS rockfall had happened the week before and giant rocks had rolled right into the car park of some new flats built right under the steep mountain. Although it happened at 7.30 in the evening, miraculously no-one was hurt but the flats were now evacuated, permanently.

We've not gone very far since then and have enjoyed a leisurely few days in Bardonecchia and Turin staying with old friends of Cath from her student days in Italy. Thanks to their hospitality any weight we may have lost sweating up the mountains has been regained and more and we've really enjoyed meeting them again. (THANKS Luisa and Roberto and Mauro and Emi!) About to embark on the last leg across northern Italy - the next update may be greetings from Venice, would-be Ferrrari drivers permitting.

(Cath) Just to finish on Lyon, on Weds I got a text from Annie 'Hey Mum, I'm coming to Lyon on Friday, are you anywhere nearby?' Err, yes, we're IN Lyon! She was coming for the bank holiday weekend with two girlfriends, Melanie and Joy, and we had a fun day following each other round the tourist spots and then had dinner together in the evening before they rushed to catch their train. They were staying in Melanie's family house in the countryside on the Rhone. What a coincidence!

We're now in Grenoble - two days from Lyon - and have paused before the assault on the Col du Lauteret. The decision to stop was partly because it was chucking it down when we arrived in town last night and rained all night and this morning - and partly because we thought it would be a good idea to get the bikes checked out before heading uphill. We found a bike shop but no luck: the owner was super-stressed with a week's worth of bikes to mend and wasn't in the mood to chat about the route to Briancon as we'd hoped. One of his customers, 80ish in full lycra plus racing bike, shook his head and said there was a lot of traffic on the road ('Ca roule!') but it was relatively gently climb at first then steeper for 34km and then hard for the last 7km...oh dear! We've walked around Grenoble this afternoon in the sun feeling a bit like condemned men/women. Grenoble, by the way, is a very cycle-friendly city with cycle lanes everywhere including counterflows in one-way streets and a big pedestrian area right in the centre. It's also surprisingly low - 250m - and very flat but the mountains are very close and very high all around.

Before we leave France, a word on the French religious icon 'de nos jours' - the lawnmower! You can't get away from the hum of the lawnmower in the French countryside and there are sit-on mowers in even the tiniest village every day of the week and at all times of the day.

I thought I might do a quick Q&A on the trip so far - all the things you've been wanting to know but haven't dared ask:

After 1,051km, what bits of the body hurt? Well that's easy - my left foot. It's the only thing that's given me trouble almost every day since we set off. After about 30km pedalling, my left big toe goes numb and then gets worse and worse until I can't feel it. We both have very minor knee twinges but our bums are in good shape, medically speaking, thanks to our fantastic padded shorts.

Are you still getting on ok together? Miraculously, yes! We have a few struggle sessions, usually concerning the direction to go. David's GPS is king but I like to have my say after consulting my paper map. There was also one tense moment when he told me I wasn't using the most efficient gear on a steep hill - just when I was congratulating myself on coping with the hill at all - but luckily he disappeared so far ahead that by the time I'd caught up, I'd gone through all the 'I'll kill him' arguments in my head and got over it.

You must be so fit, how much weight have you lost? Um, well, none actually. We've taken the need to eat 6,000 calories a day very seriously and somehow those kilos are just not falling away as we hoped. But we are definitely much fitter even though when we have a days' break, we feel decidedly creaky for the first few km.

Is your technology working given that you're humping all that gear around? No it isn't! In fact I'm writing this in an internet cafe as our little Dell Netbook crashed on startup this morning and now refused to work except in emergency mode which means no internet connection. The iPhone has been ok but I find it difficult to log on to the free 'weefee' offered in hotels and so I'm mainly using the 3G - turning it on briefly to download emails and tweets and then turning it off again immediately. I anticipate that my phone bill will have six 0s when I get back. There's no probem charging up the phones, bars and cafes are quite happy for us to plug in.

How much camping have you done? To date out of 25 nights, we've stayed 4 nights with friends, 1 in a Youth Hostel (UK), 9 nights in a hotel and the rest, 11 nights camping - 2 wild camping if you count the garden in Neulise.

How do you navigate in and out of the bigger towns and cities? David plots a route on the GPS and they have worked out really well. They use small roads that you would hardly notice on the map and make good use of industrial parks. We highly recommend cycling through industrial parks, especially at the weekend. The roads are wide and flat and there's very little or no traffic.On our way out of Lyon we found the most amazing bank of wild flowers along a railway embankment in an industrial area. There were about four types of wild orchid, poppies, different colour clovers and huge dandelion clocks.Just like Gavin Weightman (Clare Beaton's husband) has written, wild flowers can flourish in industrial areas where they are mostly left alone.

That's it for now. Sorry about the lack of photos but they take ages to load and they are so tiny, we've given them up for now. The next episode may be from Italy if all goes well on the mountain phase...

(Cath again) We're now in Lyon in our friend Barbara Mauerhofer's lovely flat in the 1e Arrondissement (THANKS, Barbara) and have settled back into urban life with all its advantages - comfy bed, proper towels, thousands of restaurants, good internet connection - and disadvantages - road rage and  traffic, traffic, traffic (but actually not much in this area). Lyon is a great city, genuine, relaxed with grand buildings, good shops two rivers and steep hills (as we know having cycled over several of them in the pouring rain).

