Sunday June 30 - Day 4 - 47 miles - Total: 169 miles

Sunny skies greeted us as we got out of our tent this morning. Andrea made a wonderful breakfast of eggs and coffee. We packed everything up and made use of the internet before hitting the road. The D60 road out of Chalons en Champagne was great with a bike path for part of it as we passed through Sarry and Pogny. We made it to La Chausee sur Marne and found a champagne maison (maker) that was open! We got a brief tour and were shown how the labeling machine worked. We bought a bottle to enjoy later! Champagne in Champagne! 

The road veered away from the river as we passed through St Armand en Fion, Lisse en Champagne and Bassu...and we also climbed in altitude a little. The rolling hills were back! We dropped down onto an old Roman road that was straight as an arrow for several miles through Villers le Sec, Rancourt & Revigny. In Rancourt, Andrea found a small open cafe even though it was Sunday afternoon... so we enjoyed a large cup of caffeine to perk us up in the afternoon. We persevered on to Bar le Duc to complete our longest day of the tour so far. There was a great downhill into town and then a bike path along the canal, which was very welcome. After asking directions we found the municipal campground which was in the gardens of an old banker's mansion! After checking in, we noticed that the campground also sold beer, so we relieved them of a couple of large cold bottles! Andrea made a wonderful dinner of ravioli and vegetables. Later we enjoyed the champagne under a gazebo, which was very romantic.

Andrea's knee is hurting a little, so we are taking a rest day on Monday in Bar-Le-Duc to rest up, do some laundry, see the historic old town, and just enjoy a beautiful day. 

Don't worry if we don't ping tomorrow. We are just resting... we will be back on the road on Tuesday!

The World is Ours!

Saturday June 30 - Day 3 - 41 miles - Total: 122 miles

A drizzly morning and a splendid french breakfast waited us this morning. Baguettes with 5 types of marmalade and nutella, brie, pate, cold cuts, yogurt, coffee, and juice all on fine china and eaten with silver flatware. 

We started off around noon again to avoid most of the rain and it worked! About a half an hour into our day the sky opened up to beautiful puffy clouds, blue sky, and a cool breeze. 

We were coasting through farmland filled with wheat and other crops checker boarding the landscape with greens, yellows, and pinks and purples. Red poppies dotted the sides of the road along with periwinkle chicory, white and yellow daisies and other local wild flowers that we did not know their name... but they were beautiful.  The day was serene and quiet.. almost too quiet... We passed through so many tiny, small and medium sized villages (Talus St. Prix, Villevenard, Courjeonnet, Coizard Joches...) but they had no people. Every shop was shuttered, most houses look abandoned. We joked that the zombie apocalypse happened over night while we were sleeping...  but the joke didn't feel like a joke around 1pm when we started getting hungry for lunch and NOTHING was open. We saw one restaurant with a Stella Artois sign but it was shuttered as well... It looked like we were in for a lunch of Quaker Oatmeal and Clif bars... blech... So after passing yet another village with nothing and no-one...Andrea in her cunning pulled off to the side of the road near a very green patch of ... greens... This turned out to be a very delicate and crunchy type of swiss chard (french chard?) commonly grown in this area. Picking just a few leaves from each plant (so not to make it noticeable we were pillaging the crop) we picked until we had enough for a sauté of greens. A little further on there was a huge area of sweet peas, so we pillaged some more and when we got to the village of Pierre Morains we stopped in the courtyard of a 12th century church and made a chard and pea curry for lunch on our camp stove with fuel snuck in from the UK, olive oil bought in Paris, and curry power brought from the states. We felt very resourceful and full after lunch so we set off again into zombie land. Passing the villages of Clamanges and Villesneux, we decided to change our route  to go into the city of Chalons en Champagne. We had spent the last of our Euros on the B&B the night before and we hadn't seen an ATM since and we didn't have many provisions left. We headed up the D5 which wasn't too bad until we got closer into the city then it became a tad busy. Just as we were wondering which way to go into the city another touring cyclist came by. We followed him to the municipal campground where we set up for the evening. He was called Steve and was from Dartford, UK and we went on a supermarket run with him to the Carrefour and then hung out for the rest of the evening. He was averaging about 100miles per day.....very impressive! We turned in for the night about 11pm-ish and enjoyed our first night camping!

Bruce and Andrea - on Tuesday!

Thank you Sandy and James for taking photos of us when our camera went dead. You preserved a memory! Thank you so much!

Friday June 28 - Day 2 - 40miles (Total 81miles)

A few kinks to work out this morning both in the body and on the computer. We are a bit sore from yesterday's 40 miles... steel bikes bite when they tip over on your ankle... just so you know... Also, we had some issues downloading the GPS points from SPOT, until we figured out that all we needed to do was download Dropbox... that took a good hour to sort out... but once we were stretched and downloaded the rain had stopped and were were on our way. 

