The day is finally here. I thought it was going to be an emotional send off, but not so. Being a wee bit late I was keen to hit the road, and my daughter was keen to feed the ducks on Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park. My wife had happily agreed, or so it appeared, to haul our overnight bags…
With our departure from Newhaven delayed by an hour we had enough time to tuck in to a Premier Inn breakfast. The bikes were loaded on to the back of the car for the 4 hour ferry crossing, which passed fairly quickly. Most of that time was spent stood in a queue trying to get served poor quality cold hot…
Pushing off at 9:15, we managed to go about 200 metres before stopping for a breakfast of coffee and baguettes at the local cafe and boulangerie. We finally left Forges-les-Eaux around 10am, just as the wind picked up and the rain started. The ride though was good and the roads were quiet all the way down to Gournay-en-Bray. Here we…
Morale was high as we hit the road on day 4. Surprisingly, my legs felt good and my backside wasn't sore. Once again we grabbed breakfast from a Boulangerie, then the first hill of the day took us up to Boisemont, before a lovely downhill to the River Seine. This was the point where I followed the map turning left…