So, we've finally left the lovely flat Loire valley and had useful pre-Alps practice over some sizeable hills - the highest 801m. I have to say I was dreading of the uphill bits but to my surprise I've even enjoyed them. I get into the 'granny' gear and plough slowly up, puffing heavily. David is invisible miles ahead but waits for me at the top. In one village we passed a convent and there were a couple of nuns walking down the street: I had a brief fantasy that they could carry me in and tend to me in a darkened room. Two of our 'short' cuts were so steep that nothing in the Alps could be worse so I'm relaxed about the next stage. The most worrying thing is that there are no small roads between Grenoble and Briancon (the Italian border) so we may have to cycle on the Nationale - that's REALLY frightening.

The two highlights of the Gannay s/Loire to Lyon stretch were (a) meeting a young French cyclist, Gauthier Leroy, who was on his way from Paris to Corsica but had done several long tours in Europe and was planning a round-the-world trip. We exchanged cycling experiences over beers and brochettes in a friendly campsite at Lac de Villerest and we're looking forward to following his adventures when he sets off on his Big Trip; (b) arriving in Neulise on Monday of Pentecote - no shops open, no bars or restaurants open, no hotels, chambres d'hote or campsites, no food except some old bread and one apple! We were rescued by a couple just closing up their restaurant after their lunch-time session. They sold us a picnic from their leftovers and phoned some friends, Jacqueline and Bernard Denis, who agreed we could camp on a small lawn next to their garage. What fantastic people - Bernard immediately got out a camping table and two chairs, a can of water, two wine glasses and an electric cable to charge our phones and computer! In the morning, Jacqueline gave us breakfast on their terrace - 'un bol de cafe' and home-made bread and home-made jam. MERCI Jacqueline et Bernard - nous esperons de vous voir bientot a Londres ou au Pays de Galles!

I've been musing on some themes as I've 'spun those wheels' across the kilometres. The first is, unsurprisingly, FOOD. (Anyone following us on Twitter will have noted our obsession with food.) As we've not taken any cooking equipment, except a Swiss army knife, we've had breakfast in a cafe every morning, bought a picnic lunch and eaten an evening meal in a restaurant. It's not at all frowned upon to buy our breakfast 'viennoiserie' (buns) in the boulangerie and eat them in the cafe with our 'grand creme' (me) and 'grand noir' (David). We've been goggle-eyed at the choice of food in the shops, especially the boulangeries and charcuteries/traiteurs and we've had two memorable 5-course traditional meals for 11.50 Euros and 13.50 Euros respectively including coffee and wine. Yes, we really have seen 'Friture de grenouilles et frites' (fried frogs and chips) on a sign near Villerest and several other signs promoting 'grenouilles' as they are a local speciality. We chose our route to Venice through France instead of through Germany (good cycle routes etc) because of the food and we haven't been disappointed. The only cloud on the horizon is the closure of so many bars, restaurants and boulangeries in the small country villages. It's got harder and harder to find any as we've moved south, despite optimistic signs to a 'boulangerie' or 'auberge' sending us on long, fruitless detours. We were told that there are some villages in the southern Auvergne that are completely abandoned and it's obviously a big problem. In the prettier areas, many of the houses are owned by foreigners - Germans, Swiss, English but above all Dutch - so this does bring some money back into the economy and apparently the Parisians are also recognizing a real-estate bargain too and moving out to the country. A ray of hope - we chatted to a young couple in a small village called Vidency. They had bought the village shop and next-door restaurant bar. They were selling a mix of goods including bread in the shop and offering newspapers and photocopies (most French shops are still stictly specialist). They'd only been there one month and it was already a great success and they hoped to expand to other villages. Despite this crisis, the villages and small towns are very well-kept and often show signs of renovation (new paved squares, newly renovated houses, freshly planted flower boxes, etc). How does this tie-up with the draining away of commerce? Who is providing the funds - local government? regional government? national government? the EU?

Little PS on food - Jamie Oliver is a great success on a cable channel here - the owner of one of our restaurants said with huge feeling 'J'ADORE Jamie Oliver' [use French accent for his name] and she was also keen on Gordon Ramsay and Nigella...incredible.

One notable difference between France and the UK is the civility: everyone says 'Bonjour' to everyone else when they pass in the street or walk into a shop or bar - including to strangers like us. We've watched menacing-looking teenagers greet their friends with a hand-shake all round and even - our jaws dropped - cross the street to throw their beer cans in the litter bin!! The streets are cleaner than in the UK with very little litter along the roads or in the towns. On the other hand, unlike the binge drinking and excessive alchoholism in the UK, there's widespread casual drinking - at all hours. We were having our morning croissants in a bar near Nevers when the waitress appeared with a tray of about 25 glasses of kir - this was 9.30 in the morning! Obviously the local factory workers were about to have their break. Drinking and driving is common and there are usually a couple of lorry or van drivers propping up any bar with a glass of beer, wine or liqueur. 'Health and safety' is obviously a similar preoccupation in France with several mentions of 'les normes' (regulations) being a handicap to new enterprise and comprehensive notices about not falling in swimming pools etc. On the other hand, we camped near two huge nuclear power stations along the Loire so they are obviously considered safe.

