France was just fantastic. No cycle paths, just quiet country lanes, and the occasional bigger road, all with safe, slow, patient drivers, to within 50km of Paris!
The sky was blue and the wind moderate, though the mornings were very cold. It took until about 12 for my feet to thore, and a bit longer for Ting.
Our only struggle was with food. We arrived on a Sunday, and there were no shops open. We cycled all day through small villages of 20 or so houses, many had no shops anyway. We got a little tired of road side apples, so resorted to corn from the fields. I think it may have been a bio-fuel crop, as it didn’t taste very good.
Eventually we arrived in the Marne Valley, and rode through the heart of their Champaign growing region. From there we entered Ile de France.
Our final full day to Clay souilly was 110km, including some very steep hill climbing, in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid passing through Meux. From Meux we had a brief stretch on a nasty highway, before heading cross country, and riding into Clay Souilly along a nice pathway beside le canal d’orcq.
We had planned to stay in a hotel that night, which was lucky. Just as we arrived the weather changed and the rain came pouring down. What extraordinary luck we had for the last ten days of the trip!
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