Day 1 - Off to a Good Start

Well, everything went swimmingly (pedallingly?) today. Paris really is a great cycling city now, so it seems fitting to start here. It feels as if it has far more cyclists than London, and the street-hire stations are doing a roaring trade, with the result that the streets are full of the sound of the little pinging bells of the Velib bikes, as well as a host of owner-occupied bikes.

John C and Roy met up with JR at the Gare Du Nord mid-morning and then pedaled off into the traffic to get to Notre Dame and their official starting point. Even this bit of traffic jamming wasn't too bad. The crowds around the famous Cathedral were mainly by the entrance, so there were plenty of opportunities for photos to mark the start of the journey.

As the guys were applying sunscreen, a familiar face emerged from the crowd. Steve Baverstock - a friend of JR's from when he worked in Aberdeen, was visiting Paris with his Mum to give her a Birthday treat and happened to see the group. Actually - it wasn't hard to spot them as they were in dayglo oranges and yellows! It was a great chance to catch up with Steve - and thanks to him and his Mum for their good wishes - we hope the rest of their weekend went well.

Steve Baverstock's photo of the team at Notre Dame

So the obligatory photos were taken, with Notre Dame in the background as evidence.

Then the guys headed off to the park next to the Cathedral for a lunch of French goodies.

Here Roy has noticed that the goat's cheese and spinach tart has all gone! 

JR washes away the evidence...

The guys cycle onto the bridge from Ile de la Cite to Ile Saint Louis as they start their journey.

Pedalling along the bank of the Seine on the Ile Saint Louis

Suitably fuelled for the ride, they set off to follow what is supposed to be the best route out of Paris for cyclists, only getting lost twice. In theory, they can't get properly lost, as JR's iPad has a GPS, so he always knows where he is (if he's managed to charge up the battery that is...). 

The journey to Paroisse, not far from Fontainebleau was quite hard going, but they arrived in good spirits around 95km later (at 7:15 pm).

Update: Unfortunately there were no shops or food places at or near the camp site, so after setting up camp in the twilight we had to cycle 6 km (each way) extra to Montereau before we could get some food. This was excellent, although a bit slow, so we ended up not getting back until after 11 pm.

Only 1305km to go...

We'll try to update the page daily, so watch this blog!

Stats:
107 km (after cycling for food), 95 km (before) - 59 miles. 20.5 kph average. 434 m of climb, 3500 calories.