Our Cycle to Paris

In which I cycle to Paris with my little brother Ewan, my mum and a hastily added Worcester College teddy bear on a bike older than me.


At some point over the last 6 months, my mum and little brother asked if I fancied cycling from London to Paris. I wasn't really listening and thought it sounded interesting, so naturally agreed. Suddenly, it was the 24th of July, I was nice and warm in my graduation gown and hood, and I was thinking about how I was setting off on this really quite long trip tomorrow. I wasn't sure what it would involve, but as someone whose cycling experience extends only to pretty basic mountain biking I was a bit worried... Our itinerary was aimed at novices, though, so how tough could it be?

Day One

With enthusiastic fanfare from the London drivers around us on Tower Bridge (encouragement, that's what that would have been) we set off on the 25th for the Eiffel Tower. A last minute addition was the Worcester College teddy bear who had accompanied me to graduation and had been sat in my room since Hilary; the photos of the trip show that clearly the camera loves him more and as such the vast majority are of him. The cycling was relaxing at first on Boris' 'superhighway', as we moved down through Greenwich (past the Cutty Sark), Deptford and out into the North Downs. The Downs were where it all got very picturesque (particularly around Caterham), quite hard work and much easier to get lost, which we took advantage of a few times. We finally managed to collapse into the B&B in East Grinstead at some silly hour having negotiated the night traffic with no lights but plenty of worrying.

Visiting the Cutty Sark. Notice the stylish jumper/badge coordination.

Day Two

Within a few miles of setting off from East Grinstead, Ewan managed to completely remove one of his pedals from the bike. This somewhat impressed the guy working at the bike shop which was luckily just round the corner, being not the 'get out of tiring cycling trip free' card Ewan seemed to be hoping it would be but rather an unusual but fairly routine problem. With that fixed, we pressed on for Newhaven and the South Coast. This was the hardest day for a few reasons. Inexperience in tackling the abundant hills, my decision to buy vast amounts of cheese and coke before we left in the morning making my panniers really quite heavy and the fact that when we arrived in Newhaven we bumped into someone who was planning to complete the whole trip in 24 hours. Armed with a rucksack of Sunny D and literally nothing else, he was a true adventurer for the modern age, and was doing it alone to prove a point to his mates. I really do hope he managed it. 

Despite these concerns, we stumbled across a lovely cafe in a part of the countryside whose name escapes me but put me in mind of how I imagine Hogsmeade. The final approach to Newhaven involved cycling through a field along a river, which was negotiated successfully largely through Ewan's innovative approach in getting heavily laden bikes through a tiny tree-covered kissing gate. Herculean. He also managed to take the prize for most successful and energetic hill climbing! We got onto the ferry in Newhaven at midnight, having weirdly arrived in daylight this time, and wisely elected not to think about whether we would be able to buy water in Dieppe when we got off at 5 the next morning.

Enjoying the view/saying literally anything to not have to get back on the bike for another minute

Day Three

Naturally we couldn't buy water anywhere. This coupled with a wake up time that I had previously thought to not be a real time (unless you're still awake from the night before right? right?) was not an encouraging start. However, once we hit the Avenue Verte in Dieppe and started making inroads into the French countryside it was brilliant. The Avenue Verte is essentially a waymarked path that takes you some of the distance towards Paris away from any roads, and as such was really easy, enjoyable cycling. We quickly covered a good distance (20 miles before breakfast!) and went right through a thunderstorm, so we even had water too..! There was also an opportunity for massive smug points when we stopped off to pick up breakfast and noticed some 'proper cyclists' (you know, with cycling clothes and expensive bikes and things - showoffs) who we had met on the ferry come in after us. Score. 

Ewan flies off into the French countryside. #nofilters!

Of particular note was the village of St Germer le Fly, with a pretty abbey and the opportunity to buy the biggest piece of bread I've ever seen. I'm not sure it was really supposed to be sold whole, but giving Ewan 20 Euros and carte blanche to buy whatever he wanted (translated, clearly, as 'buy whatever you think is funniest') ensured that the giant baguette was ours.

So pleased with himself

We arrived to our farmhouse stay for the night at Ferme les Peupliers, Dampierre, very tired and ready to sleep. Due to a heroic effort on Mum's part to cycle an extra 10 miles in a storm to get food (we did offer to go with her, really enthusiastically) we even had something to eat. A good end to a great first day in France.

Day Four

We headed off happy in the knowledge that the longest days had been completed, and that the most challenging of the cycling was over. We continued on through Normandy across the plateau of the Vexin region. Much of the cycling was over gently rolling hills, the sun was shining and there was a perfect breeze, making for excellent conditions.

The Vexin plateau opens out in front of us.

