Time's a wastin'! To get to the north of Paris, I could either ride, ,which would take me three or four days, or I could use the train. French trains usually take bicycles for no extra fees, at least the local ones do, so all I had to do was string together a couple of trains going in the right direction. I found a train leaving Dijon at 9:38' arriving in Paris at 12:15. I could ride from the Gare de Bercy where I would arrive, to the Gare de Nord and catch the 13:35 north. Or so I thought. As is almost always the case, the SNCF French national railway company had some surprises for me. First they cancelled my train to Paris, and it would be off for three days disrupting my tour. After some inquiry, I discovered a TGV, one of the high speed trains, going from Dijon to Paris at 10:35 and it took cycles. Hang the expense, I'll take it. My bike rode for a 10 euro surcharge, but I did get to Paris before noon. So I got on board. The contrôleur was not happy with me though because I did not disassemble The bike and put it in a housing like it says in his rule book. Not that it posed a problem, but rules are rules. Well, what was he going to do? Throw me off the train? The next stop was Paris, so he went away frustrated at not being able to be a proper martinet. Anyway the ride across Paris was uneventful, and I got on the train for Orry-la-Ville, a quick 20 minutes away. I stopped in Orry for lunch, getting a cold slice of pizza at a local boulangerie.
Hard to imagine that just a short train ride from the capital, one is in a small country village, eating under the plane trees on the place.
I got my card stamped at the mairie and rode off toward Senlis, where I had reserved a hotel for the night. Senlis is well worth the visit, and boasts a lot of archaeological sites and historically important ruins.
One of the major sites is the church of Senlis, formerly a royal chapel.
