Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Day 06 Expensive Hotel Stay in Nitry

Today Disatnce : 66.5 km    Total:  318.5km                                                                                                   Today Temp :10 - 22c   Today Spending : 17 euro  Total: 75.05 euro                                                           Time on Bike : 4 hr  37 min                                                                                                                           Today Ave Speed: 14.4 kmh    Max: 58.5 kmh                                                                                         Today Ave Climb: 3%      Max:12%                                                                                                             Trip Altitude :865m         Max:240m

Afte 2 days of wildcamping, todays plan is to find a paid canping site, inportant is to charge our battery and have hot shower and wash up. It has been hot here in the day but cold at the night and early morning. As we head slowly to the south, it will be hotter and of course more hills are waiting for us. The terrain so far is flats with lots of rolling hills, some are very steep as 12% in gradient. The French locals are so far very friendly and we had never once turn down whenever we need help, eventhough they speak very little English or sometimes non at all, but anyhow we understand by body and hand languages. When we arrived in Nitry by 2.30pm, we were disappointed at the only campsite is closed ,most probably abandoned due to lack of business, so left with no choice with a very tired,exhaushted conditions, we checked in the hotel for 51 euro with only 2 beds , so i had to sleep on the floor with my sleeping bag. We quietly cooked our dinner at the back of the hotel as the lady owner say is not allowed.
 The Cows are watching


 Holland Bean?


 Passing thru towns like this

 That price is for a single person
 Grand restaurant outside the hotel
                             Nitry Hotel for 51 euro

Day 05 Wildcamping 10km to Chaource

Today Disatnce : 85.8    Total: 252 km                                                                                                          Today Temp : 17- 24c   Today Spending : 25.5 euro  Total: 58.05 euro                                                      Time on Bike : 4 hr  54 min                                                                                                                       Today Ave Speed: 17.5 kmh  Max: 51.0 kmh                                                                                             Today Ave Climb: 2%   Max: 8%                                                                                                                 Trip Altitude : 492m   Max: 65 m

Started at 9.30 am after breakfast and packing up. We passed thru the sane town of Nogent again and this time the Carrefour supermarket is open, so we bought what we needed . The road is D442 with little traffic, here you see a very wide plain of crops like maize and yellow flower grass like plant, believe to extract oil.Hardly can see people around, very quiet with most houses or shops windows and doors closed. We then joined to a bigger road od D619 with speeding cars and trucks, but the drivers here are quite friendly to the road cyclist, they slow down if there is on coming cars.. Troyes is one big town that we passed , no intention to stay here so we rides on but soon lost our ways to find D444, luckily a muscular jogger came to help. By 5.30 pm we started to look for camping site and found one just near the road. If you are tired and had water and foods , it is just about any place you can call it a day.

 Bike parking at Carrefour supermarket








 Campsite
 Ivan / Annie enjoying their dinner
 My dinner
 Entrance to our camp about 20 m from the road
A giant snail like creature near ny tent

Day 04 Sun Lakeside wildcamping near Nogent sur Seine

Today Disatnce : 99.2km              Total: 166.2km                                                                                     Today Temp : 15_ 21c             Today Spending : 10.65 euro   Total: 32.55 euro                                           Time on Bike :  5 hr   34 min                                                                                                                     Today Ave Speed:  17.8 kmh   Max: 66.5 kmh                                                                                         Today Ave Climb: 2%   Max:   Trip Altitude :521m   Max: 84m

After cleaning up Xavier flat, we started our 1st day ride early at 8am, but only to the train station of Paris Est as advised by Xavier as it is not easy to start the ride from Paris city itself. So we boarded the train to a small town called Lagny Thorigny for 5.15 euro with the bikes free. The SCNF double decker train is very modern and comfortable and soon i found out how efficient the scedule is as i was left behind the platform when the automatic door shut with Ivan/Annie inside. We met up again after half an hour at Lagny station, but we had to carry our bikes up the escalator. We saw many fast cyclists on the road, most probably today is Sunday. Young and old ,cycling is really popular here. Today terrain nostly flats with minor rolling hills on D10 with trees on both sides of the road while D231 was quite open and nore traffics to bear. We spotted a nice campsite near a lake where some locals also set up their tents fishing; but we wanted to buy some camp foods in town but were disappointed as sunday all shops were closed. So we went back to the campsite to set up our tents at almost 5pm to end the day . The giant mosquitos had a field day .
 Our bikes on the Train to Lagny

 Many cyclists on their sunday rides
 Provins our direction
 Beautiful bike lane
 Many roses on the road

 Nogent town
 Nogent town
 Crossing this steel bridge to access to the camp site
 Ivan / Annie making fire to chase away the mosquitos
                                          My MSR tent near the Lakeside
Curry beef with potatos, sausagges and rice

Day 03 Sat Walking around Les Lilas

Today Spend : 8.9 euro Total: 21.9 euro

Paris is having a longer day and shorter night,the sun only set at 9 pm and rise early at 5 am. Annie prepared breakfast for us  ham with bread and eggs pancakes. Les Lilas is a small town just outside the Paris ring road located on a hill slope, has everything you need to buy, veges , meat  and supermarket like Carrefour which is quite popular back home. My WSL host Xavier not able to keep us company today  and tomorrow, so he left the whole flat to us . In fact we already say goodbye in yesterday dinner.

Day 02 Fri A Day City Bike Tour in Paris

Today Disatnce :34 km
Today Spend : 13 euro
We started our city tour at 9 am after a nite of good sleep in Xavier flat . Arned with a city map,We zigzag our way thru many snall roads and roundabout and had to ask many times from the locals about the correct directions.It is indeed very tough but thats is the challenge for every tour cyclist. We managed to visit most of the famous attractions including the Eiffel Tower,Palais Royal Musee Du Louvre, La Bastille,Palais De Chaillot,Arc d Triomphe,Concorde etc... This was my 3rd visits to Paris and had went up the Eiffel tower before, so i did not go up again and just happy to hang around and took pictures.On our way back, one French old lady believe to be on her 70s,volunteer to show us the direction and we were amazed at her powerful eye vision refering to the map.We bought some foods  and Annie has the chance to show her cooking skill on 2 Malaysian dishes of Cucumber fried egg and Pork stir fry with onion soya sauce. This is our way of saying thank you to our host Xavier, wife and the Bulgarian girl.
                                  Ready for the Paris Tour on Bike

                                                   Kebab from Istanbul cost 6.5 euro
                                           Sorry my recumbent is not for rent





                                                     Arc de Triomphe

 Eiffel Tower
 At the base of the Eiffel Tower

                                    Annie showing her cooking skill
                                               Xaviers balcony
 Xavier cycled in China last year
 Concorde
 Xavier and wife thank you so nuch _Merci Boceau
 Dinner time_ on the right is the Bulgarian lady
 Xavier hall