France

When we reached Ventimelia on the border we still could not get a train which would take the bikes to Paris.  We had to catch another train all the way to Nice, passing through Monaco, on the way and then book an overnight train which would take us and the bikes, to Paris.  At first the railway staff said this was not possible but an Australian couple who could speak French came to our rescue and spoke to them, then miraculously it was possible after all, but we could not board tonight’s train as we had not booked in advance . We had a twenty four hour wait in Nice so we spent the day enjoying the lovely weather and walking along the promenade.  It was twelve degrees when we left Milan and Nice which was a lovely twenty two degrees.  We caught the train the next evening and travelled overnight arriving in Paris the next morning to a freezing eight degrees.  

We had planned to ride on a bike track, The Avenue Verte, all the way to Dieppe where we were to catch the ferry to England but we had lost too much time and it was raining. Such a shame to be in Paris and not get a chance to look around, but we have been here before and time on Heather’s visa is running out.  With the help of Etienne, a very nice young man, we found somewhere to stay and caught yet another train to Dieppe.  Once in Dieppe we booked our passage on the ferry to England for the evening and rode out to our warm showers host, Frances. The twenty three kilometer ride through the French countryside was beautiful, France is such a lovely place and it brought back memories of riding here ten years ago.  Frances has a ceramics business and works between Dieppe in France and Brighton in England.  She has a large house in Dieppe which she is renovating and we were very happy to stay with her after the hectic last few days, especially as she was a terrific cook. The next day we rode back into Dieppe to catch the ferry, it was a relief to have made it out of the Schengen countries with just one day to spare.

We had a smooth crossing to Newhaven, we could not believe that we had finally made it to England. We were not stopped at customs, they stamped our passports and we pedaled off up the road. We rode to Brighton along a cycle track, it was such a novelty to ask for directions and get a reply in English. Remembering that we now rode on the left hand side of the road was a bit tricky and we really had to think what we were doing at the first round about we came to.

It was a day’s ride to reach Mike’s sister Noreen and her husband Ken’s place in Sussex so we booked into a hotel and Mike really enjoyed his first English breakfast of sausages, bacon, baked beans, eggs, hash browns, tomatoes , mushrooms and real toast with butter.

When we arrived at Sussex we were greeted with hugs and kisses. We spent the next few days talking nonstop up and catching up with nieces and nephew and their families, there had been four additions to the family since we were here last.