Travel Arrangements Sorted

We drove to Pau last year and although it's definitely doable with two sharing the driving, it's very tiring and certainly not ideal preparation for the biggest bike ride of your life. Anyone who has ever flown with me knows that I'm not a great flyer. It has been known for me to cry out on flights and on one particularly windy flight, the air steward sat next to me and held my hand as we were landing. I could have got over all of that with a stiff drink or two though. What puts me off about flying to the Etape is the slim possibility of losing my bike - I heard a few stories last year of lost bikes and I'm just not prepared to take the tiny risk of a lost or damaged bike. So, that leaves us with the train. I've now booked our tickets on Eurostar. We go on Saturday from Ashford, very early in the morning, and travel direct to Avignon. It takes about 5 hours. I like the fact that we can take two suitcases each, one of which can be a bike bag, and can be stored right next to us on the train. Next job is to sort out a bike box. CRAP! I just thought - how do you take the bike apart and get it together again? Is it just wheels off (can manage that) or is there a lot more to it than that? I think that the Etape DVDs have something about packing your bike. I'd better have a look.
We're going to hire a car from Avignon and it's an hours drive to Montelimar. I suspect that Saturday will just be about finding the campsite, getting some food and settling in. If we make good time, perhaps we will go to register.
On Sunday, I think that we'll have to take our car to the finish village and get the bus back. I will need to book at place on this bus.
Is that it for logistics? I can't think of anything else.

I'm checking for my number regularly now. There is already one Popplewell entered.