Chateau Thierry to/and Paris

Day 58 Chateau Thierry and Jabilines 71ks

After a warm night’s sleep we were up early to head off for about 50ks in our trip towards Paris. We are getting close to Paris and we are just doing smaller days so we arrive in Paris around Wednesday lunch time. We are still riding through the Champagnes area so there are grape vines all around us. They are very pretty on the hillsides with the sun shining through first thing in the morning. There are plenty of rolling hills to keep us honest. There are many villages along the way with most of them being very old. There are a lot of crumbling houses and many shops that have been closed for a long time. We think that maybe many of the shops are closed down due to the fact that the big cities are not very far away.

The patisserie where we called into to buy our rolls and croissants for morning tea had the bakehouse in the front window of the shop. We were all looking through the window and the baker motioned us into the room to watch what he was doing. He was making croissants and other delicacies with the same pastry. He was treating it very roughly which amazed us, as we thought it had to be treated very gently. It was lovely to be invited into the shop which had a staff of about 6 men and all the produce from the shop was sold on site. Pretty amazing as there appeared to be a lot of pastries and bread for the size of the town.

We were planning to camp at Meaux but there were no camp grounds there although there was one mentioned in our camp book. New Plan! Over lunch, which has now reached big city prices, about 3 times as much as we have been paying in the smaller rural areas, we decided that we would push on as far as we can today. This will mean that we will now camp in Paris tomorrow night instead of arriving on Wednesday. We will camp at the caravan park in Paris on Tuesday night and then we will be able to have a relaxed arrival on Wednesday.

Along the way we had a shower of rain which we pulled in under a tree to save us from getting wet. It made the riding quite steamy, but better than being cold.

The van park we are staying in is on a lake which the people at reception were keen to tell us that they have a ‘beach’ for us to swim in. We checked it out and decided that yes you could swim in it, but no WE would not swim in it. The difference between the swimming facilities in Europe and Australia does not rate a mention. It is quite a big park but has a very pretty outlook. We decided to have a new experience for dinner tonight, order in Pizzas. We ordered them at Reception and they will be delivered to our pitch, which is what they call our site.

By now the pizzas have arrived and they were not too bad, similar to pizza delivery in Canberra, filled a hole and saved us cooking.

Should be a pleasant night for sleeping tonight as the temp has dropped after the rain but is still probably in the mid 20s. Very pleasant.

 

Day 59 Jabilines to Paris 49ks

Today we are heading to Paris, a bit scary and a bit exciting. Hopefully we will be able to get into the bus lanes as bikes can  use them along with the buses.

We had a lovely temperature for our ride, a bit of light cloud cover which kept the the temp very pleasant for riding.

We only needed to ride about 7 ks from the van park and we were on the canal which we hoped would take us most of the way to Paris. It is very easy riding along the canals as it is pretty flat until you come to a bridge when you get a steep pinch for about 30 mtrs or so get across the road and then 30mtrs downhill, then back to the flat.

We arrived on the outskirts of Paris about 11 o’clock and left the canal to take on the roads. The Garmin (our GPS) made it a lot easier to navigate than the last time Phill and Chris rode through Paris when all they had was a map and a rough idea of where they were going. The first 10k or so was along the road where there was a major road reconstruction going on in the centre. It was very noisy and dusty but we managed to find our way. We stopped at a doner kebab style of café that also had a patisserie for a cuppa and enjoyed watching the world go by. Not far to go now but it was getting into the busier area.

Once we got away from the road works and into the bus lanes riding was quite pleasant. The buses ring this bell as they pass you in the lanes and the cars keep to their lanes and did not seem to annoy us.

The camp ground was not highly rated by the Lonely Planet and we three ladies were very apprensive of what we might find. Lonely planet suggested it was a dodgy park with the ladies of the night being quite a downside. When we arrived we found probably the largest park we had been in which was almost full to capacity. We decided to book a site that had power and was therefore where the mobile homes and vans go as we did not like the look of the tent sites and we had already been warned by our friends who had been there a few weeks before that it was a very noisy area.

Turned out to be a good decision as we had quite a level site, near the shop and toilets with plenty of room to spread out. Steve saw the ladies of the night in the day! When he went for a ride in the afternoon, well away from the van park and really not creating  any problems for campers, not sure what planet lonely planet was on. They were all sitting in transit style vans ready for you to make your selection. We were all intrigued as to where the action took place, in the van? In the trees behind the van? Or at your choice of location.

We all decided we had had a successful ride into Paris and were keen to find our apartment tomorrow and start our sightseeing.

 

Day 60 - 64, Paris, 15kms

Left the park about and had about 4 hours to fill in until we could get into our apartment.

We all felt we were really in Paris when we saw the Eiffel Tower!  The riding was fairly easy into the centre of Paris.  We had a combination of road, bike paths and bike lanes shared with buses. 

The ladies of the night had surfaced again and were in the Bois looking for customers – even at 8am in the morning!  The office of choice still appeared to be the back of vans.  There were some just standing around or sitting on park benches, propositioning the guys as we went past.  Despite this we didn’t feel unsafe in our numbers.

We stopped for a cuppa and something to eat close to the Eiffel Tower.  We talked a fellow photographer into taking a group shot of us to prove we got here!

Our trip to the apartment took us up the Champs Elysee – very nice riding up towards the Arc de Triomphe.  We found our way to the unit and as luck had it the street was a cul de sac which provided us with a great spot to pull the bikes down and put them away while we waited for the agent to arrive to see us into the apartment.

The apartment was very roomy and a great location – about 800m from the Arc de Triomphe – 200m from a Metro station, so moving around the city was very easy.

Our first night saw us dining at a restaurant recommended by a friend from Canberra.  We had a great evening with wonderful food and entertainment watching the valet car park attendant manoeuvring cars left right and centre as vacant parking spots became available in the street. 

We nearly created an incident when we asked a smoker (in the smoking section) if he would mind not smoking while we were eating!  They were asked if they would move to another table by the waiting staff, which they did but not very happily.  Turned out he was a regular at the restaurant too!

The next few days were spent doing the touristy bits around Paris and it’s near vicinity. 

Linda and Steve’s son and his girlfriend spent a few days in Paris with us too.  We were all pleased to have the space and facilities available that the apartment provided after spending the last 9 weeks in our tents!