Most of the day was filled with the ups and downs of the rolling hills of the French countryside. We got to try out all of the gears on our new touring bikes since going up hill with 50 lbs of gear makes for interesting work, but the lower range of the gears made it totally doable. When we reached a town called Rebais we were getting hungry so we stopped at a little bar (which we now know also means pub) with a plat du jour. We were treated to charcuterie (appetizer of cold cuts, pate, and pickles) and then a seafood and rice dish with a cream sauce and Coca Cola. We finished up with an espresso and single chocolate almond. The Lavassa sugar cube came individually wrapped which was so cute! (Oh so good...) The waitress was incredibly nice and tried to speak English as much as we tried to speak French.  But even with that, we ate very well and made it out of there without any problems.
 
After lunch, we hit more of the rolling hills of the French countryside... after much toil going up and up and up we hit the jackpot around 1pm... a 2 mile long down hill into the village of Bellot, with graceful (gradual) twists and turn and barely any traffic. We hit our top speeds today of about 26 mph. Awesome! 

After cycling through Verdelot, Mecringes, Montmirail and Boissy le Repos (amongst others)  we reached the village of Corfelix. It was getting later and we were thinking about camping or finding a place to stay, when we passes the Mairie of the town (town office?) There were two ladies watching us out the window so we decided to go in and ask for their assistance.  With twittering French, then called several places around including a tourist office (somewhere) that had someone who spoke English. The ladies were incredibly nice and so helpful. We laughed at our language difficulties while looking at maps of the area.  After about a half an hour of phone calls they found us a jete in Bannay, a village about 5km (3miles) away. We are now staying in the eaves of a farmhouse built before the United States was a country. The owners are sweet elderly couple who obviously take pride in their flower gardens. The room is quaint with french fabrics and old pictures on the walls. The beams in the ceiling come down in all sorts of interesting angles and you can see the wooden dowels that hold them together. It looks like this place was build before nails and screws. Off to take a bubble bath and then off to bed. Breakfast at 8am tomorrow. Hopefully the rain holds off, but if not... c'est la vie!

The World is Ours!

Thursday June 27 - Day 1 - 41miles

After a leisurely start due to rain showers in the morning, we left our apartment of the last three days and departed eastwards! (See photo above of the orange cube entrance to the apartment building - it seemed very 1960s East German!)

The first 15 miles of the day were on the bike path which followed the canal to Claye Souilly. The path was mostly in excellent shape...there were a couple of bumps here and there. The only real annoyance was they had speed bumps when the path went downhill, however this meant that you had to endure them whilst going uphill too! The scenery along the canal was wonderful. We travelled through a post-industrial area going out of the urban area where every surface was covered in graffiti, some of which was very artistic. There were also ducks, geese, swans and other wildlife in the canal.

Once we left the canal, we ventured onto the back roads through villages east of Paris. We passed through Claye Souilly, Annet Sur Marne, Quincy Voisins, Esbly, Coulommes and other villages.  Mostly the roads were pretty quiet, however when we did encounter traffic it was very courteous. We did have to deviate from our route a couple of times due to one way systems as well as one of the roads being part of a private campground and them not letting us through!

After cycling through the town of Mouroux, we spotted a Carrefour supermarket with a hotel next door so we decided to call it a day. The hotel was labeled "economique" which apparently means the toilet and shower are 6 inches apart, but overall it worked and it did have free wifi, which is always a bonus! We bought provisions at the Carrefour  and then had dinner at the Chinese Buffet! (which rivals any China Buffet in Revere!). Quite a contrast to our dinner last night at Bofinger, which was a spectacular French bistro, but it did the job! 

The forecast for tomorrow is showers in the morning again, so it might be another later start, but we will see what tomorrow brings!

The World is Ours!

Yesterday we toured Paris yet again!! We went to the Louvre (by-passing the line because we already had passes). We saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo and so much more! Then we walked up towards the Arc de Triomphe through the Tuileries Gardens and then up the Champs Elysee (all the way!) stopping only for a Crepe with nutella and BANANA!!! Soooo Gooood! Then we walked off the Nutella and banana by climbing the 284 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

(*Note: we obviously would have climbed the Eiffel Tower but the peeps who work there are on strike at the moment... oh how we love the French...)

Then Andrea got totally dizzy on the way down so we stopped at the bottom to watch the cars circle round us on the rotary from hell... (why is it the rotary from hell you ask? because it is an enormous rotary with 12 roads joining it all of which have right of way onto the rotary and the cars in the rotary must yield for incoming traffic) it was awesome! Especially the bicycle rickshaw drivers and the smart cars competing for space with the tour buses and the military police.

After that... we needed a nap...

