Hi everyone.
I thought that I should update this thread as a thanks to everyone who offered advice. Sorry it's taken so long but I was off the bike for months due to a medical issue. However, I'm just back yesterday from my 4 day CC tour. Except that it wasn't along the west coast of Ireland and I didn't take my Dirty Disco.
I did London to Paris instead due to a desire to do something more 'epic' than a ride along the local coastline. Due to the cost of flying a bike along to London from Ireland I rented a bike from 'On Your Bike' under London Bridge. All in all though it went well and I loved my first self supported tour.
I followed the Donald Hirsch route through France but didn't really plan my London to Newhaven route very well and got lost a couple of times and got dumped on the A23 for a while which wasn't great.
My itinerary was as follows:
Day 1 London Bridge to Brighton (no idea on distance as I got lost so much).
Day 2 Brighton to Newhaven in time for the 9 am ferry which docked at 14:00 and then 45 miles into France to Dampierre
Day 3 Dampierre to Versailles (75 miles)
Day 4 Versailles to Paris (20 miles) , on the eurostar in time to give the bike back before 5 pm and then a flight back to Ireland.
What went well.
Well, I made it everywhere I had to in time !
I used 2x 18 litre Altura Arran panniers clipped to the rack on the rented bike. Neither pannier was particularly full, maybe next time I'll try and get down to 1. The only things I didn't use were a winter bike jacket as the weather was so good and some mechanical insurance type items (spare tyre, cables, tools etc).
No mechanical issues enroute.
I had downloaded Google maps for the entire regions onto a tablet before I went which was very useful (and accessible offline).
Once I figured out my GPS it was great help in finding the route (which isn't always the easiest).
What went badly/ opportunities for improvement:
I should have planned my route out of London better.
I also should have played with my GPS a bit more beforehand so I understood how it worked before I left, rather than by day 3....I was relying upon it a bit too much when I left London and expected it to plot a route for me.
I'd like to do it again and spend another day or two to enjoy it a bit more.
Accommodation wasn't great in Brighton (sleazy bedsit) and Versailles (stereotypical I&I$ chain hotel), but the farmhouse B&B in Dampierre was nothing short of fantastic.
Before the next one I'd like to figure out someway to carry a map on the handlebars for easy access and to save time digging stuff out of my pannier. I'm not sure I'm 'hardcore' enough for a bar bag quite yet though.
So in summary, yes I'm pretty addicted to cycle touring and am already starting to plan my next 'epic' adventure.
Thanks everyone.