First solo trip Calais to Nice - Any Tips?

[WEBH]

Sounds obvious but a waterproof bag to put your lunch in...no soggy baguettes!

[plancashire]

I'm surprised nobody has already mentioned this: learn French and how to pronounce it. If you already speak it, well done. You will get so much more out of the trip if you can communicate in the local language. Even if your level is basic, people will appreciate your efforts, particularly if you are a Brit. The French are proud of their language and try harder than most to defend it against English incursions. Bon voyage!

[simonhill]

.......and if you can't learn the language, use Google translate. It's invaluable. Download the language so you can use offline.

Not only translating words and phrases, but via the camera it can translate menus etc.

[plancashire]

.......and if you can't learn the language, use Google translate. It's invaluable. Download the language so you can use offline.

Not only translating words and phrases, but via the camera it can translate menus etc.

I would still recommend learning some pronunciation. If you try to read what is on your screen in an English accent you may still not be understood.

Machine translation has big problems with short pieces of text out of context. Most languages have many words that mean many different things. It is easy to choose the wrong meaning. I saw this in some French a software supplier sent us: it was gobbledegook but I realised that it was a literal (and oh so wrong) literal translation of the English words. We just did our usual which was to ask a French subject expert to provide the correct phrase.

Homophones are another hazard in spoken language. Here's a hypothetical example: you ask your device for the translation of "brake" and get "casser". Frenchman/woman scratches head.

For bike terms you might find this diagram useful: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... ram-en.svg - notice the "render this diagram in ..." selection. It is missing lots of bike parts but it is a start. I created one with all the missing bits found on bikes in Germany. Maybe I should publish it.

[simonhill]

While I generally agree with some of plancashire's post, I feel it is a little disparaging of the translations now available on a smartphone. I think it is a fantastic resource for touring cyclists, particularly if they are travelling in multiple countries or in countries with a different written script to ours.

I certainly agree trying to learn a bit of the language, particularly the pronunciation, but G translate has a spoken form, so you can hear the pronunciation. I find that if having a 'conversation' with translate, it is usual to type it out and then show the translation to the other person - this often initiated by them, hotelier, shop, etc, rather than me. When it comes to going into a bike shop, I find pointing at the appropriate part, either on my bike or one in the shop helps.

Smartphones will usually offer to translate anything that comes in in a foreign language, eg emails and texts such as from hotels with entry times, door codes, etc. which come in after you have booked, usually in their language. Translate gives a bit of reassurance if your language skills are not up to it.

In Spain, I found a hotel after a long day and it was locked, but there was a mobile phone number (this is common). My Spanish is basic and I wouldn't trust it over the phone, so I texted with a simple translated request for a room. The owner replied (in Spanish) via Whatsapp and I was able to have basic conversing by using translate. I got the room.

My French isn't too bad, but mistakes can certainly happen in any mode. In pre Google days on a windsurfing and cycling trip I once told a Customs Officer that I had robbers in the back of my campervan. I said voleurs, instead of voiles (sails), ho hum.

[mattheus]

.......and if you can't learn the language, use Google translate. It's invaluable. Download the language so you can use offline.

Not only translating words and phrases, but via the camera it can translate menus etc.

I think that's the one use case where I've found it works really well. (although it will still find some items a challenge!)

The tools are much worse [generally] at encoding i.e. translating your desire/request into the language of your holiday. Especilly under time pressure! For sure, the more of a language you know, the more help the tools are. Unsurprising, I know ... but the point is, don't be tempted NOT to learn any lingo just because you have your wonderful pocket Babel fish!

[simonhill]

Again, I'm not advocating no learning and the OP is only going to France, so only one language. However, if cycling to say Istanbul, how many languages is that?

I think people try to over complicate things. You often don't need vocabulary, only a word or two. Think of asking for the train station In English you can say - is this the way to the station, where is the station, how do I get to the station, is the station this way, etc, etc. A simple "train station, please", plus a smile will usually suffice. Once I just drew a picture of a train and was directed correctly.

[mattheus]

I think people try to over complicate things. You often don't need vocabulary, only a word or two. Think of asking for the train station In English you can say - is this the way to the station, where is the station, how do I get to the station, is the station this way, etc, etc. A simple "train station, please", plus a smile will usually suffice. Once I just drew a picture of a train and was directed correctly.

Good tip!

Our language teachers always stressed "think of the words you DO know, and say something with those!"

