July 15, 2013
It begins: Oh Paris, you shouldn't have
France must have got wind of my plans to begin my trip from the Eiffel Tower because the night before I left they very thoughtfully put on a 600,000 Euro (almost one million dollars!) firework display by the tower to commemorate the occasion and a crowd of 100,000 turned out to bid me well. It was really a very nice thing to do and I'm not sure what I did to deserve such a fond farewell. Imagine the party they will throw for me if I make it all the way around the world and back again! Oh Paris, you shouldn't have!
On a more serious note the fireworks were to celebrate the French National Day. Outside of France it is widely known as Bastille Day, July 14th, the date of the storming of the Bastille in 1789. But actually in France 'Bastille Day' is not known as Bastille Day at all - it is known as la Fête Nationale, and is more of a celebration of the Fête de la Fédération, the forming of a modern France at the culmination of the French Revolution, which occurred on the 14 July 1790. In any case, it is a hell of a good show and as I stood amongst the crowds staring up at the fireworks, the tower and the French flag as patriotic French anthems blared out I almost (I said almost) wished I was French. Such patriotism. Such national pride. But for me, the display, the various musical references to freedom (they had a variety of music, my favourite being when the Beatles 'Revolution' came on) held a different meaning. It was a perfect way to launch my trip, the freedom of the open road, all that lies ahead.
The morning after the night before, Monday the 15th July 2013, I made my way back to the Eiffel Tower to begin my 'Tour du Monde.' It had quite a different appearance now, but still a mightily impressive one. I suppose one of the reasons why I chose to start and end my journey here was that the Eiffel Tower has always been a symbol of travel and adventure for me. When I was little it seemed like it was a million miles away (I didn’t know that it was only three hours away by train) and I dreamed of going there. From now on I will dream of returning triumphantly. That, plus the fact that it’s really big and therefore should be easy to find on the way back.
I wanted to get a picture of me with the Eiffel Tower before I started so I lined myself up and asked a random tourist to take a photo. Unfortunately, both of her two attempts cut the top off the tower, and one was more grass than anything else. So I asked a happy Chinese girl if she could take one and she took three, all perfectly framed. It turns out the Chinese are good at taking photos of the Eiffel Tower. Who knew?
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Around midday I finally began cycling from beneath the Eiffel Tower. Actually because of all the people I had to walk and push the bike the first 30 metres. It was a modest beginning. I knew that I could follow a canal most of the way out of Paris and it was only a brief eight kilometre ride through the frantic Parisian traffic until I got to the start of it. I only had one near collision with a stupid driver, which for Paris is actually pretty darn good. Once I got to the canal it was brilliant – a cycle path alongside it led me all the way out of the chaos. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Paris, but it’s certainly not one of the world’s greatest place for cycling. On the canal I met a Dutch mother and son that had cycled from Eindhoven, as they explained from one city of light to another. I’m not very good at guessing the age of Dutch boys but I’d say he was about thirteen, and I hoped they would be okay once they got onto the roads.
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The rest of the first day was spent riding through the open countryside on quiet French backroads. I went through a whole range of emotions from sheer elation at the thought of all that lay ahead and the tremendous freedom I now had, through to apprehension at the sheer absurd enormity of the challenges that I had written down on this blog earlier that morning with such gay abandon. Generally, however, these emotions were overridden by an overwhelming, almost overpowering, sense of being completely and totally and utterly lost. My 1:2.5million scale map of Europe was proving inadequate but luckily I once read a book by Bear Grylls and I am consequently quite capable of navigating using the sun. I was able therefore to maintain what I dearly hoped to be an East-North-East bearing, no mean feat on twisting turning roads.
I ended the day by pulling off the road and camping on what I believed to be an old railway line, now overgrown and abandoned. More specifically I ended the day camping on an ant’s nest on an old railway line. I wrote my diary, ate some biscuits, hoped my new tent was ant-proof, and prayed like hell that it wouldn’t be cloudy tomorrow.
Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 88 km (55 miles)
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