August 10, 2011
Towards Chartres
We thought that seeing we had only one night in Paris we should eat well. It was only a small restaurant and soon full. Mindful of the cost we had the set menu unsure of what we would get. I had delicious pate and Ken the most amazing looking crab salad which was wrapped into a ball with longitudinal slices of aubergine - he said it was delicious. Our main was something I had never eaten before. Basically a small mountain of raw mince topped by a raw egg yolk, Ken prefers his steak fairly well done so it was something of a challenge.
The Camillia Hotel is a one star hotel. I think this designation is because there is no lift but an extremely steep spiral staircase. Our room was on the third floor so we got a good work out lugging all our stuff up. Even more difficult was the bike storage. It was in the basement which was through the kitchen down some precipitous slippery stone stairs with a couple of nasty bends in them. Ken took the front of the bike and I hung on to the back for grim death to try and control the descent. We had to get them up before seven as that was when breakfast starts. If we had been in the habit of seeking out gyms there would have been no need. It was really a lovely little hotel, very comfortable and Ken was able to get a CNN fix.
Paris must win first place for being the most cycle friendly city. There are lots of racks of bikes owned by the city which people were zimming around on, this is quite unlike Brisbane where there are similar bikes but no one seems to use them as the system is so complicated. Getting out of Paris this morning was a dream. We started outside Gare Montparnasse and via dedicated cycle paths quickly got to the Coulee Verte which is a fantastic bike path winding through paths and up and down for around 14km. it is fairly slow though as its route is a bit tortuous and you have to keep getting off to cross roads. It is well used.
After that we found the 'Route de Chartres'. We had unrealistic ideas that we would get all the 90km to Chartres but had underestimated the difficulty of the route. It really was very hilly and we had a powerful head wind so I was wishing I had done a lot more riding during the winter at home. It was very pleasant though but when we came to Arnoult and saw a likely looking Hotel our bikes wouldn't pass it.
On the coffee front it was all a bit disappointing. We came to a likely looking café but it was closed so opted for orange juice and pain au chocolate. Of course about 100m further on there was an open bar. Never mind it is another day tomorrow.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 104 km (65 miles)
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