Chez Paris

So we have made it to Paris! After a week of consistent headwinds we arrived in Paris on Friday night. What better way to start training for a ride of this magnitude then into 20 - 40km/h winds. At times it was even stonger than that, but you when your born and raised deep in the belly of Hamilton your prepared for everything!

What can I say except it has really been an amazing experience thus far. Belgium was equally as beautiful as the Netherlands except of course they pale in comparison in regards to the bicycle. We found a decent amount of cycling routes, but the culture is definitely not bike centric. We pedalled through some really pretty old towns. Every town has as a very old feel to it, dominated by a large church or two and downtowns with other large old buildings that date anywhere from the 16th and sometimes the 15th century on. We made our way through Poppel, Merksplas, Lille and Lier to name a few. The cities feel really huge to me. They are unlike the suburban wastelands we call cities in North America. The housing is much more dense and centred in the city for the most part. The city of Lier seemed massive to me and then I found out it had a population of 80,000. I thought it was at least as big as Hamilton. The downtowns are generally pretty packed with people popping in and out of shops all day long. It is getting more carcentric as we move south and the people are becoming less and less friendly it seems. A fella in a prdouce store put it to me like this. "People are becoming more and more concerned with money and getting rich. They are less likely to smile and greet one another and are always in a hurry to get what they want when they want it." After I left his shop I noticed it immediately. It has been a challenge for me to get smiles out of passer bys. They sneer at the two new people from out of town even when I smile and say bonjour. Sometimes you get one back, but for the most part people don't really give a fuck it seems.

Brussels was next on our list of big cities to pedal through. It is kind of a dirty place away from the downtown. We took the worst road in and came through the heart of there industrial giants. Being from Hamilton we revelled in it. Breathing the pollutants deep into out lungs to mingle with the heavy metals of our Hamiltonian past. There is a huge arab/muslim population there. Lots of good food. Again the people were seriously distant. I can't understand it.

Downtown Brussels is a sigh to behold. The grand Square I believe it is called it is fantastic. All the buildings are from the late 17th century and are full of detail I've never seen the likes of. Gargoyles adorning every arc. Sculptures of saints and knights and other members of royal families. Some of the buildings were adorned with gold trim and some of the scultures are green from the rusting copper. Truly breathtaking. We stayed at an amazing hostel called Centre Vincent Van Gogh for 16euros and the beer was 1.30 each. Not bad even when converted to the diving loonie. There was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 60 women to 10 men there. A bit overwhelming but a great hostel all around.

The next three days we pushed on towards Paris into more killer headwinds. We went through a really nice city called Mons. Very old. Another great example of pedestrian friendly downtown squares with no cars except those that are delivering goods. North America really is backwards in the way we design our cities and plan our neighbourhoods. It is truly sad. Don't get us started!

After Mons we were into France and vast expanses of rolling green fields and hills that really pushed us to the physical limits that are bodies could handle. At times we were pushing into 50km winds uphill and we were moving at a turtles pace of 2-5km/h. Gruelling days. We endured two days of killer wind and 40km progress here and 60km progress there and we got to Saint Quentin. We could see it from a great distance away. There was a frickin unbelievable 11th century church that was one of the biggest I've ever seen. Very impressive. Every little hamlet we rode into in France had this awesome medieval feel to it. This is of course because most of the structures are medieval. Old stone walls and no windows on the houses. Just little peep holes to open to tell outsiders to bugger off. Just like in an old movie. Most of the towns have old castles that are falling apart, some with moats around them. Really storybook kinda quality.

Unfortunately we cheated and took a train away from the open fields and killer winds and went to Compeigne after arriving in Saint Quentin.

We rode 100kms that day from Compeigne to Paris and we were blessed with calm conditions and amazing forests the whole way in. An excellent ride.

I can't even describe the beauty of Paris from an artitectural standpoint. Everywhere and anywhere they can over do adornments on buildings they did. Sculptures, trim, gargoyles doors crevices, lets throw a miny tower here on the corner because we can. Just breath taking. I didn't really want to come here but I am glad many people told us we have to chack it out.

So that's it for now. We are heading to Portugal tonight and we'll update y'all sometime soon again. Sorry no pictures yet! Soon to come.