As we've raced through the countryside at 15km/hour, we've spotted quite a bit of wildlife and unfortunately, wild-dead from road kill. We've only seen one deer but we've seen hares, rabbits, two river creatures we thought might be otters but the French call 'ragondin' and according to Google are 'coypu' or 'nutria' (sort of water rat?), several birds of prey including one we thought might be an osprey as it looked just like the ospreys in Wales. Notably we saw two brown birds with long thin curved beaks and ululating calls. They were swooping round above a field at dusk and probably protecting a nest. Any ideas?? Curlews? The locals suggested they might be 'eperviers' (sparrow hawks) but the beaks were much longer, like a snipe's. We've discovered that the countryside is extremely noisy and the dawn chorus is absolutely deafening in a tent! In Gannay s/Loire a nightingale sang all night - very exotic sound - and we've heard loads of cuckoos. In the campsite in Villerest, we were woken by two noisy yellow birds which the campsite owners thought might be escaped budgies or parakeets. Near Orleans, we also came across a litter of tiny kittens, probably a week old, born in some grass next to a Loire levee. Their mother must have gone to find food and they were mewing pitifully around our feet. The road-kill includes two long yellowy snakes (adders?) and one perfect red squirrel, lying on its side, with its front paws (?) curled over as if it were begging.

Last but not least, a word about our gear. Apart from my back tyre which has now had five punctures - the bikes have been going well and I've been really very grateful indeed for my new low 'granny' gear. In Pollionnay, just before Lyon, we came across what must be one of Europe's best bike shops (www.loisirs-vtt.fr) and they suggested that the puncture problem might be the tyre slipping over the wheel when braking which is putting pressure on the valve (where it bursts) and David also thinks the valve hole is too big. They've given us some little blocks to fit in the valve hole which we hope will do the trick. Our Ortlieb panniers are fantastic, easy to clip onto the carriers, even with one hand, easy to close and completely waterproof. This is useful as our tent is very small so we have to leave the panniers outside at night. We have two back panniers and a 'bar bag' each. The bar bags are heavily used as we keep money, phones, sun cream etc in them but they are a little more awkward to open and close. We're into a routine with putting up and taking down the tent which is very quick, the only boring bit is blowing up the mattresses and rolling everything up into their neat little bags in the morning. There's also been a heavy dew every morning except one and condensation on the outer tent, so we have to wait for it to dry. We have a very light MSR two-person tent, two excellent Thermarest mattresses, a double silk liner, two little pillows (invaluable) and two v lightweight down sleeping bags. All of this, except the tent fits easily into one of David's panniers and weighs in total about 7kg. The tent straps on the carrier between the panniers and the picnic baguette (when we can find one) straps on behind the tent! Other invaluable gear is our selection of mesh stuff bags for sorting out our clothes, the 'blotting paper' towels which are absolutely miraculous - they dry you quickly and then dry themselves even more quickly - our mustard-coloured baseball caps 99p from Uniqlo (it's been boiling hot since Belleville s/Loire) and our padded cycling shorts and padded cycling gloves. Some of the country roads use a rough tarmac which vibrates through our bums and our hands and can be quite painful after a few kilometres. In fact we've decided that the vital ingredients for a comfortable ride are a following wind and a smooth road surface (obviously we're not cut out for cycling to Afghanistan after all!). We each have our clothes in one pannier and we've sorted out excess clothes and my Chris Mullin book (brilliant - must read!) to send home from Lyon. David's other pannier has the camping equipment and mine has the netbook computer and the huge selection of electric cables, chargers etc, our books and maps and our picnic food (bananas are very HEAVY!). On to Grenoble tomorrow and then the Col du Lauteret here we come!!

As we're not able to update the blog very regularly, if you'd like to read daily progress updates, I suggest you sign up to follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cathbruzzone. I know the word 'tweet' makes some people (David in particular) apoplectic but the system is great for brief news and I can tweet from my phone so don't need an internet connection. You could also follow Lucy's boyfriend, Ben, who is cycling to Istanbul (even madder than us!) and has already done over 3,000km and is now in eastern Serbia. His Twitter account is @benlwade. He is riding in support of the charity Scope so a very worthy cause.

(David’s turn) Orleans is an unexpectedly 19^th century town. Spacious, light, pleasant and a bit dull.  Left town around 4pm and crossed the Loire, which is very wide and, presumably due to the season, very fast flowing. Headed east along the river and it wasn’t long before we were on our first levee. These raised embankments are about 5 metres high and serve to contain the river if it floods. Sometimes they’re right alongside, sometimes two or three hundred metres from the water’s edge.  At the top they’re quite wide and the Eurovelo 6 cycle route which runs from Basle to the mouth of the Loire where it joins the Atlantic at St Nazaire runs along these levees for much of this section. They’re mostly traffic free and make for easy (level!), enjoyable cycling with views of the countryside and the river.

The sun had come out and enjoyed a quick run through to Jargeau where there was a good, wooded, campsite on the riverside. The town was very attractive with a really excellent, typically French provincial restaurant and on the way back to the tent came across the whole town gathered in the square eating and drinking at long tables, listening to the local rock band and generally having a good time - and we'd missed it!

