The last posting was made with a fair bit of difficulty. We were in the town of Creil for the night so I thought it would be easy to find Internet access in a town of 50 thousand people. Not so. Three of us eventually motivated ourselves and walked into a pub and put it on the snoozer behind the jump that if we bought a few drinks could we get their wifi password. Bingo, I was in.
That same afternoon we had ridden 50Km through some truly splendid forests. We were riding through the district of Chantilly and it is best known for equine and that was evident by the number of stables, stud farms and an humongous race centre.
Many of the homes in the area were on large estates and it appeared to be a pretty affluent society who lived there. We rode through a forest and came across an 8 path intersection. I wish Warren could have been here to put his drone up to get some overhead photos of it.
We visited Chateau Chantilly which is a castle that is in complete contrast to your conventional European style and nothing like a French chateau. It was more in line with the Disneyland image of a fairytale castle with high narrow spires. It was on many acres with an equestrian centre, lake and a huge accommodation centre.
Wednesday 30th May.
This morning we had a breakfast sailing on the Oise River before heading off on the bikes from Bethisy St.Pierre with Compiegne our target destination to spend the night. A distance of 52 Km. It's amazing what little distance we have achieved from Paris on Saturday despite all the kilometres sailed and ridden. We have zig-zagged through the countryside and swapped rivers and canals several times now to get where we are. No river or canal links Paris with Bruges and many think it is an impossible feat. Fiona our Feniks captain has every map ever produced to prove everyone wrong. Although we were only 24 Km from Compiegne when we set out this morning, we pedalled 52 Km to get there.
Today's highlights were split between the forest rides and our lunch break stop at St. Jean Aux Bois. The forests are simply enchanting. From the minute you ride into them you are initially aware of the coolness and then the semi darkness. Then the shadows and other distractions like hills, potholes and the occasional fallen tree demand your constant attention. It's hard to appreciate just how many kilometres of bitumen paths the French have provided through the forests to allow cyclists to avoid the main roads. What makes it more surprising is the fact that the French aren't really big when it comes to cycling. Compared to the Dutch and Danes that is.
Before lunch, we visited ruins of a 12th century church and just a stone throw down the road were old Roman ruins of an amphitheatre and baths. The second highlight though was the village of St Jean Aux Bois where we stopped for lunch. What a well maintained, picture perfect and manicured setting it was. The village surrounds an 18th century church and the gardens both on private and public spaces are something to behold. Roses are in full bloom making delightful backdrops everywhere.
Without waffling on too much, we got to the town of Compiegne, had dinner and took Siesta's offer of a night walking tour. This is the place where Joan of Arc was captured in the 15th century.
Thursday (I think)
There was no early sail before biking today. Once breakfast was over we were on our bikes. We are now at the front line and World War 1 history has started to kick in. Our first stop was at the spot where the armistice was signed in 1918. Most will recall that the Germans, French and Brits parked two trains side by side and negotiated the surrender of the war. We toured the museum there and trust me, it is impressive with the train carriage the centre of attention. Sadly, the original carriage was burnt in Germany after the 2nd world war. Adolf was pretty savage about losing the first time round so when they took France in 1940 he insisted on repeating the 1918 signing process and then took the train back to Germany. There is a poignant statue with a fallen Eagle that Hitler also took umbrage at and had it destroyed but it has now been rebuilt and proudly displayed about 1 Kilometre from the museum.
Today was a fairly easy ride. There were some forests and long gradual inclines to get the heart rate up. We visited our first war cemetery, a French one with about 600 fallen soldiers just outside Tracy Le Mont. We then ventured into the town and found a nice quiet bar to eat lunch and toast those fallen heroes with one of the nicest IPA beers I have ever tasted. It was a Lecastor with a hops aroma that you would die for.
Once we dragged ourselves from the pub, we cycled through forests, fields and villages before arriving at Noyin to have a bum break and check out the Cathedral.
We still can't believe how the poppies grow wild along the sides of the roads and fields. They are large too, in red and orange.
