Cycling UK Forum

A sandwich or roll would be filling, provide carbohydrate protein and some fibre, a lot of shop brought ones are laden with salt also . I often go for stuff lighter on the tummy, milk, or yoghurt, and a sweet treat like chocolate or piece of cake. It depends what you like to eat.

Cyril Haearn wrote:Flapjack, porridge on a stick. Without the stick

Do French hotels do porridge?

Yep, plenty of variety too, especially if you make your own. And they don't get damaged too easily!

As you are there two weeks, you'll no doubt need to shop locally. In the supermarkets I bought packs of pan au chocolate that were good for a few days. A big thumbs down for plastic packaging, but in a pinch they were invaluable. They seemed to be widely available.

Buy early would be my tip. I found it common for the baker's to be open Sunday morning, bread seems a popular part of Sunday lunch, but they were often closed by later morning again.

I always get by on things like flapjack, jelly babies and baby Bel.

However do just be wary of the advice here about Boulangeries. Generally yes, but as someone else pointed out, I found the area around The Vexin to be very sparsely populated and went a long way on a very hot day without passing a single shop/cafe etc of any description so make sure you stock up when you can!

But do enjoy it. Should be a great trip. It was my introduction to touring and I loved it.

Thanks all for the advice, some great advice and tips. We're all really looking forward to it. I'm getting slightly nervous as it was my idea, so feel a little pressure to make sure everyone's happy and we stay safe. GPS maps street view have all been studied, to the point where I feel I could do the route without!

Baby bel, oatcakes, sardines.

Be prepared for things to be very expensive, particularly in bijou places like boulangeries and patisseries, more so since the crash in the £.

I used Lidl almost every day on my last trip. They sell fresh fruit, made up sandwiches, all sorts of cakes, etc all at a good price. Baguettes were only 35 cents, about a ⅓rd price of a bakers. They also do reasonable microwave meals, useful as most hotels had microwaves.

I usually tried to find one at end of day. Bought everything for that evening and next morning and lunch. Saturday afternoon good as most fruit heavily discounted as they close on Sunday.

Not exciting, not haute cuisine, but didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Search on Google maps for locations, which sadly are usually in industrial parks on the edge of towns.

Another thing you might consider is a small travelling kettle. Ideal for morning tea, evening hot drink, etc.

simonhill wrote:Baguettes were only 35 cents, about a ⅓rd price of a bakers.

Well, yes, but tastes nothing like as nice to me! I quite like some of Lidl's stuff but the in store bakery is no sub for a real bakery if you have the chance to go to one.

Cycling with my kids (now teenagers) then bread & nutella wins every time.
Any other dense stuff like cake (madeleines are great) works well, I always take a few Veloforte bars on tour.

From relatively recent experience (Channel to the Med in 2010 & Bordeaux to Barcelona in 2011), a lot of villages seem to no longer have a boulangerie (in fact in Northern France they seemed to have virtually no inhabitants - I suspect they had become largely dormitory villages for bigger towns).

Yes - in northern France don't rely on every village having a boulangerie and a cafe any more, I had just the same experience in Picardy last summer. At best they had a Pain Distributeur - a machine!

mjr wrote:

simonhill wrote:Baguettes were only 35 cents, about a ⅓rd price of a bakers.

Well, yes, but tastes nothing like as nice to me! I quite like some of Lidl's stuff but the in store bakery is no sub for a real bakery if you have the chance to go to one.

+1

When I worked for short periods in France (in the 90s), I was both amused and impressed to see everyone going to the boulangerie to get a fresh baguette fro lunch and walking back to work or home with a baguette and newspaper: protecting them with an umbrella, if it was raining!