LONDON TO PARIS DAY 4 Chambly to Paris and London

Having consumed large amounts of the now familiar breakfast, riding from Chambly into the centre of Paris turned out to be nearly 50 km. To summarise, first part much easier than expected, second part much tougher. Much tougher.  Stuart got a bit stressed out by the navigation which didn't go fully to plan - we didn't go horribly wrong, but figuring out the one way systems and making the right turn was hard work.  Dylan, Andy and I had more time than Stuart in terms of catching a train to our respective destinations, so I expect that was putting pressure on him too, albeit perhaps subconsciously. I don't think he likes the traffic too much, and his riding mates (I must admit to being guilty here) of adding more pressure by complaining about not being warned of pothole...

And then, having spent all morning successfully surviving the approach into Paris, what did three of us decide to do? Ride a lap of the Arc de Triomphe / Place de Charles de Gaulle (whichever is the more accurate), that's all. This was one particular test of macho-dom that Stuart didn't feel compelled to join in, much like, for example, how many pints of beer you can drink in 20 minutes. He thinks it proves nothing other than you're an idiot.  At this point I must point out that Dylan and I skirted around the outside edge, stopping at each of the entry / exit points until there were no vehicles in sight.  Andy was the one mad enough to head out into the traffic like he was in a car.

We did have one casualty of the Arc madness - Dylan's sunglasses, which came off his head half way round and were soon in a squillion pieces, crushed by a hundred tyres.


Photo opportunities were taken with the Arc and / or the Champs in the background.

Stuart's train left Paris a couple of hours before our Eurostar, so we rode down the Champs Elysees, crossing the Place de la Concorde, and down to Gare de Montparnasse. It's often-said, but chapeau to the pros for what they do on the final day of the Tour de France - the Champs is steep and its cobbles rough; I really wouldn't fancy racing round that for an hour or so.  Great to actually ride it though.  Felt a bit special for me, having watched the race there twice, the last time seeing Mark Cavendish take a great victory by an unusually large margin (i.e. a couple of seconds).

 We managed a quick celebratory glass of champagne at a delightful little restaurant at Montparnasse, and then Stuart headed onto the TGV for a couple of hours to Rennes, and from there a few stops to Lamballe, the nearest station to our house in Brittany. The rest of us stayed on at the restaurant for a tasty bite to eat - and good it was too, even though it was accompanied by the inevitable Paris pricing.  The champagne went down well, then we followed it up by a couple of beers.

Then we realised we had about 10km to ride to the Gard du Nord for the Eurostar.  In the Paris traffic.  After 3 drinks.  Not the brightest idea really.  As it happens, it was incident free, and we rode at a good speed so it was enjoyable (or the alcohol made it seem like a great ride perhaps?).

Eurostar procedures weren't obvious but our bookings worked OK and the bikes were roughly handled on board.  A word of advise - if you're going to do this with your bike, go ahead, its really easy - but make sure you buy and use some kind of protective bag - my bike has several new chips as a result of being hung from the front wheel on a trolley and allowed to swing around freely, clashing with surrounding bikes.

You'd think we'd be asleep instantly as the Eurostar hit top speed, but the seats are narrow and the leg room virtually non-existent so its not that easy to get comfortable.  Eventually we took turns to snooze.  It felt a bit weird taking only 2.5 hours to return from a journey that had just taken us 3.5 days!  Back in the UK it was a short ride from St Pancras to Euston then back home to a great welcome from the family.  Much sleep ensued.