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Riding from Home
I'm not strict about this either, but it's good if you can do it. Riding to Newhaven would almost certainly have involved an unwanted overnight stop - it's not great to force yourself to ride in an unfamiliar country in the dark.
The Sunbeam
The only part of this bike which is 'Sunbeam' is the frame - all the equipment is my choice (or what I happened to have).
This frame was BSA built (late forties, I believe) but does retain some Sunbeam features. It seems to be reasonably well made, but no one would say it was lively (or light!). I've ridden this as a hack since 2015 and I have done a few longish days on it. No Sunbeam was suitable for racing, so I suppose, you might say it was intended for touring and, to be fair, it does work quite well for long distances - as long as you're not expecting to go fast. I used it for this trip mainly because I wanted to try out the 'no top gear' arrangement.
Luggage
I applaud managing with a minimum, but I didn't really stick to that ideal. However I did use almost everything I carried.
I believe Dave Keeler (google if you don't recognise the name) was the expert at French touring with no luggage. He would travel with nothing more than the clothes he stood up in and some money. This worked well for him (he said) until some one stole his bike!
Another photo of the Sunbeam below. This was the original (to me) set of kit. Main changes since then are 700's instead of 26's, 6.75" cranks instead of 7" and a beefier luggage rack
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clubman
No problem.