The levees continued very pleasantly apart from one section where we somehow missed the route and ended up off-road for several kilometres on a track through heavily wooded riverside – fine for mountain bikes but not when you’re carrying 16kg of gear on the back. We mainly travel through farmland which has now become pastoral with cows, (white charalet?), the occasional sheep and even llamas rather than the vast open wheatfields we were passing through earlier.

The occasional village or small town comes along; mostly very quiet and uneventful but sometimes delightful. At Germigny there was a perfect 9^th century church and then a few miles further on the Abbey of St Benoit, a working monastery and a beautiful, simple church dating from the 11^th century. Unfortunately exploring them meant that we didn’t reach Sully and its famous chateau til 5.30 only to discover that it closed at 6 and didn’t open Monday, the following day! Our one big-name chateau opportunity and we blew it!

On Monday we reached Briare-le-Canal, approaching it via the towpath of the aqueduct over the Loire carrying the Canal Lateral a la Loire. A very pleasant, interesting town where several canals meet but, like most places we’ve visited, almost no-one around. This is a slightly worrying trend. At Lere the only boulangerie had closed a couple of weeks before and some even quite substantial villages seem to have nothing. One such was Argenviere where we turned up around 6.30 hoping to find somewhere to camp and something to eat. Rien du tout! Found somewhere we could put up the tent near the river and cycled back to what we thought looked like a transport café but turned out to be offices. Spirits were flagging as we cycled along a main road without much hope of finding anything for several kilometres BUT just over a bridge and round a bend and there, like an oasis, was a small canal-side hotel. A very welcoming and helpful lady served us a beer and told us that supper would be in half an hour. It took about 5 seconds to abandon camping and decide to stay the night. The room was comfortable with a view over the canal, the meal was delicious with soup, buffet of pates, crudités, salads, pork in mushroom sauce and roast potatoes, cheese board and pudding and all for Euros 11.50! The hostess couldn’t have been nicer – our top recommendation of the trip so far.

A short ride in the sun next day took us into Nevers, not a town either of us know anything about but it has turned out to be very a very enjoyable visit. As well as the cathedral with the most amazing, modern stained glass windows there is a Ducal Palace, a large Romanesque church,  many smaller architectural pleasures and the whole town has a very relaxed and pleasing feel to it.

On through the burgundy countryside today, entering the Auvergne in late afternoon. 63km but again several villages with closed down boulangerie. Our first very hot day and luckily found a kiosk down by the canal to serve us a beer. Phew! Ended the day in Gannay-sur-Loire 730km from Kew, in a farm campsite with chickens pecking around the tent - more rural idyll.

Drizzling outside but wandered about ‘drab Dreux’ as we’ve taken to calling it, hunting for a café for breakfast. This is nearly as difficult as finding a supper restaurant. In fact the centre of town is neat and attractive with some interesting ancient buildings: chateau, free-standing beffroi (belfry), cathedral-like church and Musee des Beaux Arts but they were all closed, except the church, so we went back and hung around in the B+B hotel updating the blog until we were kicked out of the room by the cleaners.

Left at 1pm and pedalled less than 10 metres when bump, bump, bump…a puncture in my back wheel. The inner tube had a small split which with a gentle pull tore all round and came apart. I sat on a bench overlooking the hotel while David cycled round the corner to a bike shop and came back with two new inner tubes. Back on the road and up the inevitable hill - all French towns seem to nestle in river valleys overlooked by steep ‘coteaux’- and along a dual carriageway (by mistake) and had just turned into the quiet D road when there was an audible ‘whoosh’ and my back tyre went flat again. This time it had burst near the valve and we put two patches either side of the valve. Before we’d got the wheel back on, another audible whoosh and the tyre had gone down again, the patch had burst again. The second new inner tube fitted, we limped back 2km to Dreux and the bike shop and bought another inner tube and some more patches. Tried to decide if we’d been putting in too much pressure: the bike shop owner said max 6 kilo and we were working in psi and had put in 100 psi. Decided to play safe with 60 psi and had no further problems. Learnt two new useful French words: ‘rustine’ (patch) and ‘chambre a aire’ (inner tube) as well as revising ‘pneu creve’ [sorry no accents].

Left Dreux finally at 4.30 pm and had a smooth ride of 53.6km to Chartres, spying the spires of the cathedral across a yellow rape seed field 20km away. This must have been how the pilgrims felt in the Middle Ages and we probably weren’t going much faster! Checked into a Logis hotel in the centre and were given a room with ‘coin cuisine’ in an annexe  big enough for the bikes too – for Euro15 less than the main hotel.

We’re keeping a log and our overall average is around 10km/hr. Most of the time we’re bowling along at around 16-18km/hr but there are a host of reasons for brief stops – to take an anorak off or put it on, to take a photo, have a pee, change direction when we’ve gone the wrong way, have a picnic (standing up as it’s still too cold to linger) etc. We’re mainly using the GPS fixed on David’s handlebars for our route but I also have a Michelin map on my bar bag. The GPS is particularly useful to find the way in and out of the towns on quieter roads.

