Days 7-9 – Powered by Pain Au Chocolat: Rouen to Reims
Sunday January 11, 2015, 265 km (165 miles) – Total so far: 758 km (471 miles)
Day 7: Rouen to Woods outside Clermont – 111.1km
After a good night’s sleep in the hotel I was ready to get out into the wild again. I wasn’t even halfway across France so there was some serious progress to be made.
My first step was to get across Rouen. Cycling through a city the size of Rouen is usually a tricky enough process but with it being early on a Sunday morning it was painless and I flew through the city with the sun rising to one side of me and a beautiful blue sky to the other side.
Once I was out of the city I picked up a massive tailwind which effectively blew me across the French countryside for the rest of the day. The main road east was reasonably quiet so I was able to use the most direct route.
I stopped for a quick bit of lunch in Gournay-en-Bray. Lunch involved a “Pringle Baguette”, one of the finer pieces of French cuisine! It was just like a French version of the good old fashioned “Tayto Sandwich” which has been an Irish favourite for years. This being the French version because the baguette has to be one of the most French things out there and the Pringles dude on the can looks French so it’s close enough…right!? With this fine baguette and a couple of pain au chocolates down me I powered on towards Beauvais.
There were a few showers throughout the day but nothing too bad so I was able to enjoy the cycling a bit more. I took the ring road around Beauvais and aimed to finish up the day in the forest I could see on the map just before Clermont. I had learnt from my mistake in Villers-Sur-Mer and ensured that I would be finishing up in an area that would be good for wild camping by the end of the day.
I was just north of Paris here and the increased police presence was pretty obvious even out here after the attacks over the last 3 days. They weren’t too concerned about the strange looking tourist (without the beard maybe I don’t look dodgy for once!) and they just asked that I turned on my lights as it was getting dark. Wild camping is technically illegal in France so I headed off quickly before I was asked any questions about what I was doing out here in the dark!
I soon reached the patch of woods I had aimed for, 111km from where I had started the day. I waited for a gap in traffic, pushed the bike out of view into the trees and found an isolated spot hidden above the road. I then used the last of the light to set up my tent in a clearing.
I had made some surprisingly good progress today. I had put in nearly 6 hours of cycling and due to that was now over halfway across France, it finally felt like I was making some ground.
Day 8: Woods outside Clermont to Woods outside Osly Courtil! – 75km
I ended up sleeping in the next morning. It seems the effort of the last day had taken its toll. When I did manage to wake up it took me an hour and 20 minutes to get all my gear together, get the tent packed up and load my bike. This was something I would have to get a lot quicker at as it was too long to spend doing this every morning. Due to this late start I was playing catch up all day and realistically would find it very hard to reach the target of 100km.
The road from Clermont to Compiègne ended up being surprisingly dodgy. There was a constant stream of trucks along it and sometimes one would pass you when there was another coming. I lost my nerve a couple of times and ended up bailing onto the side of the road on a few occasions. My biggest fear about this trip has always been the traffic. Statistically this is the most dangerous aspect of the trip for round the world cyclists. With this in the back of my head I wasn’t enjoying these close calls one bit.
The number of trucks tailed off after not too long and on the bright side I passed through a town which won over the title of my favourite French village name from “Foucarville”. The new victor was…”Arsy”! I had to get photos of the signs into the village and the village sign itself. Yes, I know it’s childish but they even had a water tower with ARSY written across it in capital letters for feck’s sake! How could I resist!
Having not eaten a proper meal for a few days now I stopped in the town of Compiègne to look for a quick bite to eat. My French is of course non existent so I chose a random item from the menu that came with chips. It turned out a Croque-monsieur was actually a toasted ham and cheese sandwich so my random choice worked out well. Fueled up and good to go I headed out of Compiègne and this time switched back to country roads which this time ran nearly parallel to the main road. I followed these country roads for the rest of the day passing through old World War 1 battlefields with the accompanying monuments and graveyards along the roadside.
With it getting late I had a good look at the map and could see that if I continued on I would get caught in the suburbs of the town of Soissons when it was getting dark. I could see there was a patch of woods coming up soon so again learning from my mistake in Villers-Sur-Mer I called it a day early here and decided to look for a wild camp spot.
The woods were on a hill overlooking the village of Osly Courtil. I climbed the hill with the sun setting behind me and after a bit of scouting found a small patch of ground that looked good for camping. It was on a down slope so I spent the night sliding down the hill and having to scarper back up again every time I woke in the night! It still somehow made for a good night’s sleep though.
Day 9: Woods outside Osly Courtil to Reims – 79.1km
Again I made a very late start to the day struggling to get out of my sleeping bag. Cycling non stop for so many days after a couple of months off was really starting to drain me. I knew I’d need a rest day to recover soon enough.
I made it to the village of Soissons relatively early and headed into the Lidl there to stock up on fuel. I upgraded from my usual Pringle baguette to a chicken baguette and stocked up on another 10 pack of pain au chocolats as I had somehow run out. These were my main sources of fuel every morning and what did me for lunch most days too. They were fueling my trip across the country.
While packing up outside Lidl the rain came back with a vengeance. A heavy downpour started and lasted for half an hour flooding parts of the roads leading out of Soissons. It was already late in the day at this stage so I checked the map on my phone to see what my options were. I noticed that Reims was only another 60km away and it had a hostel. That was the decision made so I waited out the downpour and then set off for the city of Reims.
I put my faith in Google Maps to route me to Reims using country roads as the traffic on the main road seemed to be made up mainly of convoys of trucks. This was not my best idea as it ended up trying to send me down muddy farm tracks on more than one occasion!
I was making very slow progress through the countryside as the roads were a bit hilly and the route was very convoluted. At one stage I decided to trust one of Google’s route choices and ended up on a grassy farm track. It was a good test of my mountain bike skills as I tried to control the bike through the grass and the mud.
As I neared Reims it became obvious that I would have to deviate back onto the main road (the dreaded N31!) for a couple of kilometres. I wasn’t looking forward to this. It was starting to get dark and it was raining heavily. I had to bite the bullet though as the only other option was more of Google’s favourite, muddy farm/quarry tracks!
The road was a lot worse than I imagined. The visibility was shocking with the sun after setting and the with the rain pouring down it was even worse. The traffic consisted mostly of trucks who were speeding by me a bit too close for comfort. I had lights but I doubt that made me much more visible given the conditions. This road was death on a stick! I had no option but to keep going so I kept checking over my shoulder and pulled in every time a large truck was passing by. By doing this I eventually reached a turn off on the map which Google had suggested as an alternative route. I didn’t care how bad a track it was I was getting the feck off this road. I had to wait nearly 5 minutes for a gap in the constant stream of traffic so I could cross the road. When I finally got my chance I sprinted across the road and made for the farm track. Luckily it wasn’t too bad and it deposited me into one of the small villages surrounding Reims.
Before too long it was pitch black and I still had a good bit to go. The downpour was even worse at this stage. It was another half an hour before I finally made it into Reims itself and dragged myself through the city to the hostel. It was another tough day but I had made it. France was turning out to be a hell of a challenge! At least I had the hostel for tonight so could dry myself out before starting the last stint across the country.
Irregular Adventures 