 One minor hitch was my pannier rack breaking off from my bike, meaning that my bags were dragged along the ground and a good portion of the back of the bike was no longer attached. In a display of rare skill at fixing something I managed to sort the situation with some 99p shop bungee cords bought back in East Grinstead, and accompanied at the time with a portentious 'just in case'. Just in case indeed! With this hiccup successfully negotiated we arrived at our accommodation for the evening in Breancon, in an old manor run by a very friendly art-loving lady. Ewan somehow managed to get himself out of doing any cooking whatsoever by quickly seizing on her interests and declaring himself to be an artist - while mum and I made tea he enjoyed a tour of her paintings and was sent outside to 'indulge his artistic interests'. The fact he actually produced a very good drawing is neither here nor there.

In front of the Manoir. One day they will visit this to see where Ewan got his first steps in the art world - I'm pretty sure he left the drawing there too.

Day Five

We got back on the bikes for another fairly short day of cycling. The weather continued to hold despite dire forecasts and working our way through the number of little villages and towns was really very enjoyable. The 99p shop bungees continued to work a charm, my plucky iPod shuffle was a revelation (despite having a knack for very apt song choices; plumping for Alkaline Trio's 'Help Me' as I struggled up a mountain quite small hill in a strong wind) and the miles melted away.

We bought huge amounts of Orangina in villages like this. It's good for you!

This day also marked our first sighting of the Seine. The end was in sight! Very exciting indeed. We arrived at the Campanile in Villennes Sur Seine after a lung-busting final climb in high spirits.

Morrices-sur-Seine, finalement

Day Six

Our final day began in strange circumstances as two huge coachloads of Japanese tourists came for breakfast at the Campanile at the same time as us. They displayed about the same level of confusion I imagine I would at a Japanese hotel's buffet breakfast - ie, complete confusion - and many just resorted to making their own instant noodles which they had genuinely brought along, clearly as a wise just-in-case measure. 

This was the best day of cycling - the first part of our route took us through the Foret de Saint-Germain and the Foret de Marly le Roi, both very beautiful parts of woodland with good bike tracks running through them en route to Versailles. Our route also took us past a nature conservation area, featuring a 'Hotel a Abeilles' (bee hotel) and some butterflies. Yes, I did take a picture despite the endless mocking I got (still get) for studying butterflies for my dissertation. 

Parc des Princesses

Our stop for the day was Versailles. Most of it is accessible by bike and you can see pretty much everything we wanted to see for free, so we sat by the lake and had lunch, trying not to seem insufferably smug when people asked where we had cycled from. We were moved on by a few drops of rain which I assumed foreshadowed a flood of biblical proportions, which I felt I would prefer to be indoors in Paris for. 

Versailles! Paris very close and I for one was getting quite excited.

After Versailles, we headed down through St Cloud, which was a personal favourite area for the trip as a whole. Great views of Paris out in front of us and downhill sections sufficiently exciting to ensure I didn't take any photos. It also came with a free pride check as my enthusiasm caused me to, for some reason, try to cycle over a speedbump with no hands at high speed and only narrowly avoid becoming the first person to fall off on our trip (something I couldn't believe nobody had done yet). After St Cloud we started to get into Paris proper, heading over an aqueduct designed by Eiffel and into Boulogne-Billancourt, the Bois de Boulogne and the Hippodrome. Even here, the traffic was fairly light as we managed to keep to the cycle paths through reasonably clear areas. All of a sudden, we came out onto Boulevard Delessert and across the bridge to the Eiffel Tower! We had made it! A brilliant day to end a fantastic trip to get to Paris, and something I would really strongly recommend to anyone. Donald Hirsch's resources were invaluable for the planning and execution of the trip - particularly in keeping us on lovely cycle paths for the duration (I say that as if I was any use in the planning) and can be found at http://www.donaldhirsch.com/dieppeparis.pdf.

Everyone, including the bear, successfully at the end of our journey!

 The first point of order was a crepe and a glass of champagne, before a wonderful few days spent exploring Paris, playing basketball with a ball we brought with us, catching up at the canal with old friends for dinner and a drink, visiting the excellent Paris plage, seeing some art galleries and testing the official 'best pain au chocolat in Paris'. I'm undecided - will have to go back some time to check! Our apartment had brilliant views over Paris and was an excellent spot to sit back and feel pleased with ourselves. If you're looking for a) a ridiculous tan (short sleeved tops and cycling gloves a great look) or b) a brilliant way to spend a few days, regardless of experience (it could definitely be done much quicker, and it was much easier once we got to France!) I wouldn't hesitate to suggest it to anyone. 

Fin!

With thanks to Richard, Anne, Ewan and Donald again,

Alex

View from the apartment as the sun sets on Paris/our day of glory..!