Eure-et-Loir is much poorer and the villages less attractive than Normandy and the roads in worse shape with some rough surfaces and potholes. Forgotten from my list of French village essentials above: an Ecole – still functioning in most cases and sometimes attached to the Mairie – a calvary or war memorial, a cemetery (on the outskirts) and one or more vicious, barking dogs.

Thursday 13^th May – Assumption and day of rest in Chartres

Our first day without any cycling and we ambled round Chartres in the freezing cold – the cathedral and the Musee des Beaux Arts. The cathedral was spectacular – a huge interior and 172 stunning stained-glass windows, mostly 13^th C. David was thrilled by the space and we spent nearly two hours on the visit.

The Musee des Beaux Arts had a random collection of old paintings, badly signed and organised including one large painting of a crowd of 17^th C women out hunting riding side-saddle. One had fallen backwards off her horse with her legs in the air showing her bloomers. It was called ‘The Allegory of the Air’- very odd! There was also an excellent collection of Vlaminck paintings, his personal collection of African wooden sculptures and his ‘Testament’ written when he was 80 years old saying what he’d enjoyed about his life and what he disliked about modern life – including pasteurised milk! We spent the evening thawing out in our ‘suite’ with a delicious supper bought from the charcuterie next door.

Friday 14^th May Chartres to Orleans

Left Chartres at 11 am and cycled fast (for us) the 81 km to Orleans arriving at 4.30 pm with a brief  picnic and a revising muesli bar and banana. The route was mostly flat across a landscape not unlike East Anglia, miles of crops: mainly wheat, corn and peas but also spinach, potatoes, clover and carrots. Our only risk was a soaking from the irrigation hoses. The sun tried to come out at first but the cold east wind soon fought back and we were glad of woollen tights and three layers plus light anorak (me). Crossed from Eur-et-Loir to Loiret and had a celebratory muesli bar and banana in the next village. Bumped down appallingly surfaced side road into Orleans and checked into the first small hotel we came to near the centre where the bikes could be parked in the hall. Dinner with Alain Delahaye, an old friend of David’s who drove down from Paris especially and generously treated us to a delicious meal: escargots and oeufs maruette (eggs poached in wine with plums) and sandre, a local fish.

Total distance from Kew now  456.31km, already a quarter of the way in a week. Hoping for some sun at last tomorrow…

(David again) Monday 10 May. We like the Hotel Sisley. It was grander in its belle époque heyday but is still full of charm and the reception is friendly and helpful (they kept our bikes in the dining room while we looked round town). Like Rouen too. Majestic cathedral, lots of old wooden framed medieval buildings (in spite of heavy allied bombing) and a civilised atmosphere. Left at 5pm after visiting the art gallery with good Impressionists (Monet, Sisley, Rory Bremner). Our route took us, of course, up the nearest very steep hill but Cath agreed it was worth it for the view over the town and the Seine snaking its way out into the countryside. Took quite a while to get out of the suburbs and off the busy D93  (which looked quiet on the map) but eventually we wound our way down a peaceful country road to the Seine. Lovely cycling between the river and the escarpment and several potentially idyllic camping spots on the river bank but a few spots of rain grew gradually more frequent and we decided to find a room. Unfortunately the villages we passed through appeared deserted and certainly no sign of a chambres d’hotes or anything else. We pressed on and eventually crossed the river to the relative civilisation of Louvier and a very welcome Formule 1 (I did say relative but any port in a storm….).

(Cath writes) I’ve been making notes in my head about Normandy villages as we pedal along. They are all neat and very well kept. Each has an ancient stone church with a steeple, a Mairie, some tiny like 19^th C toilet blocks, often a pond and a bus-shelter (more on this later) and sometimes a grand, shuttered chateau. There are very few shops except in the larger villages and any bars are closed, apparently permanently. No sight of humans but lots of horses, donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, ducks, geese and free-range hens. The D roads (white on the Michelin map) have absolutely no traffic and are smooth without potholes. How to they retain such civic and civilized amenities? We’ve concluded that it must be the small population (i.e. light road use) and local government organisation (the Mairies?) but I’d be interested to know more.

As this was originally a book blog, a word about the books we’ve brought on the trip. We’ve each brought one and I’m glued to mine, Chris Mullin’s diaries ‘A View from the Foothills’. He writes beautifully and revealingly about life in the Blair government with some fascinating insights on Gordon Brown in 2000. What a pity he’s just retired from politics. David gets more brownie points for his choice because it’s lighter (weight): ‘Nervous Conditions’ by Tstisi Dangarembga, a ‘classic in African and black woman’s literature’. I bought it from the ‘other people who bought this liked this…’ on Amazon. When we’ve finished these we’re moving on to our e-books!  I bought five ‘downloads’ (from Amazon.com as this was by far the quickest and simplest access to the e-book range): Three Cups of Tea, Memoirs of a Not So Dutiful Daughter, Jenni Murray’s autobiography, the second two Stieg Larsson titles and Wolf Hall. Ivan O’Brien has also kindly given me one of the O’Brien e-titles: An Irish Voice by Niall O’Dowd. We have them loaded on our little Dell netbook and also on my iphone. They’re really easy to read, especially in the tent when we’re cramped for space and there’s no light. Only downside is the need to charge the gadgets which wouldn’t be so easy if we were in more remote spots.

