I popped over to France with No1 son (who has just finished his GCSEs) last week four a short tour including seeing a bit of the Tour De France.
Eurostar to Lille, then an evening ride to Cambrai.
Then 57 miles to Laon, overnight at the top of the city (hairpin climb) followed by Reims the following day (it was very hot and we decided to give the extra 25 mile round trip to Epernay to get onto a climb a miss), then watched the depart the next lunchtime before a ride through the champagne country to Soissons. The final day was 78 miles to Paris (the temperature was 29C so we took it slow). The final day was a ride in Paris, including down the Champs Elysees before the Eurostar home. Total distance was just short of 300 miles.
The bikes:
Blue 1979 Witcomb 531 with 1999 Chorus mix, bought 4 years ago from VCBallbat on this forum. It's my winter bike.
Red 1990 Marin Palisades (often featured in the touring section over in MTB), which has been my main tourer for 25 years. Bith bikes stripped of their habitual mudguards to make boxing up faster for the Eurostar and as the weather forecast was so lovely! All the kit was in the bikepacking bag as shown or Carradice Super C.
Eurostar to Lille, then an evening ride to Cambrai.
Then 57 miles to Laon, overnight at the top of the city (hairpin climb) followed by Reims the following day (it was very hot and we decided to give the extra 25 mile round trip to Epernay to get onto a climb a miss), then watched the depart the next lunchtime before a ride through the champagne country to Soissons. The final day was 78 miles to Paris (the temperature was 29C so we took it slow). The final day was a ride in Paris, including down the Champs Elysees before the Eurostar home. Total distance was just short of 300 miles.
The bikes:
Blue 1979 Witcomb 531 with 1999 Chorus mix, bought 4 years ago from VCBallbat on this forum. It's my winter bike.
Red 1990 Marin Palisades (often featured in the touring section over in MTB), which has been my main tourer for 25 years. Bith bikes stripped of their habitual mudguards to make boxing up faster for the Eurostar and as the weather forecast was so lovely! All the kit was in the bikepacking bag as shown or Carradice Super C.
