I've just come back from a great 10 day biking trip around the dordogne, France. I want to share some experiences that could save you some grief. I travelled out from Stanstead to Bergerac airport via Ryan Air. They don't provide BOXes and charge £17 extra for a bike. I got a cardboard bike BOX from my local bike shop and put the bike in the BOX before setting off to Stansted. I improvised and used an old shopping trolley thing with wheels and put this on one end of the BOX. This mearnt that instead of it dragging on the floor it was on the wheels. It worked fine. I think if I had the option it would have been better to get someone to take me to the airport as it's quite stressful on trains with people getting on and off.

After checking my bike into the fragile items section, I could now relax, BTW they get you to sign a disclaimer that you agree they don't have to compensate you if it's damaged.

On arrival at Bergerac I was glad to see it was such a small little airfield and just a prefab luggage collection shack. The bike came out fine. I put the bike back together and it was fine. However I was so focussed on the bike that I forgot to think of protecting the panniers I had put into normal luggage. One of the hooks had broken off and was no where to be seen, so in future I'd recommend taping the panniers back to back to protect the hooks.

The whole luggage collection area was soon deserted as I finally got the bike going. When you ride out of Bergerac airport it's almost like your in the countryside and It was a gentle introduction to riding in France.

The other side of the coin though was my return flight from Bordeaux. In a sentence and I'm not exagerating it's a f**king nightmare to take a bike to Bordeaux Merignac airport or go back from Bordeaux Merignac. The reason is it's in the middle of area surrounded by industrial estates and industry and road works and all signs point to the motorway and you don't want to be riding down the motorway unless you've got a death wish. It is possible to get there via Merignac town on 1 road, I finally managed this and that was just a dry run before my flight to find out if I could get a bike BOX.

Anyway Air France will sell you a sturdy big bike BOX for 5 euros and 60 cents - Aug 2005 - ask at the ticket desk.

I didn't attempt to go by bike for my flight but instead took a taxi. I didn't fancy a 2nd outing fully loaded with panniers trying to duel it out with great big juggernaut trucks. I would advise going back via Bergerac or a small airport.