Brighton, UK to Paris, France by Bike (not fixed) with pics

Pictures on Flickr

First of all, big thanks to Dicki on the boards! I flew into Gatwick airport and took the train to Stratford where he was nice enough to meet me and let me not only use one of his bikes for weeks but also crash at his place. Both him and his flatmate, Jacqui (sorry don't know your londonfgss name!) gave me a great tour of London via bike. After I got used to turning into the opposite lane I rather enjoyed my time biking through the traffic. The streets are certainly busy but drivers seem to go slower than in the states.

After a few days in London I met up with my friend in Brighton and we biked to Newhaven where we hoped the ferry to Dieppe, France. We arrived in France at the early hour of 2:30 AM where some groggy eyed security men glanced at our passports with a flashlight and sent us on our way. We switched on our lights and biked until about 11 AM when Margaret called for an espresso break. I was quite surprised, there is very little in the way of convenience stores even in reasonably sized French towns. Unfortunately my first French espresso was from McDonalds... not particularly tasty but the outside benches were comfortable enough to take a nap on. With the nap out of the way we rode on until hitting an afternoon storm. I threw my rain gear on but Margaret had none so decided to take shelter under the rainfly of the tent. About 45 minutes later the storm tapered off and about 6 riders with racks and panniers went by with no appreciable water on them. I have no idea where they hid out during the storm but I wish I could have joined them. We continued our journey and the clouds quickly gave way to some pretty brutal sun. I knew Margaret was done when she started walking up the "rolling" hills. I biked a few miles up the road to scout for a campsite and as luck would have it I ran into a convenience store with camping in the back. We pitched the tent, bought a bottle of French wine, baguette, and cheese and quickly passed out for the day.

Day 2 was supposed to be an early start but without an alarm or any appreciable way to tell time I woke up at 9 AM (church bells told me). As soon as the tent was rolled up and stowed the sky let loose. Margaret (still without rain gear) bought some garbage bags and pink kitchen gloves at the grocery store - quite the outfit and she proudly informed me that it was only 4 Euro. Naturally I got a flat while walking my bike out of the campsite. 50 miles the first day and I get a flat while walking my bike the second? How does that work? After changing the flat in the pouring rain and mud we continued down the road. Day 2 riding was much better after the rain tapered off because the sun wasn't beating down on us. In terms of food I did a better job on Day 2. I managed to find a little cafe/bar that had croque-monsieur and great espresso. Margaret set foot in the bar with her garbage bag outfit and was literally laughed out. All in good fun though, she expected it. After a nice shot of caffeine we were off again. We biked over a neat bridge and then along the river which eventually dumped us out in a very upscale looking village. We hit the local grocery store looking like scrubs and my already overloaded pack was stuffed to the breaking point with cheese, pasta, baguette, beer, and sardines. We made camp somewhere in France's Royal Forest about 25 miles outside Paris. I'm not sure what the legality of it was but we didn't get hassled. However, an animal or maybe a person stole the rest of my baguette during the night (stashed the stuff far away from the tent) so I skipped breakfast.

Day 3 was an actual early start. The route we were using was quite detailed and easy to follow until now but quickly got us lost. This is probably partially my fault but when you need to turn at "approximately 500 yards in front of the big tree on the right" there is no chance of staying on track. After an hour or two of trying to check bus maps and compare them with the map we had I simply gave up and decided to wing it. This didn't turn out so bad as we eventually spotted the Eiffel tower from afar and were able to bike right into the city holding it in our site. Once in Paris it was a rat race to find internet, book a hostel, and actually get to the hostel. The only one that had openings at a reasonable rate was deep in the red light district. The guy in charge said he would hold it for 2 hours. We wrote the directions down on a scrap of paper from google maps and had an impromptu alleycat through the heart of Paris. Things got a little hairy when biking around the Arc de Triomphe (where we had to go around twice because we missed the turn) but we made it with time to spare.

I would have loved to bike back from Paris but unfortunately we had a plane to catch in London for Spain so we spent one night in Paris and took the train back. All in all it was a great trip. If I had to do it over again I think I would bike down the coast of Normandy rather than to Paris.

Pictures on Flickr

Well done to both of you!

Margret is a loony for riding with that mahoosive backpack. Fair play for managing it though.

Loved the improvised rain gear too.