crisscross
Senior Member
We have just returned from a family charity ride from London to Paris and would like to thank some of the people on here that gave us incredibly valuable advice and help in the preparation for the trip – most of which I forgot instantly!
I had loads of great advice and would like to thank a few people but I’m not going to ‘cus none of you buggers told me how hard it would be!!!!
Only kidding – Jack E, Arch, Howie, and Donald were very helpful and we really appreciated all your advice.
We were really ill equipped, ill prepared and ill disciplined but had a great time none the less.
Riding four heavy mountain bikes wasn’t a good start but these weren’t even good mountain bikes – the children’s were £30 eBay specials. At least I put skinnier tyres on my daughters which helped.
Doing the L2P is probably not much of a challenge for a real cyclist but we aren’t proper pedallers, our training consisted of rides to the ice cream parlour and kebab shop but each time adding fewer sauces and a few more miles.
Some would say contemplating a ride like this with children would be a severe problem – our children considered us to be the real handicap and they were probably right.
We looked at a (hell of a) lot of routes and in the end decided to cheat. We had the “luxury” of a Ford Focus driven by my dad to meet us at the end of each day. This meant our panniers only weighed 1 ton and not 3.
We chose Greenwich to Eastbourne as our trek to the coast, using some great cycle paths, particularly the Waterlink from Greenwich to Addington, Forest Row and the Cuckoo Trail which made up about 35 miles of off road tracks.
The other half of the English side was on quiet roads although these were more undulating than we were used to.
We managed to break the speed limit going down hill on one section which was scary, exhilarating and fun in equal measures. We are, after all, Sunday afternoon plodders so 34 miles per hour was like warp factor 10 for a 7 year old (and his petrified dad.)
The weather turned v. nasty heading towards the coast and we had to get changed in the disabled loos at Tesco near the beach.
We were supposed to take the next day off to look around Dieppe as we only arrived at 3pm but as the weather was better we decide to make hay whilst the sun shone.
Georgia tried to ride the 30 miles of Avenue Verte no-handed – stooopid girl!!! She was only thwarted by a nasty diversion that took us over une grande ‘ill.
We had planned to go to the west of Paris and do a Donald – in recognition of M. Hirsch and his brilliant web site but got lost during a reccie and bottled it.
Our next leg was a 50 miler to just outside Chantilly. This was a great day, plenty of empty roads through lovely countryside, no major climbs and a few other cyclists to chat to.
From Chantilly we headed to the east of Paris to a place called Gressy, here we took the superb bike lane along the Canal L’Ourcq all the way into La Republique in the heart of the city.
My dad joined us for the last 7 miles riding Velib bikes - the (practically) free bike rental scheme in Paris. He hasn’t been on a bike for 30 years but coped admirably.
Maybe it was because we had two children with us - or because we were wearing our bright yellow T-shirts – or the fact that I am the size of a tank but the Parisian drivers were incredibly considerate on the whole.
We tried to be clever and follow the pedestrians along the side of the Seine but soon realised that cobbles, lots of stone steps and big Americans aren’t a good combination for cycling on/ over/ around.
Eventually we made it to the Eiffel Tower where Jack tried to stand on his seat whilst riding superman style. Thankfully his pride was hurt more than any body parts.
A big group from Redhill arrived at the same time as us and were lovely and genuinely shocked that a seven and ten year old had done the trip.
The only whinge and sulk from Georgia was when I refused to allow her to ride around the Arc de Triomphe after we did the Champs Elysee.
We did 235 miles altogether in 5 days which may not sound a lot to serious cyclists but this was our Everest.
Feelin' a proper gerkhin
Just outside the Big Smoke
Wot no speed camera!
Forest Row
Cuckoo Trail
Soggy on Sea
Look mum, no hands
Not our favourite French word
Forget Hovis, he's the baquette boy
Je suis lost
The main road to nowhere
When we win the lottery ....
Poppy
Racing the boats
The Geode
First sight of the Tower
Paris at rush hour
Chumps Elysee
Done it!