Tuesday 11 May. Escaped, complete with bikes, from our F1 cell and the maze of motorways, roundabouts and slip roads to the peace of the River Eure. A beautifully constructed and signposted cycle path took us in 5km to a Bar Tabac with adjacent boulangerie. Heaven! On through perfect cycling country, crossing and re-crossing the river; even in the village of Miserey the continuing rain couldn’t dampen our spirits. The aches and pains of the first few days are beginning to ease and we rode all day, stopping only to mend our first puncture in one of the thoughtfully provided bus shelters and to eat the most delicious pastries from the charcuterie in St Andre-de-l’Eure (including a ‘feuillete d’escargots’, snail pasty).

We happened on the German war cemetery outside town and found the visit really moving. It’s run by a German charity for peace and has the graves of over 19,000 German soldiers killed during the Normandy invasion of 1944. A leaflet told the story of when and where some of the individuals died, no glory or heroism, just very humane and poignant.

Reached a rather damp, dreary Dreux  (us not the town), 80km from Louvier at 5pm. At this rate we’ll be in Venice by the end of the month. Later we wandered the town looking for a meal but it was shut; not a soul in sight and only tex mex or pizza open. Against all the odds we had a very good French meal in Pizza-a-Go Go and went to bed happy.

(David writes.) Friday morning and woke to the news that there is no government in UK which seems very appropriate. Began making contingency plans if we couldn't get the bike fixed in time for ferry at 9.30 Saturday morning. Plan A: spend 2 months at Tony and Chris's house and fabricate blogs from various places en route to Venice. An appealing idea as Bolney a very pleasant spot and muscles still protesting after hills of Day 1. In the event the day was saved by an extremely helpfuul and knowledgable man at Haywards Heath Bicycle Centre who fitted new derailleur, chain and shifters in the time it took us to eat an American Hot at the Pizza Express next door. Confidence in the bike restored we headed for Telscombe YHA just 5 miles short of Newhaven. Delightful country lanes and more sunshine; even after our late start we were there by 5.30pm to be welcomed by very friendly volunteer wardens with tea, home-made scones, clotted cream and jam - got to keep up our calorie intake. Telscombe is an idyllic spot and the youth hostel a very attractive little building tucked away next to the 12th century church.

Off at 7.30 the next morning to be sure of catching ferry. Very strange to be rolling up on a bike when you're so used to sitting in the car lanes waiting to be guided on. Had nostalgic breakfast on board - L'anglais complet' - and watched the sunny white cliffs of Dieppe approach. Two other cycling couples were starting adventures too. Felt a little smug when the first told us they were going to Paris but then heard that the others were heading for Japan. Perhaps next year?

Wandered around Dieppe a bit. Bought giant bag of churros on the seafront and were accosted by a lovely Englishwoman who wanted to know what they tasted like. Gladly handed the bag over as I was beginning to feel slightly sick and chatted about her camping experiences - solo since her husband died - ending up in her 'bolt hole' just outside the town. Followed her recommendation and after a steep climb out of town, found Camping de la Source with a small river, ducks, a goat and a rabbit on the opposite bank and very friendly proprieters who kept the whole place beautifully. With the sun shining and the geese honking it seemed like a very fitting, very French, start to our trip.

Rouen today, 68km and, as it turned out, 622 metres of vertical ascent, but we were distracted from our early start by the delicious coffee and croissant served up in the camp bar. The planned route took us along the backroads, past fields and farms and through villages where we bought cheese, saucisson and tomatoes for lunch. The few cars that passed were very carefull not to run us down, the sun was shining, the cows were munching, the barns were immaculately dilapidated; it all seemed slightly too good to be real.  Maybe the EU farming policy makes sense after all. We even enjoyed the challenge of some very long, very steep hills (honest) and then a final long descent into Rouen where we're staying in the Hotel Sisley with comfy bed and free wifi. 

We finally left Kew at 11.35 yesterday morning and our first stop was...Sainsbury's...to stock up on batteries after deciding to ditch the re-chargeable batteries and heavy battery charger. Our panniers weighed about 15k so less than expected and the bikes felt very balanced and a cheerful sight with the bright yellow and red panniers.

The sun came out and carried on shining all the way through the day. First the suburbs - potholes and polling stations (shame on Kingston council for the state of some of the back roads). Then out into the lush, green Surrey and Sussex countryside - horses and HILLS! Felt a bit like riding through Indian country with the Conservative 'Vote for Change' posters in nearly every driveway (along with the Porsche, Range Rover etc etc). What were they hoping would change...Range Rovers for asylum seekers??

Lunch stop in very pretty Brockham at very pretty pub...that had just stopped serving sandwiches after we ordered our drinks. Munched on our emergency rations of muesli bars and bananas sitting outside in the sun with a great view of the v English village green.

All set for arrival at Tony and Chris Potter's for 6pm when 'crack', my gear jammed on a small hill and I ended up on my bum in the road - a broken chain link and twisted derailler (you were right, John!). David patched it up so we could limp the last 2km to our night's stop and a warm welcome from Ben Potter with bangers and mash. Total distance 72km. Aching all over and knackered so we didn't stay up for the election results. Woke this morning to the news of a hung parliament. I'm surprised, disappointed for the Lib Dems, but pleased it wasn't a Conservative landslide.Good news about Caroline Lucas in Brighton. Bad scenes of voters not managing to vote.