[p.s. I think of "vocabulary" precisely as knowing the words for things. The rest is grammar, conjunctions, other stuff I don't know the technical terms for ... you know, forming sentences generally! But I'm no linguist

[plancashire]

Again, I'm not advocating no learning and the OP is only going to France, so only one language. However, if cycling to say Istanbul, how many languages is that?

I think people try to over complicate things. You often don't need vocabulary, only a word or two. Think of asking for the train station In English you can say - is this the way to the station, where is the station, how do I get to the station, is the station this way, etc, etc. A simple "train station, please", plus a smile will usually suffice. Once I just drew a picture of a train and was directed correctly.

Yes, you can get by with willingness and signs and little common language. I had a good time in Hungary and Yugoslavia years ago knowing no Hungarian and little Russian with a friend who could do German, which was useful in the former Austro-Hungarian empire.

In German a person who understands only "station" is slang for a dimwit. Er versteht nur Bahnhof.

[simonhill]

Correction.

"You often don't need vocabulary, only a word or two."

Yes, sorry I didn't mean vocabulary, I meant sentences. A lot of my languages are just that, name of foods, things, numbers, etc.

But as said before this is only one country, so dig deep into French.

[a8887]

Thanks everyone. I do only have limited French, but will spend the next week listening to podcasts so I can grasp a few conversational basics beyond my current hello/goodbye/please/thanks. Anything particularly complicated will need to come from google translate.

[MrsHJ]

Enjoy. I think the current heat wave will have cleared too. Im writing from Rennes on the way home (by car with the bike in the boot) where it was 35c at 5pm yesterday!

No doubt you’ll find a touring style that works well for you. Don’t forget Simons recommendation of picking a sandwich up in a boulangerie for lunch-it takes some pressure of the whole foraging thing if you aren’t planning a sit down meal.

Me- I’m about to get up and have my last patisserie trip of the holiday. I’ve mostly been eating eggs or fruit for breakfast but as we”re on the move it’s a pain au chocolat day.

[nirakaro]

Don’t forget Simons recommendation of picking a sandwich up in a boulangerie for lunch-it takes some pressure of the whole foraging thing if you aren’t planning a sit down meal.

And, of course, be prepared to find shops/bars/restaurants closed at any time of any day!

[chocjohn9]

I use and suggest others to use cycle.travel. An account is free (you can donate and I do because it's just great)
It even suggests more friendly cycle paths etc.
I plot one route per day. I download each onto my Garmin 520.
On the cycle.travel map, supermarkets and and cafes are indicated.
I then use an Excel - one column for the kms, one for the town I'm passing through.
xx kms Town A
xx kms Town B
etc
I colour an Excel square in grey if there are food options in the town.
I print out the daily Excel strips, cutting them, roughly 5cm x 10cm and attach them onto the stem.
I reset my cycling computer each day. Then can just ride along ........ in front of me...... there's a map, how far I have travelled and knowing that in x kms there's a town and whether or not there are facilities there.

This has always worked well for me. Not too much upfront work but for me, soooooo much time is lost and it's a faff, opening the phone to look at Google maps.

[Mike Sales]

I use and suggest others to use cycle.travel. An account is free (you can donate and I do because it's just great)
It even suggests more friendly cycle paths etc.
I plot one route per day. I download each onto my Garmin 520.
On the cycle.travel map, supermarkets and and cafes are indicated.
I then use an Excel - one column for the kms, one for the town I'm passing through.
xx kms Town A
xx kms Town B
etc
I colour an Excel square in grey if there are food options in the town.
I print out the daily Excel strips, cutting them, roughly 5cm x 10cm and attach them onto the stem.
I reset my cycling computer each day. Then can just ride along ........ in front of me...... there's a map, how far I have travelled and knowing that in x kms there's a town and whether or not there are facilities there.

This has always worked well for me. Not too much upfront work but for me, soooooo much time is lost and it's a faff, opening the phone to look at Google maps.

I could not be doing with all that detailed planning, it would irritate me immensely in the planning and the execution. I guess we are all different.
I describe my own methods not as a recommendation, but to show that there can be as many ways of touring as there are tourists.
I rode from Otley to Chamonix and back at one hundred miles per day with no planning. I drew a straight line on the red, one sheet Michelin map of France, from Boulogne to Geneva, and followed it, keeping to the routes departmental if possible.
I shopped as the opportunity offered and camped, municipal or sauvage, when my day's distance was done. Cemeteries in France as in Britain have a tap.
I was once asked for my passport by a policeman.
"Etes vous Mexicain'. In those far off days I wore a droopy moustache.
I had a grand trip, with very little gear and money.
I know this style would not suit everyone, but neither does minute planning.