We knew we were only about 3 or 4 Km from the boat but none of us could believe our eyes when we rode up a hilI and spotted the Feniks moored on the canal. We are no longer on the Oise River but a fairly narrow canal. The boat looks different too as the cabin has been dismantled to allow the boat to fit under the low bridges. We are now sailing and it is a comical sight watching Fiona navigate the river perched under a beach umbrella shaded from the sun.
And finally, a bit on the days and nights. We're sleeping like babies and waking up around 6:00am. That gives us plenty of time to get to breakfast at 8:00am and on the bikes at 9:00am. Bed time seems to be early as it's late getting dark. Sundown is about 9:45 but it isn't dark until about 10:15.
Tomorrow we ride to Peronne and will have an RDO on Saturday to give the crew a chance to give the boat a work over. We have booked a day tour of the war zone and will spend time visiting the new Sir John Monash centre at Villers Bretonneux. Time to get the tissues out I'd reckon.
Friday the first day of winter (23 degrees here)
Not a lot to report but I'm anxious to post this when I can. We had a casual ride today and only ticked up a little over 40 clicks but I have to admit that it was into a stiff head wind most of the day and I felt the hills in my legs. We're right amongst the Somme battlefields so we were stopping and starting a lot having visited a few war cemeteries. One was all German where others were mixed. One had the remains of 1,280 young hero's from both camps.
One of the many war cemeteries on the route
We visited a town called "Y" but not pronounced that way, a town market that had an abundance of fresh produce and believe it or not, a lunch break where we were all challenged to a game of mini golf. (It's called midget golf here!)
One of the most unusual things about this northern French landscape is how the farmers operate. As we enter and leave villages every 8 or 9 kilometres, there is always many houses, maybe a cafe, church and town hall and not much else. In between villages though there are no dwellings. Where in Australia we have farmhouses scattered throughout the countryside, as an historical tradition, everyone lives with the safety of numbers in community groups. I suppose through history they have been invaded so often that the practise continues.
The other noticeable thing is that there are no fences to seperate paddocks or farms. Acre upon acre of crops are grown with only the crop variety distinguishing the boundaries. That, together with very few power lines makes for an impressive landscape.
We're now in the western front
The crew had the night off tonight so the seven of us ate at a restaurant in town before walking the 1.7km back to the boat. We have a war zone tour organised tomorrow in a mini bus so good night.
That same afternoon we had ridden 50Km through some truly splendid forests. We were riding through the district of Chantilly and it is best known for equine and that was evident by the number of stables, stud farms and an humongous race centre.
Many of the homes in the area were on large estates and it appeared to be a pretty affluent society who lived there. We rode through a forest and came across an 8 path intersection. I wish Warren could have been here to put his drone up to get some overhead photos of it.
We visited Chateau Chantilly which is a castle that is in complete contrast to your conventional European style and nothing like a French chateau. It was more in line with the Disneyland image of a fairytale castle with high narrow spires. It was on many acres with an equestrian centre, lake and a huge accommodation centre.
This morning we had a breakfast sailing on the Oise River before heading off on the bikes from Bethisy St.Pierre with Compiegne our target destination to spend the night. A distance of 52 Km. It's amazing what little distance we have achieved from Paris on Saturday despite all the kilometres sailed and ridden. We have zig-zagged through the countryside and swapped rivers and canals several times now to get where we are. No river or canal links Paris with Bruges and many think it is an impossible feat. Fiona our Feniks captain has every map ever produced to prove everyone wrong. Although we were only 24 Km from Compiegne when we set out this morning, we pedalled 52 Km to get there.
Today's highlights were split between the forest rides and our lunch break stop at St. Jean Aux Bois. The forests are simply enchanting. From the minute you ride into them you are initially aware of the coolness and then the semi darkness. Then the shadows and other distractions like hills, potholes and the occasional fallen tree demand your constant attention. It's hard to appreciate just how many kilometres of bitumen paths the French have provided through the forests to allow cyclists to avoid the main roads. What makes it more surprising is the fact that the French aren't really big when it comes to cycling. Compared to the Dutch and Danes that is.
