Day 48- Paris to Beauvais

After doing most of the packing last evening, ahead of a planned early morning start, we were up at 5.30am and all packed and ready to go.

As we left the hostel we were “collared “ by an American lady who was keen to see us off…. Last evening she had us doing a “coal miners dance” which she is organising from various people she can conscript which she videos and will present to the IOC as a package in the hope it might be shown at the closing ceremony of the Games. She is keen to do this in recognition that the Tokyo Olympic Games was held during COVID. She says the coal miners dance is a unique Japanese thing!

Anyway we were a little delayed in doing a video for the American lady. We made our way out at 6.30 am with the sun just rising in the east. Shortly afterwards we found a Boulangerie that was open to have some croissants, juice and coffee to set us up for the 80+ km ride.

The ride out of Paris was initially along canals and rivers and we passed Stade de France which is the main stadium for the Athletics, Rugby 7’s and Football. It will also be the venue for the closing ceremony. The outer Paris suburban spread ends about 30 kms from where we started. This is where we stopped for a coffee.

The ride out then followed the L’Oise river valley which went through some lovely villages and towns. The countryside is covered with farming which is mainly cropping of wheat, barley and the like. The farmers here seem to be into harvesting their crops here which is well ahead of the other regions we have travelled through.

We stopped for lunch at the 50 km point at Amblainville and had a baguette sandwich and a drink. We were making good time as the stop was at about 11.30 am …the normal test for us is to get to lunch at the halfway point of the ride and we were well past this point today.

After lunch we had the first of the categorised climbs which was about 1.5 kms long with a climb of about 100 metres…. We did this quite well and enjoyed the views of the surrounding countryside. For most of the rest of the ride we were climbing ever so gently it was almost unoticed until we had a final climb just outside Beauvais.

We arrived at our final destination at about 2.30 pm and then tried to sort out where our apartment was located…. We had the right building but sorting out the right apartment proved to be a real challenge. Finally after about hour we were finally in the apartment and enjoyed a welcome shower!

Seems the issue was about communication which was lacking from the owners of the apartment and the fact that the language barrier made it more complicated.

The apartment is on the 8the floor and we have a good view of the surrounding countryside including the airport.

The weather today was great with sun and a tailwind with temperatures in the early twenties.

All up today we did 85 kms and climbed about 670 metres

The photos today are:

Our route

Stade de France stadium alongside the canal

An interesting way to spend the night

Farming country with little villages along the way

A church near where we had lunch at Amblainville

A farmer with his harvest under way

A view towards Beauvais froM the top of the last climb.

Home for the night…. We finally got into the apartment!!!!!