We're off! (Sort of)

For this year's tour (these seem to have become annual events), the plan is to fly to Marseille, tour round Provence and fly home from Nice two weeks later.  The intention is to do a bit less cycling than last years trip and spend some more time seeing the sights and enjoying the French food and drink.
We got dropped off at Glasgow airport this morning in plenty of time, packed up the bikes and checked in fairly easily with just a minor hold up getting the bikes put through outsize baggage. However, when transferring flights at Heathrow the phone chargers, spare batteries, bike tools and pedals in my panniers aroused the interest of the x- Ray machine operator and prompted a wee search of my hand luggage.  This was fair enough until they detected traces of explosives!  Luckily ( despite Sandra turning red and sweaty and looking generally guilty), rechecking everything and answering a few questions was enough to sort things out without the need for any rubber gloves.
We have now arrived in Marseille where our plan is to spend the night at one of the airport hotels before heading off on the bikes tomorrow.  This is just as well as there is no sign of our bikes or the 2 panniers we checked in as hold luggage.  BA reckon the bikes are still in  London and are due out on the next flight, but no one seems to have much of a clue where the panniers are.
Oh well...I'd better just have another beer and see what happens. Cheers!