France Coast to Coast 2005
I remember it well - 1994 I think; I was ill and off work; or perhaps it could have been school half term holidays or something. Anyway, I was definitely off work watching daytime TV. It was the name that first attracted my attention, Edward Enfield - Harry's dad and he was plugging his book 'Downhill all the way'. Recently retired, he'd decided at the age of sixty-something to ride a bicycle coast-to-coast, north to south, the length of France from Le Havre to the Mediterranean. Intrigued, I mused over the idea of such an adventure for quite some time after.
Eventually I got around to buying a hardback copy.
I found Enfield senior's gentle dry wit both informative and entertaining. Obviously proud of his achievement, his self-deprecating humour is that of the 'well-to-do' English gent abroad, bewildered sometimes by the inexplicable mysteries of France and the French as he meandered south.
The book inspired me for sure. I re-read it several times over the next few years, day-dreaming my plans for the trip that in all honesty I thought I'd never ever get around to making.
