Sunday, October 18, 2009

France/Paris-to-Bruges (or bust), Day 1

Well, today saw fantastic weather, and a 50km ride out of Paris past Conflans where we were originally scheduled to stop, to Auvers-sur-Oise.

The main note about Auvers-sur-Oise is, this is Van Gogh territory - both Vincent and his brother Theo are buried here next to each other - we did a night graveyard tour, spooky !!!

The ride only had one puff 1/8 (tm) hill in it, the rest was flat .... The 'long' option ride took us through 'la Defense' in Paris, up the Terraces at St Germain-en-Laye - Louis xiv built these around his Palace for a view of Paris

Tomorrow sees us push on, with our dutch guide(s), to Chantilly Castle for one - that's about 20k flat ride from here - there's a short option some are going on, taking the train some of the way - after the castle there's 34km of ?? Road till the next o/night stop

1/8 (tm) is attributed to Elizabeth Diamond from my first tour, to her credit she did all the hills, if she had to, in granny gear aka 1 on the front cog and 8 on the rear .... A real trouper :-)

Ps : Dutch guides were born on bikes and can cycle forever .....

Tt

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