September 7, 2015
Into Paris: Not as much cheering as for the Tour de France
Dinner last night was a real cultural experience and certainly not one I had expected to have in France. The hotel is set in an industrial area. Our unpleasant Indian Hotelier told me there were two places we could eat an Indian Restaurant in one direction and a Chinese in the other. We couldn't find the Indian so made for the Chinese. It's huge car park was rapidly filling and the patrons were struggling in. We found on entry that there was no a la carte just a buffet at 16E per person. They had smallish plates and everyone seemed to be doing a good job of piling them up really high (and yes you could come back for as many seconds as you liked). We did our best to get good value but there is certainly a limit. It is fair to say that not many of the clients were in good physical shape as they had obviously had had plenty of practice here and what they could put away was truly impressive. The restaurant is called La Restaurant Chine but I think could be more appropriately renamed Gluttony House. Ken wondered how many of the other clients had walked to the restaurant and cycle 91km that day!
Much to our relief the bikes were still chained to a tree in the morning. The breakfast was as expected. .Then I bid the hotelier goodby , yes Jane 'This family......' A good thing about the Fast Hotel is that it is just next to the entrance of the cycle route along the Oucq Canal. The route was paved and looked fantastic so off we went on what was to be a wonderful easy way into central Paris. Although the path follows the canal at this stage when it is in a gorge there are lots of fairly abrupt ups and downs and it proved difficult to be in an appropriate gear. There are speed bumps like car speed bumps to slow cyclists down which give a bit of a bumpy ride and which Ken thinks the cause of his buckled wheel at the end of the ride. At this stage most of the time we were in forest though every little while there was a side path off to a settlement. At one stage we came to a Mitry Mory from where the RER goes into Paris. It was surprising to see a mass of people so close to our lovely cycle route. There were odd cyclists and walkers all along the way but few of them looked as if they were actually commuters. One nasty experience when someones vicious looking Alsatian had a go at me, I was glad I still had my jacket on as I could feel its mouth through the fabric. I screamed loudly and the owner looked singularly disinterested.
After some time you enter a forest park and wander around amongst the beautiful trees with the many walkers . Emerging from here the steep parts are behind you and you really feel as if you are getting into Paris first with very pleasant housing then some fairly heavy industrial stuff and onto a tight little path beside the railway. Getting close to Paris you enter Vilette Park and keep hoping that you will see a cafe and we did. It was sitting on little metal chairs looking over the canal that we drank our coffee. Then the real fun started, we were riding on narrow cycle paths beside busy streets trying to keep track of where we were. Most of these were protected by high curbs but when they weren't people desperate for parking used them which not only was annoying but dangerous as you had to go out into the traffic. The path we were following was going to the Bastille but we were going to a Hotel near the Gare de Lyon. This was remarkably straight forward although finding the actual hotel wasnt but we made it. Now what to do . Eat of course. We had seen a Creperie near the hotel so off we went and I had the tastiest Gallett I have ever had filled with black pudding, stewed apples and onions all washed down with cidre. We have gone back to base, showered, done some forward planning and soon will hit the town again.
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Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 1,956 km (1,215 miles)
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