Feeling fresher than expected, we're off now to Hayward's Heath to get a new derailler and chain...lucky we're not doing the trip on a tight budget. BIG thanks to Tony and Chris and Ben for their great hospitality.

Ooops, already back at Tony's house as chain broke again and this time the derailler snapped off. Now waiting for taxit to Hayward's Heath. Downcast but got to roll with the punches and we are not in a hurry...

Bologna over, the 'ash cloud' London Book Fair over and now it's count-down to the Big Cycle Expedition. On Thursday 6th May - General Election Day in the UK - my partner David and I are setting off to cycle to Venice! Yes, of course we're completely mad but we had the idea, a few years ago, and we're determined to do it while we can still heave ourselves on to our bikes. We've been scouring cycle shops and the internet for super-light-weight equipment - tent, sleeping bag, pump, panniers, rain gear, stuff sacks, wicking base-layers, mid-layers, top-layers, merino wool tights - I know it's nearly summer but we're crossing the Alps (aghhh!). We've tried out the tent in the garden and were driven inside at 5.30 am by the cold - good start. 

We've not done any practising but we're going to cycle VERY SLOWLY. We aim to do around 30 miles a day with plenty of stops for coffee and croissants. We'll camp if the weather is clement but also stay in hotels, hostels, gites, chambre d'hotes, agriturismi and with friends along the way [apologies to linguists, accents don't come out in this blog]. All being well, we're planning to be back in London at the beginning of July.

Our route is Kew - Newhaven-Dieppe - Rouen - Chartres - Orleans - down the Loire - across to Lyon - Grenoble - Briancon - Bardonecchia - Torino - and then along the Po to Venice.

Still lots to do before we leave but I hope to post news of our progress on this blog, so watch this space...

Back at my desk after the Bologna Book Fair and a week's skiing in the Dolomites before the Fair. This is part of my new resolution to look after my 'work-life balance'. No more last-minute panics and cutting and sticking to make book dummies through the night before a Fair. Instead, arrive at the Publishers' Association's extremely well-organized stand (thank you Gloria and Helen!), arrange the books on the shelf and get on with the serious business of meeting customers.

It was great to meet so many publishers from so many countries, old friends and new - from Macedonia, Georgia, China, Bulgaria, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Slovenia, Sweden, Australia, Korea, Germany, Italy, Croatia, the USA and Spain (in no particular order). Make Your Own series is still the most popular from the backlist and Pirate Ship the most popular title - except in one country (can't remember which) who said that their children didn't like pirates! Lots of interest too in our new Picture Dictionary (English, English-French and English-Spanish editions), due in spring 2011. The best new deals were from China and Spain. Big thanks to Lola and Berta of IMC Agency who have worked very hard in the Spanish market despite the difficult economic climate.

The return journey via Luxembourg in our tiny Daewoo car, groaning with goodies from the local 'pasticceria' and  wine supermarket, was four hours longer than expected due to a puncture just south of Milan, very heavy rain and a huge traffic jam at the San Gottard tunnel. Next time we'll bypass Switzerland (30 Euros for the motorway pass!).

Quick note as I'm loaded down with work after snatching a week in Spain. We went all the way from London to Malaga by train! It was a great trip, very smooth but unfortunately the weather was atrocious - freezing and sleeting in Paris, freezing in Madrid and cold and very wet in Andalucia. The overnight 'cama turista' train from Paris to Madrid was basic but comfortable with a little basin in the compartment and a good but expensive dining car. I can also recommend our our swish but reasonably priced flat in Madrid where we had a two-night stopover.

Linguistic note - trying to follow the Andalucian accent with the dropped 's' and z instead of th sounds - 'adio', 'grazia', 'do' etc.

Highlight - seeing Jean-Paul Belmondo in the restaurant opposite the Gare du Nord. I was really excited - that shows my age as my kids have never heard of him - or Brigitte Bardot!

As all the schools are back after the Christmas holidays, I thought I'd mention one of our activity books which is ideal for school projects on the Greeks. I know there are a lot of books out there on the Greeks but this one is - of course - the best! It's full of great craft ideas (for example, how to make a Medusa shield, how to write Ancient Greek, how to make Pandora's box) and is also very funny. The author and illustrator are a husband and wife team, Sue and Steve Weatherill, who live in deepest rural Lincolnshire and always meticulously research their books. Steve trained as an animator and was a newspaper cartoonist for a time. He has also written some well-loved stories about their family geese: Baby Goz, published by Frances Lincoln, is a great favourite with KS1 children. Steve also travels round the country doing workshops for schools and libraries. He takes props and costumes of his characters, tells stories and encourages the children to draw. They are always a big hit with the participants. Here is a link to his own Baby Goz website for more information.

What about the title of this post? To whet your appetite and encourage you to buy the book, you can download for free the 'How to make ambrosia' recipe taken from Crafty History: Greek Activity Book. Go to the downloads page and scroll down. It's made with honey, cream, lemon juice and jelly (NB this is jello for US readers) so not ideal for any slimmers out there - but delicious nevertheless. (As I'm back in Wales, more Welsh musings next time.)