Before lunch, we visited ruins of a 12th century church and just a stone throw down the road were old Roman ruins of an amphitheatre and baths. The second highlight though was the village of St Jean Aux Bois where we stopped for lunch. What a well maintained, picture perfect and manicured setting it was. The village surrounds an 18th century church and the gardens both on private and public spaces are something to behold. Roses are in full bloom making delightful backdrops everywhere.
Without waffling on too much, we got to the town of Compiegne, had dinner and took Siesta's offer of a night walking tour. This is the place where Joan of Arc was captured in the 15th century.
Thursday (I think)
There was no early sail before biking today. Once breakfast was over we were on our bikes. We are now at the front line and World War 1 history has started to kick in. Our first stop was at the spot where the armistice was signed in 1918. Most will recall that the Germans, French and Brits parked two trains side by side and negotiated the surrender of the war. We toured the museum there and trust me, it is impressive with the train carriage the centre of attention. Sadly, the original carriage was burnt in Germany after the 2nd world war. Adolf was pretty savage about losing the first time round so when they took France in 1940 he insisted on repeating the 1918 signing process and then took the train back to Germany. There is a poignant statue with a fallen Eagle that Hitler also took umbrage at and had it destroyed but it has now been rebuilt and proudly displayed about 1 Kilometre from the museum.
Today was a fairly easy ride. There were some forests and long gradual inclines to get the heart rate up. We visited our first war cemetery, a French one with about 600 fallen soldiers just outside Tracy Le Mont. We then ventured into the town and found a nice quiet bar to eat lunch and toast those fallen heroes with one of the nicest IPA beers I have ever tasted. It was a Lecastor with a hops aroma that you would die for.
Once we dragged ourselves from the pub, we cycled through forests, fields and villages before arriving at Noyin to have a bum break and check out the Cathedral.
We still can't believe how the poppies grow wild along the sides of the roads and fields. They are large too, in red and orange.
We knew we were only about 3 or 4 Km from the boat but none of us could believe our eyes when we rode up a hilI and spotted the Feniks moored on the canal. We are no longer on the Oise River but a fairly narrow canal. The boat looks different too as the cabin has been dismantled to allow the boat to fit under the low bridges. We are now sailing and it is a comical sight watching Fiona navigate the river perched under a beach umbrella shaded from the sun.
And finally, a bit on the days and nights. We're sleeping like babies and waking up around 6:00am. That gives us plenty of time to get to breakfast at 8:00am and on the bikes at 9:00am. Bed time seems to be early as it's late getting dark. Sundown is about 9:45 but it isn't dark until about 10:15.
Tomorrow we ride to Peronne and will have an RDO on Saturday to give the crew a chance to give the boat a work over. We have booked a day tour of the war zone and will spend time visiting the new Sir John Monash centre at Villers Bretonneux. Time to get the tissues out I'd reckon.
Friday the first day of winter (23 degrees here)
Not a lot to report but I'm anxious to post this when I can. We had a casual ride today and only ticked up a little over 40 clicks but I have to admit that it was into a stiff head wind most of the day and I felt the hills in my legs. We're right amongst the Somme battlefields so we were stopping and starting a lot having visited a few war cemeteries. One was all German where others were mixed. One had the remains of 1,280 young hero's from both camps.
One of the many war cemeteries on the route
We visited a town called "Y" but not pronounced that way, a town market that had an abundance of fresh produce and believe it or not, a lunch break where we were all challenged to a game of mini golf. (It's called midget golf here!)
One of the most unusual things about this northern French landscape is how the farmers operate. As we enter and leave villages every 8 or 9 kilometres, there is always many houses, maybe a cafe, church and town hall and not much else. In between villages though there are no dwellings. Where in Australia we have farmhouses scattered throughout the countryside, as an historical tradition, everyone lives with the safety of numbers in community groups. I suppose through history they have been invaded so often that the practise continues.
The other noticeable thing is that there are no fences to seperate paddocks or farms. Acre upon acre of crops are grown with only the crop variety distinguishing the boundaries. That, together with very few power lines makes for an impressive landscape.
We're now in the western front
The crew had the night off tonight so the seven of us ate at a restaurant in town before walking the 1.7km back to the boat. We have a war zone tour organised tomorrow in a mini bus so good night.
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