4 - 8 August: London to Paris in 48 hours

They did it in 46 hours!!!!!!!!!!!

(with thanks to Donald Hirsch's route)


Thu - Up to Kenington with Lulu and bikes, to meet up with Amie.  It was raining hard.  They set off to Trafalgar Square at 11:30, with it raining harder, to meet up with Elle, but she was delayed by traffic so they didn't set off till 12:20, in the rain.

I waited along Whitehall to see them go by, then leapt in the car to catch up with them at Clapham

Met them at Windmill Pub, then they were off across Clapham and Wandsworth Common to Earlsfield where they started on the Wandle Trail.  This is a traffic free route out of London, but wiggly and lots of barriers and back and forth on side roads as it tries to keep to the river.  I drove to Carshalton where they emerge onto normal side roads.  

Cherry phone up to say "I have fallen off the bike and it is too damaged to ride, so come and pick me up, the girls were riding on".  She had squeezed through a chicane and hit a bump and gone over the handlebars at zero speed, bending and twisting them, but luckily only bruising her thighs and not breaking anything.  A few minutes later she called to say she had managed to use the tools to align the bars, but though bent it was ridable, so she was going on.....but the Garmin had stopped (with the rain I found later) so she had to follow the intermittent signs and went a little offroute and ended up at Carshalton Station where I met her, straightened the bars by that useful tool brute force, loaded the bike up, and we drove along the route to pass the girls and offload her to re-join them after about 5 miles after Chipstead.

It was then up and down and along quiet country roads, crossing M25 then to east side of M23 to stop for east at a pub on a roundabout near Copthorne.  After this the traffic got busy for a while with people driving home from work, then nicer down to Lewes.  The final run into Newhaven was fast and flat, to arrive at docks at 7:45

They warmed up and dried off and changed in the "ferry terminal", a shed right on dock with a great cafe (the Haven Cafe)  where a "tea lady" in her pinny made us fish and chips, fishfinger burgers, jacket potatoes and lots of cups of tea.  We boarded the ferry at 10pm for the 10:30 sailing, found some quiet seats and tried to settle down for a sleep with covers over our heads to cut out the lights.  Seasoned travellers brought on mats and sleeping bags and just lay down in corners to sleep.  We managed a few hours.

66 Miles (route below is from Clapham)

Fri  - The rout they were to follow was:

Ferry docked at 3:30 and we sorted ourselves out at the roundabout, changing out of sleep clothes, get bike lights on.  It wasn't raining though (yet!)

Leaving just before 4:30, they went along the D1 to join the Avenue Vertes, a paved ex-railway line all the way to Forges-Les-Eaux where I was sleeping in the car in the town square.  It started raining about 6am, and they woke me up at 7:30, rather cold, very wet and slightly despondent. Nothing was open but the slightly off smelling St Denis Hotel served us a coffee, then by 8 the shops started to open, and we bought pastries then had omelettes and hot chocolates at a cafe next to the boulangere on the corner of the square.  All the girls lay down for a snooze, but I cracked the whip and got them going about 9:15, with the rain gently coming down (it rained for pretty much all the day more on than off so I'll stop talking about this), saying I'd meet them at the next town, Gournay-en-Bray.

In Gournay there was a market and I bought some nectarines and waited, the girls called to say they didn't want to stop, but Cherry came into the centre for a loo stop, then rejoined them at the outskirts.  I bought some sandwiches for their lunch as I suspected shops etc would be closed when they wanted eats, and there were no big towns on the route.

I rejoined them at La Houssouye where they had found a small cafe for drinks and to eat the sandwiches.  They said the ride had some ups and downs, but they were feeling good and with the end in sight for the day wanted to finish.  It had just about stopped raining by now.

Next meeting was in Marines where I slept by the Church.  We couldn't find a boulangere open, so they pressed on.

Eglise and Hotel de Ville in Marines, opposite Kingston Cafe

We then deviated slightly from the route to go to Cergy for our lodging as I hadn't been able to find anything enroute near here.  After a long uphill we entered the outskirts of Cergy business district and to the Formula1 motel, opposite Carrefour at 3:30 Budget to put it mildly (33 euro for a triple room) with shared showers and loos, but adequate for their needs to wash and crash.  After a nap I explored the environs (a grid of retail parks) to find the Campamile restaurant was closed but the lady there directed me to a Coutepaille Grill next door.  Adjacent was a Decathlon where I bought some rear lights to replace the ones that had got waterlogged.  Went back and we went out at 6:30 for an excellent meal, most had steak, with unlimited veg.  Oh, and of course wine.  In bed by 9:30.

86 miles.

Sat - Alarm went off at 5:45, and they set off at 6:30 in a light mist and dawn about to break.

Faithfully rejoining Donald Hirsch's route took them into Paris via forest tracks and paths, with a puncture to mend on Amie's bike, then a tyre replacement because of a bulging sidewall.  The Garmin route worked well as I had to drive away from them on normal roads, with just one foot crossing of a main road because they didn't read the instructions in time.  I panicked them a little by getting the hour change the wrong way round and claiming that Phileas Fogg style they had too little time to make it in 48 hours, but they soon worked out I was wrong.

I headed into Paris and parked by the Eiffel Tower.............. but meanwhile the girls had a view of their destination over the Seine footbridge:

..here they come, on the final few metres... at 11:20 local time i.e. 46 hours total elapsed time.  What an achievment

With the support team

Trying to get the top of the Eiffel Tour in the shot

Not on a tandem for a change - well done the Stoker for the solo 189 miles!

36 miles today, 189 in total according to the Garmin.

We met their friend Helen, loaded the bikes on the car, then went back to her flat near the Pompidou Centre for a shower and change, and out to a brassiere for an excellent lunch....and wine!

We left around 5 to drive back to Dieppe, leaving the girls to play in Paris.  I let the satnav select the shortest distance route, and it took us delightful D roads south of where they had cycled, in fact I think better than the Avenue Vertes, so thats for next time.  As we got to the coast the sky cleared and the sun came out for the first time in 3 days!

Quayside in Dieppe

 Got to Dieppe in 3 hours, had meal and lots to drink on quayside, then to the ferry terminal where we sort-of-slept in the car till 5am when we were let on the ferry.  We went to the same seats as before and I reckon we got 3ish hours sleep on the boat