Voie verte and the old Quittebeuf station
Monday 30th Anet to Etampes
64 miles 08:00 - 16:00 5:20 hrs riding time Avge 11.99mph Total 162 mls
Woke up for 7, breakfasted on a couple of Alpen bars and water, packed and moved out for 8 o'clock. I unlocked my damp bike from the back yard and posted my key through the letterbox as per Madame's instructions. Today's plan was to follow the D116 most of the way to Etampes along the banks of the rivers Eure and Aunay. The early drizzle soon stopped and I was treated to wonderfully flat and pretty roads - not boring-flat agri-desert, but in wooded valleys with the rather swish houses of the well-heeled rising alongside.
I found a little café in the village of Cherisy, Madame greeted me like a long-lost friend with a firm handshake, " Bien sûr ", and of course I could have breakfast. and lots of it! I had 2 baguettes, croissants, honey, jam, real butter in a dish not in little packets, and a huge jug of coffee. All for only e4.80 - about £3.
I set off again, (albeit fuller and a bit slower) on the fantastic little D116 through a small town called Maintenon which has the massive towering remains of a 16th century stone aqueduct in a state of preserved dilapidation crossing the road. It was apparently built but never finished, for Louis XIV to transport water to the fountains of Versailles.
I left the D116 behind near Aunay and crossed a huge plain covered in corn and yellow rape fields (why does rape smell of cabbage?) luckily I had a tailwind and bowled along for some miles at well over 20mph, it would have been a different story had the wind been in the other direction.
Today should hopefully be my longest day in the saddle.
Etampes appears to be a staging post on the Route National 20 and my hotel the ' Auberge de France' wasn't as the name would suggest an ivy clad old inn, but an anonymous motel just off the RN20. I was efficiently checked in and my bike was to spend the night leaning against a whiteboard in a conference room. My room was a freshly decorated but pokey single in the eaves of the building.
I do seem to be droning on at length with this journal but an evening meal ' tout seul' is a lonely place to be without something to do. My fellow diners were scribbling away in a similar manner but probably on sales reports.
Tonight's meal is an 'all you can trough' buffet for entrée and dessert, my main course was a 'double-hard-bastard-canard' - quite the toughest duck I have ever eaten.
The forecast for tomorrow is ideal, dry with patchy cloud. I think it could be another long day tomorrow. It's amazing how 5 hrs actual riding time translates into a full day's hard work on the road with no perceptible breaks.
I'm full now but I'm determined to finish these desserts.
Footnote: I've just sighted the chef - he looks like Mike Tyson's big brother. That perhaps could go some way to explain the duck.
Breakfast stop at Cherisy
Tuesday 31 st Etampes to Sens
67 miles 08:00 - 16:30 6:1hrs riding time Ave 10.93mph. Total 229.5 mls
Not a good day today, I had feared today would be my hardest day.
There was a fairly long uphill climb out of Etampes on the D63 and it set the tone for the day. The terrain was corrugated up and down all day - not a flat section of road all the way to Sens. My plan was to cover as much distance as I could in the morning and if possible just coast along in the afternoon.
I crossed the ' meridienne verte' quite early in the day, this as far as I'm aware, is an imaginary line of longitude running from North to South through the very centre of France, it meant nothing to my trip really but I took a photograph of my bike leaning against the signpost anyway.
La Meridienne verte
D63 Etampes
I stopped to buy lunch from a little patisserie in Grez-sur-Loing and ate it in beautiful parkland overlooking an ancient stone arched bridge on the banks of the river Loing. I took another photograph but by now I was aware that with the exception of a too-dark snap taken on the ferry, all my pictures so far consisted of my bike in front of, or leaning against something. There never seemed to be anything conveniently close to balance the camera on so that I could use the self-timer and get myself into the shot.
River Loing
I'd planned to stay in a chambre d'hôte (bed and breakfast) 55 miles from Etampes in a little hamlet called Lixy but arrived way too soon at 2.30pm. A difficult part of trip planning is being able to find accommodation in the right place to coincide with daily manageable distances. I decided that it was far too early to stop; what would I do for the rest of the day in a two-house hamlet? I pressed on another 12 miles to Sens - a reasonably large city which co-incidentally is twinned with Chester. I've resolved now to book ahead for the next night whenever possible in future as I've found myself rushing along to my chosen hotel to be early enough to get a room.
I spoke to an elderly Canadian lady cyclist on the outskirts of Sens when I was searching for a hotel, she told me she was on a 6 week round trip from Paris to Marseille and back, I was very impressed.
I negotiated Sens' inner ring road and booked into the Hotel Brennus. The patron couldn't have been more obliging and let me wheel my bike through the lobby and leave it in an alcove under the stairs.
I'm writing this sitting in a pizza restaurant after a quick stroll around the town and a couple of beers. I may be getting paranoid but I do seem to be the only person in here not smoking. I'm rambling now but what else do you do whilst waiting for coffee?
My legs and especially my bum are hurting a bit for the first time today. I'm going to have a much shorter day tomorrow so I've booked my hotel in advance in St Florentine - I'll treat myself to a bit of a lie in tomorrow.
Note to self . If I ever do this again I must bring a little mirror to assist in the application of sun block - I've got a face like a barber's pole.
I've forgotten what this place was called!