Actually we had quite a lot, more than I expected - and at one point I managed to incorporate two bottles of wine as we made a stop in Vouvray. Well, it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it?

When I packed for our four days cycling around Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire earlier in the year I was hoping that by packing summer clothes, they'd be smaller and therefore we'd have more choice. And this proved correct, but planning what we packed took some time as every item needed to be versatile and work with the other items we'd packed.

We took:

MOH
1 x Jeans
1 x shorts
2 x cycling shorts (not lycra!)
1 x belt
3 x short sleeved shirts
2 x T-shirts
3 x cycling tops
1 x soft shell jacket
1 x waterproof jacket
Plimsolls
Flip Flops
PJs
Underwear
Toiletries

Me
2 x 3/4 length trousers
3 x T-shirts
2 x quick dry T-shirts
3 x cycling vest tops
4 x vest tops
2 x shorts
1 x waterproof jacket
1 x windproof jacket
My new tote bag
Flat sandals
Flip flops
Nightie
Underwear
Toiletries

ONE OF THE MANY LOIRE A VELO SIGNS WE FOLLOWED

And as we left Blois for Amboise we ditched some of our clothes after looking at the weather forecast. I left two of the vest tops and a cycling vest top and MOH left a short sleeved shirt, plus the dirty clothes we'd already accumulated. Flip flops too were abandoned, although on reflection they are handy to wear to breakfast, so maybe I'd keep mine next time. It turned out that having the car partway down the route worked well and was probably better than leaving it in Orleans as we originally planned.

As well as our clothes we had plenty of other stuff to fit into to our panniers too:

Suntan lotion
Various chargers
Me; iPad
MOH; kindle and tablet
Wet wipes (an absolute godsend!)
My new glasses
Bike food, such as gels, energy bars and tablets
My medication
Two guide books - one for the route and the other on the Loire
Phrase book
A small notebook (mine obvs).

Next time we go, I'll be packing some of those travel tissues as well as the wet wipes as we ended up buying some. While we were away my cold made a resurgence and I was in desperate need of soft tissues. I also needed to buy extra paracetamol as my glands started to play up in the second half of the last week. At one point I was taking paracetamol every four hours like the packet said, and of course now I'm home and can do something about it, it's cleared up!

So there you go, two weeks worth of clothes for four panniers. I realise this post will only be useful if you're curious to know how we managed, or if you're planning a similar trip, but I'll be checking back on this post next time we go on a summer cycle tour to remind myself of what we learnt.

I promise I have more interesting holiday posts to follow!