Wed 29-Aug- 1995
Start Paris
Destination Fontainbleau
Kilometres 71
Cumulative Kms 71
Ave speed (kph) 18.9
Max speed (kph) 49
Time taken 03:46
Max Height (m) 170
Today climb (m) 285
Cum.climb (m) 285
Start Paris
Destination Fontainbleau
Kilometres 71
Cumulative Kms 71
Ave speed (kph) 18.9
Max speed (kph) 49
Time taken 03:46
Max Height (m) 170
Today climb (m) 285
Cum.climb (m) 285
Up early - slipped out for breakfast in a nearby Café and watched Paris come to life in the early morning. Then back to the apartment and loaded up my gear. Carried the panniers down first and left them outside the front door while I went back for the bike and loaded it up on the pavement outside; posted a couple of cards home and set out for the Arch de Triomphe. The bike is heavier than I thought - despite all my preparations over the last few years I had not been away from home overnight and had not carried panniers on the bike since I was cycling in the 1970s. I had forgotten how cumbersome the steering becomes with the added weight and how relatively dead the bike feels.
I asked a passer-by to take a photo at Arch de Triomphe and rolled the bike on
to the cobbles of the Champs Elysee at 10:00. With a gentle push on the pedals I started off on the road to Rome. Some Japanese tourist captured the departure on video. There were so many traffic lights and so many cars that the traffic moved slowly and caused me no difficulties. Less than an hour later I met Jean Ann (? that's what it sounded like) who cycled with me. He was just back from a trip from Paris to Marseilles on a mountain bike and was now out on a trip to keep up his level of fitness. We chatted in a mixture of French and English as we made our way along. We were out of Paris and on the road to Fontainbleau by the time he left.The tight spaces on the Paris streets eased after a short time and by Coudray Montanceaux the cycling was pleasant even though I was on a dual carriageway. The weather was fine and any wind there was at my back. At Athis Mons - a town twinned with Ballina, Co. Mayo - I came to the first cycle paths. The roads were incredibly long and straight but my adventure had started and I was enjoying myself. I reached Fontainbleau quickly and booked into the Hotel Ibis by 15:30. I rang home and Raheny to tell them the first day's cycling had gone well.
The reception at the hotel was wonderful. They were very helpful and eager to accommodate the bike as well as me. A boiler room was unlocked and the bike secured in pleasant and warm surroundings for the night. Meantime I went to explore the Chateau.
The Chateau is Closed Tuesdays; today is Tuesday - some planning! I was supposed to have read widely about everything I planned to see. Must have missed the small type about opening times. I resolved to come back here another day - another year. I had a meal in the hotel and then started on the washing saga. Every night for the next three weeks I would have to wash at least a cycling top; shorts and socks and hope they would dry overnight or at least quickly on the bike the next day. I wrote up my notes and retired with the mileometer showing 71 Kms (42 miles) done.
7 comments:
Isn't it gas....at the time the fact that Athis Mons was twinned with Ballina would have meant absolutely nothing and now its somewhere we will have to visit as we feel its twin is ours!!
I see you passed on the habit of travelling light to your son - I wonder if he also 'washed his smalls' every evening!!
Lovely place that. Athis Mons at least! What surprises me in posting this 1995 report is how some things have not changed. I wrote the 2007 account without re-reading this and am amazed at the similarities. 'The Plan' has survived the passage of time. And I got back to Fontainbleau a number of times over the decade, even cycled there with B on one of our last, if not the last, biking trip. If you are eagle eyed and doing the honours course you will have noticed the similarity between the panniers at Villa Flore and those on the (2006) tandem. Waste not, want not! I should get Seamus on it and cross O'Connell St to capture an updated Tandem Brothers picture to bridge the 1940 to 2006 gap (need to be up early as traffic flow has been reversed - you on S?).
Oh. So Ballina comes under your estate also? ... !!
Up early? I might have known there'd be an "up early" somewhere in the deal! Yes. I'm on.
But of course it within our Estate (Dah!)
Glad to see you are getting S up early - it drives me mad when I pass his house at 7.15 a.m. and there is not a sign of life - these slackers!!!
Exactly. Is it the traffic jams that delay you till 7:15? No doubt no sign of life by that late stage as he has left already. If you got the DART it would not drive you mad! Hope you find these comments helpful! We will need someone to take the picture...any suggestion as to who else we could get up early ... say 07:00ish on a Saturday!!! ;-).
Take the DART.....I would take the **** DART if it didn't leave me 20 minutes walk (sorry that was the old days, now its a 35 minute hobble) to get to work from when it deposits its passengers.....if only we had an integrated public transport system....and not just for those working in St Patricks!!
Get up early on a Saturday - ha ha ha ha ha - do you live in the real world??!! my Saturday sleep-in is what I day-dream about all week....get Seamus up - its good for him!!
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