Wot, no medal?!
War wounds!
I had loads of great advice and would like to thank a few people but I’m not going to ‘cus none of you buggers told me how hard it would be!!!!
Only kidding – Jack E, Arch, Howie, and Donald were very helpful and we really appreciated all your advice.
We were really ill equipped, ill prepared and ill disciplined but had a great time none the less.
Riding four heavy mountain bikes wasn’t a good start but these weren’t even good mountain bikes – the children’s were £30 eBay specials. At least I put skinnier tyres on my daughters which helped.
Doing the L2P is probably not much of a challenge for a real cyclist but we aren’t proper pedallers, our training consisted of rides to the ice cream parlour and kebab shop but each time adding fewer sauces and a few more miles.
Some would say contemplating a ride like this with children would be a severe problem – our children considered us to be the real handicap and they were probably right.
We looked at a (hell of a) lot of routes and in the end decided to cheat. We had the “luxury” of a Ford Focus driven by my dad to meet us at the end of each day. This meant our panniers only weighed 1 ton and not 3.
We chose Greenwich to Eastbourne as our trek to the coast, using some great cycle paths, particularly the Waterlink from Greenwich to Addington, Forest Row and the Cuckoo Trail which made up about 35 miles of off road tracks.
The other half of the English side was on quiet roads although these were more undulating than we were used to.
We managed to break the speed limit going down hill on one section which was scary, exhilarating and fun in equal measures. We are, after all, Sunday afternoon plodders so 34 miles per hour was like warp factor 10 for a 7 year old (and his petrified dad.)
The weather turned v. nasty heading towards the coast and we had to get changed in the disabled loos at Tesco near the beach.
We were supposed to take the next day off to look around Dieppe as we only arrived at 3pm but as the weather was better we decide to make hay whilst the sun shone.
Georgia tried to ride the 30 miles of Avenue Verte no-handed – stooopid girl!!! She was only thwarted by a nasty diversion that took us over une grande ‘ill.
We had planned to go to the west of Paris and do a Donald – in recognition of M. Hirsch and his brilliant web site but got lost during a reccie and bottled it.
Our next leg was a 50 miler to just outside Chantilly. This was a great day, plenty of empty roads through lovely countryside, no major climbs and a few other cyclists to chat to.
From Chantilly we headed to the east of Paris to a place called Gressy, here we took the superb bike lane along the Canal L’Ourcq all the way into La Republique in the heart of the city.
My dad joined us for the last 7 miles riding Velib bikes - the (practically) free bike rental scheme in Paris. He hasn’t been on a bike for 30 years but coped admirably.
Maybe it was because we had two children with us - or because we were wearing our bright yellow T-shirts – or the fact that I am the size of a tank but the Parisian drivers were incredibly considerate on the whole.
We tried to be clever and follow the pedestrians along the side of the Seine but soon realised that cobbles, lots of stone steps and big Americans aren’t a good combination for cycling on/ over/ around.
Eventually we made it to the Eiffel Tower where Jack tried to stand on his seat whilst riding superman style. Thankfully his pride was hurt more than any body parts.
A big group from Redhill arrived at the same time as us and were lovely and genuinely shocked that a seven and ten year old had done the trip.
The only whinge and sulk from Georgia was when I refused to allow her to ride around the Arc de Triomphe after we did the Champs Elysee.
We did 235 miles altogether in 5 days which may not sound a lot to serious cyclists but this was our Everest.
Feelin' a proper gerkhin
Just outside the Big Smoke
Wot no speed camera!
Forest Row
Cuckoo Trail
Soggy on Sea
Look mum, no hands
Not our favourite French word
Forget Hovis, he's the baquette boy
Je suis lost
The main road to nowhere
When we win the lottery ....
Poppy
Racing the boats
The Geode
First sight of the Tower
Paris at rush hour
Chumps Elysee
Done it!
Wot, no medal?!
War wounds!