September 12, 2015
Sens to Joigny: We were due for rain
In reality the third part of our journey really started a few days ago. At the beginning of WW2 my Auntie Pat after who I am named was living in Paris with her future husband Armand Capello. My of course very anxious Grandmother and mother received a letter dated 2nd Oct giving the bare bones of the story. "Armand and I escaped from Paris on the bike the night before the Germans entered and spent two months on the way, sleeping anywhere and being generally uncomfortable,,,,,,,,,We were forced to leave everything behind us. I have two dresses and luckily my winter coat but that is a minor detail. Armand can go back to Paris if he likes but the American Consul told me that if I tried to cross the line into the occupied zone I'd be be put into a Concentration Camp at once so we think it is prudent to stay here" . This journey of course has become a legend in our family. We have no idea of the route that the pair of them would have taken. Pat died a long time ago when I was around 15 and Armand also is long dead. What we have done is to try and follow a route that would have been a reasonable one to follow. The hardships they must have endured were enormous particularly for a person of great elegance as my aunt was. We took the train out of Paris to Fontainebleau, I can only imagine what those roads would have been like the day before the Germans took Paris with so many people fleeing. Out of Fontainebleau in the Forest on the way to Sens I imagined that they could probably find somewhere sheltered to sleep. It would have been around latish June so it shouldn't have been too cold.
Today we left Sens in the rain and although it rained lightly all day it was a really lovely ride through beautiful small villages. As we were only having a short ride we called in and enjoyed all of them. Our maps are good and we have 2 GPSs. Certainly Pat and Armand didn't have a GPS ! I wonder how good their maps we're or if they were just going from one known place to another and from one person to another. But as Ken says they had the advantage of speaking French!! We arrived in the magical little town of Joingy and felt a little grumpy because we couldn't find our extremely comfortable hotel immediately but knew we had a warm shower and a comfortable bed waiting. We think we are tough travelling through the country by bike but in reality we are living a life of easy luxury.
Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 2,085 km (1,295 miles)
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