August 9, 2011
Riding in Paris is Fantastic !
The flight was surprisingly easy, helped largely by the fact that we slept a fair bit of the way between Brisbane and CDG. All the luggage arrived in good time and we set out looking for the shuttle to the Hotel Capanille - not easy but eventually we arrived at the hotel, found a quiet place and assembled the bikes. The good news is that they were fine with no buckled wheels or any other obvious defect. I don't think we have any significant jet lag as although we crashed early we both slept well and didn't wake till about 6.30.
Mr Bean was our companion for the first part of the ride this morning. We thought we had a reasonable idea how to reach the Ourcq Canal and the route to Paris. We rode and rode not recognizing any of the names till eventually we did recognize something - CDG airport. Nothing to do but set the GPS to a village that we knew was near our route and push on. We thought it would be about a 12km ride, we did 35km Eventually we reached it and chucked Mr Bean off the bridge into the canal and continued to Paris without him.
The route along the Ourcq canal is lovely. At first it passes through a forested area. There were fishermen fishing, people walking and cycling - all very relaxing. This gradually changes as you get nearer to Paris as you pass through suburbs and industrial areas with quite big boats on the canal which by now is much wider. After Villette Park you are really in Paris proper and before long the canal path is replaced by cycle lanes on or beside the road. Not far before we reached Bastille we came across a market. It was while we were here that a couple came up to us and asked us if we were from NZ. Amazing coincidence he turned out to be Ed Allen, a horn player with the NZ Symphony Orchestra and a cyclist of note who was over here to do the Paris Brest Race. He is a cycling companion of our very good friend Barry Bridgeman who had also been going to compete in it but is instead at this moment doing a grueling ride up the West Coast of Australia from Perth to Broom. The market was full of fruit, flowers, cheeses and other delicious food, I was getting pretty hungry so it looked and smelt particularly good. We bought a delicious Middle Eastern ham and cheese thing but it barely touched my sides.
It felt amazing riding across the bridges of Paris, gliding past Notre Dame then up Boulevard St Germaine. I could pretend I was a Parisian doing this everyday. What a wonderful city to cycle in. It is so well organized for biking and feels completely save, I would recommend it to anyone. Eventually we arrived at our Hotel in Bd Pasteur which is fairly close to Gare Montparnasse were our route for tomorrow starts.
Coffee a bit disappointing as we didn't find an open café/bar until after Villette Park. The place was particularly skungy. Most of the patrons seemed to prefer cognac to coffee and as we had to sit outside to watch over the bikes we were enveloped in clouds of smoke but we had a fairly good coffee though not quite hot enough and smaller than I prefer for 3 Euros.
Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 59 km (37 miles)
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