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  • sounds intriguing wvm, more details please!

    This was a privately organised ride with 16 of us plus a support van. Day 1 was the toughest with 85 miles to Dover for an early evening ferry followed by a short sprint to our hotel as the light was fading.

    Once in France we basically followed the Macmillan London to Paris route. Conveniently this was also signposted almost the entire route we had in our Garmins by orange marker arrows. The second day took us into Arras at around 75 miles with the ride marred only by a few showers and me getting 2 punctures.

    Day 3 was to Compiegne, again around 75 miles. The day started off miserably wet, cold and windy. Arm and leg warmers were a welcome addition. Luckily, at worst the wind was little more than a cross wind and there was one magic few miles of dead straight country road across open fields with not a car in sight and with a full on tail wind of some 15 mph. The whole group flew along at around 25 mph with only soft pedalling required to maintain that speed.

    Day 4 was the final run into Paris. This was the shortest day of the whole trip in terms of distance and also, aside from the first day, the warmest and driest. The first half continued the theme of country lanes and villages with little or no traffic for the most part. After the lunch stop (back up vans rock!) it was into Paris. We aimed to head in as one and I ended up on the front for the most part. This entailed needing 10 pairs of eyes to watch the road, the traffic lights (Paris has got a few), other traffic, the Garmin for the route and, of course, the rest of the group. This was a bit slow and tedious but, eventually, we all rolled up the Champs Elysees together to the Arc de Triomphe and then onward to the Eiffel Tower. We then rendevoud with the van to load a few bikes, swap kit, drink champers, etc. and then headed to the Gare Du Nord for an evening Eurostar back to normality.

    Highlights must be the amazing scenery of the French countryside and the many villages we passed through. Particularly touching was the WW1 cemetries through the Somme area. The French drivers were almost 100% faultless and considerate in their behaviour and the cheers, smiles and waves from so many people along the way was really great.

    The route was great with the worse climb being just outside Folkestone. There were a few others along the way but nothing overly demanding. The roads were generally excellent and the traffic levels were amazingly low. I wouldn't hesitate in doing it again.

    tl:dr - Do it, you'll love it!

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