3 hours later... We went out for Dinner in Paris at a recommended bistro called Bofinger at the Place de la Bastille. This was a totally old school Parisian bistro with wood paneled walls, mirrors, and waiters in full black and white. We were initally given the french menu until our waiter came over and asked Andrea "Do you speak French?" Andrea said... "No"... then the waiter came back with the English version of the menu, leaned in and said "... I save you life... he he he..." It was very cute.

We were treated to oysters, foie gras, full sauerkraut (beef and pork in various guises over the fermented cabbage), salmon, and potato emulsion (oh yeah.. emulsion...) wine and later CREME BRULEE!!! In Paris!

After that we needed a nap (since it was past midnight by the time we were done with dinner)...

The world is ours!

We started the morning by making friends with the baker at the local boulangerie (always good when they give you a couple of free apple turnovers :) ! Then we were off to Notre Dame where the lines were incredible, so a quick look around admiring the gargoyles and the little veggie garden tended to by the monks and we were off again...

Then the trains! We successfully took 2 metros and two commuter rails out to Versailles.The weather was utterly perfect for walking around Paris today; about 70 degrees with big white puffy clouds and a cool breeze. This weather came in handy when we reached the line at Versailles. Even though we already had our passes, the line for security was 8 snake-like turns that took up the entire front entry way to the palace. We were in line behind some funny Australians though, so it made the two hour wait feel shorter.

Versailles was beautiful, except for the crowds. So we toured the palace and had a picnic of pain-au-chocolat (from the friendly boulangerie). This excursion took most of the day so we were getting hungry again...

After Versailles we took a stroll around the city near the palace. We found a fantastic artisianal indoor/outdoor food market that circled a central square. We selected a couple of cheeses, cherrys, bread, and wine then hopped back on the train(s) towards the Eiffel Tower!

"Holy crap... That's the Eiffel Tower!" - Andrea's first sighting the enormous steel structure

We had our second picnic of the day under the Eiffel Tower. It was spectactular, delicious, awe inspiring, and romantic... for the hundreds of couples doing exactly the same thing we were... and it was wonderful. We saw a couple who obviously had just gotten married (big white poofy dress and red shoes of course). We saw a good deal of French kissing... oooh la la... and we met a wonderful couple from California who offered to take our picture (sadly the camera had literally JUST died...) they were very nice and one was a recently retired teacher! Congrats on retirement!

By this point, we were absolutely shattered from the day (it stays light here until about 10pm... so you can stay out much later than you think without noticing). We went back to the apartment and watched some frenchy TV, finished up the bread and cheese (and another bottle of wine) and passed out around 1am.

What a day! Now to do it all over again.

Tomorrow: Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, and dinner at the Eiffel Tower (again... :)

The World is ours!

After the family departed for their separate corners of the UK, Bruce and Andrea loaded up their bikes and made a break for Macclesfield Train Station. We were on our way to London and then on to Paris on the Eurostar (where bicycle tickets cost the same as people tickets)! We made great time into both stations and even got to see the top of the Eiffel Tower on our way into Paris.

After cycling down the Canal... We found the apartment, with it's totally 70's orange tile entry way and didn't quite break the lift with our heavy duty bikes.

Several things went wrong at once... cell phone stopped working, Bruce's front brake got twitchy, SPOT tracker wouldn't ping, and internet in the apartment was as slow as it was in 1990.

But, nothing can hold Bruce and Andrea back from success so...

-John has already taken over the task of the cell phone

-McDonalds was found with appropriate 2013 speed internet

-Front brake fix was YouTubed and successfully carried out

-SPOT Pings in Paris ... DONE!

Tomorrow (we take over the world...) or maybe we will just go to Versailles, Notre Dame, eat at a Boulangerie (french bakery)...

The World is Ours!

Our bags are packed. We went on a test run with the bikes and bags this morning. Now we are just waiting on our train to London! WOO HOO!

Another beautiful day for a wedding! The weather held out yet again for the two of us to share a special day with friends and family, now across an ocean from where we were married a week ago. About 40 people gathered at The Wizard Pub and Inn in Alderley Edge to eat drink and be merry for our second wedding. Andrea got to meet her new family members and Bruce's friends that she had only heard about in his many stories of fun and folly. Andrea was so excited to meet and spend an evening with all of her new aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as, her new brothers and sister-in-law (Stewart, Gavin, Gail, and Rick) and their beautiful children (neice and nephews) Isobel, Fraser, and Xander.

A huge thanks again to John and Freda for hosting this wonderful party and for putting us up the the Merlin Inn (it was magical!).

You can see photos taken by our friends on the Pictures page of this website. Again, more photos will trickle in as people send them over to us.

Tomorrow we leave for Paris and begin our Honeymoon adventure! Wish us luck and keep in touch!