Emily's European Cycle Adventure: London to Épernay 31st Aug

Leaving Crofton Park

Send off party

I started my journey at Crofton Park (with a great send off from these two) and a train journey to Canterbury. My bike and I had a night in the Premier Inn in Canterbury and then I was off on the road! It was a lovely route to Dover along the Pilgrim's way, although I had forgotton to buy breakfast before I left, so tried to make up for it by feasting on late August blackberries and honesty box plums as I went.

Honesty box to the rescue

Emergency breakfast

It was a bit of a shock to the system needing to speak French and to cycle on the right and a lovely reminder of how much the French love cycling to be greeted with cycle paths and careful drivers. The first couple of campsites were full of Brits on their way home from holidays (families) or on their way to their holidays (retired couples). Happily, my friend Alice was one of these - she and her family were passing through the same area I was riding in on their way back from a couple of weeks climbing in the Alps. We met for food, she gave me tips on speaking French and we discussed the complexities of camping in the rain.

First campsite

The riding was mostly flat, big open fields with occasional quiet villages. Plenty of opportunity to recover from a busy summer (and a busy few years!) with hardly anyone else in sight. A couple of days in, I was riding right through the WWI battlefields. Big, open, empty and sad... and so many graves. I listened to a couple of WWI podcasts in an attempt to educate myself about what happened there. It was quite something to see the huge expanse of land where the battles took place, the vast number of graveyards and as I moved further south, the individually named stones at the sides of the road - marking local young men lost in the battle.

Lunch spot
Little roads, big fields.

One of many war graves - all beautifully kept

It was super hot - sitting at 36 throughout the afternoons. I searched everywhere for taps to refill my bottles, but couldn't find any for a couple of days and ended up asking people in their gardens. Great opportunities to practice my French and to be reminded that most people are kind and do want to help. Eventually learned that you just need to go in to cemeteries (not the WWI War Graves- the standard village ones) and they all have taps for the flowers. All the churches were open and cool - a welcome break from the heat and some very beautiful. I was particularly taken with this one.

Church at Aire-sur-la-Lys

I camped one night on the Somme river and then was soon in to the Champagne region. Vineyards everywhere, more hills and more tourists!

Arriving in the Champagne region. Beautiful but intensely hot!

I started to feel a niggle that I've had previously in my quad but continued, knowing that rest days were just around the corner. Despite cycling at snail's pace the following day, it was getting worse and after many hours of deliberation, I realised I needed to bail. Some pleading with an uber driver to put my bike in the back of his car meant that I made it to Épernay safe and sound. Turned out that he is a semi-pro footballer, so we discussed my quad problem in detail and he gave some great advice re recovery.

Épernay - 'capitale du Champagne' is home to many Champagne houses as well as being very close to where Dom Perignon (the Benedictine Monk who made important contributions to the invention of Champagne) lived. I wasn't really in the mood for celebratory champagne due to my painful limp, but had a short wander up the 'Avenue de Champagne' before I traveled on to Troyes to rest and work out next steps.