Happy New Year from very snowy North Wales! I'm writing this in Snowdonia, looking out on a very beautiful wintery scene. We are meant to be catching the train back to London tomorrow but we may need to dig the car out and we'll certainly need the snow chains to reach the main road.

I'm trying to avoid food and recipes after all the holiday excesses so instead some thoughts on learning a new language - in this case Welsh. My mother is a native Welsh speaker but as my father was monoglot English, sadly I never learned the language as a child so now I am having a go rather late in life. It is MUCH the hardest language I have ever tackled. After three years of lessons, first at evening class in London, then private classes at home and then self-study from a book, I've started to make some tentative progress.

What have I learned as a 'professional linguist' from this experience? First that everything has to be practised over and over again and published courses usually assume far too much and go far too quickly for most beginners. Second that for me the bilingual approach is very helpful indeed. Here in Wales everything is in two languages from road or supermarket signs to leaflets about recycling or visiting the doctor. There are countless opportunities to read the Welsh but also check the English quickly and easily. We've used the same idea with most of our language learning series. For example see our Let's Read bilingual stories in English and French and English and Spanish - the parallel texts are good practice for confident beginners or intermediate students from age 8 to adults. For younger children the Lucy Cat picture strip stories have the same approach in English-French or English-Spanish.

More on the similarities between Welsh and Italian in the next post but in the meantime, we'll be looking out for 'eira' (snow) and 'gwint' (wind) on our way to Bangor station tomorrow...

Aaaagh! The week before Christmas has come up too quickly.

Here's a quick biscuit recipe for those of you, like me, who still need a last-minute gift:

225g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
150g butter
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 beaten egg
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter and add the sugar and lemon rind.
Add enough egg to mix to a stiff dough. Knead the dough on a floured surface.
Wrap in foil and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll out and cut out shapes - stars for Christmas, for example.
Place on greased oven trays. Prick with a fork. Bake at 180C/350F or Gas4 for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Cool on a rack.

Lots more recipes in b small activity books. Check them out in 2010.

In the meantime - Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year to everyone!

A bit of a distraction from publishing...we had a great evening on Weds at the Tricycle Cinema in Kilburn (N London). I was part of a team that organized a charity film screening of 'Afghan Star', a brilliant documentary about a TV singing competition, similar to the X Factor, which enthralls the whole of Afghanistan. The film shows ordinary Afghan people going about their everyday lives and it's such an antidote to the constant images of war of the newspapers and TV screens. We were raising money for the small charity, Soundmix, which runs music workshops for teenage asylum seekers and refugees who have come to the UK alone without any family. Many of them are from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Three of the Soundmix students gave a very moving concert and the film's producer, Mike, and cameraman, Phil, introduced the film. Josh, a Soundmix volunteer and committee member, managed to obtain two priceless tickets for the X Factor show in Londo on Dec 6th which we raffled. We made nearly £2,000 which means Soundmix can continue next term. Further donations would be very welcome so anyone reading this can donate up to Christmas Eve via our eventbrite website.

If you are in London on 6th December, and want to do something different, join in the fun and take part in the great London Egg and Spoon Race, starting on Clapham Common. This is being organized by my daughter Lucy and her boyfriend Ben and friend Tim and they are also raising money for Soundmix. The FAQs on their website will tell you all you need to know about it

More about books in the next post but here are two essential titles for the run up to Christmas: Make & Colour Christmas Decorations and Pocket Money Christmas. Both have great ideas for home-made, good-value Christmas activities.

I know, I know. I shouldn't mention Christmas yet as it's not even December and I really object to Christmas lights turned on in November (Richmond, for example, on November 19th) but I'm guessing that teachers will probably soon start their Christmas build-up so I want to highlight our activity book Preparons Noel before it's too late (sorry about lack of accents, they don't seem to work in the blog). It has lots of great craft activities, all in French, and can be bought from Amazon via our site: click here (scroll down to find it). Best of all, there's a free Advent Calendar to download from our Downloads page here.

For a change from Wales, we went to Bath this weekend (just as wet, unfortunately) to visit friends Ruth and Stuart. They have just won an award for their latest ELT vocabulary series and visited Buck Palace to receive it from the Duke of E! It's a really useful resource for learners of English so check it out on the OUP site: Oxford Word Skills.

I'm writing this in Wales as I now commute between Snowdonia and Kew - both lovely places to live and work. We had a very stormy night and it's very wet everywhere, but that's not so unusual in Wales! On Thursday I went to the IPG Autumn Seminar on 'Hidden Jewels in Export Markets'. All the talks were good but I particularly liked hearing Ivan O'Brien on the book business in Ireland. Ireland is only a short hop from N Wales and we can hear Irish radio more clearly than the BBC. I'm wracking my brain to see if any our books have an Irish theme as Ivan said that radio stations are very receptive to book promotions. Halloween is a good Celtic festival so I should plan a trip to Dublin next October.

We're featuring the Autumn Activity Book on the home page but another great book for this season when you just feel like staying indoors and cooking comfort food is Dinosaur Dishes and Fossil Food. It's part of our 'Gruesome' series and It's full of brilliant recipes with a dinosaur theme. You could try the Dino Hatchlings recipe which you can download for free here.