Day 3 and 4

As I write this, we are both relaxing in a small flat in the Montmartre neighbourhood in Paris. Huge windows are open to the street running up the hill towards the Sacre Coeur cathedral to the north, and a string of sex shops and strip clubs to the south. All around us, there are great cafes and restaurants offering delicious treats and delectable dishes.

So how did we get here?

Day three of our tour, only 25km long, was the perfect recovery ride for this jourey. Although it climbed Vimy Ridge, just south of Lens --an important battleground and cruiceable for Canadian forces in the First World War-- the weather was perfect, and our pace slow and relaxed. The site itself was breathtaking! A massive memorial to the sacrifices and virtues of those fighting in WWI, and to those Canadians whose bodies were never found, or had unmarked graves. The trenches around the site were also open for visitors wanting a more intimate experience of the site.

The memorial was more than satisfying for me. The somber experience. The crushing weight of loss that many Canadian families had to endure in the early 1900s, only to go through the same experience again in WWII. Our world today often feels like it beginning to teeter out of control. Back to that cruel, uncertain abyss. By standing witness to the weight of sacrifice and mourning at Vimy; I can see more clearly why it's so important to send people here to learn the human costs of war.

 

 

From here, we decended into Arras. Although our Air B&B check-in time was listed as noon, our host had been at work until about 4PM. Unable to contact him, we wandered about town. This is where I set off on my trip 10 years ago. Memories came rushing back: the two big squares downtown where vendors would set up for the weekend market; the dark wood interior and granite floors of l'Hôtel de Ville; the busy restaurants, pubs and cafes, too expensive tens years ago, but now completely affordable! Eventually when our Air B&B became available, we dropped our stuff off, had a quick shower and set off to the downtown restaurants to feast on some galettes. Galettes are a savoury, buckwheat crepe or pancake filled with meats, cheeses and vegetables. We'd need all the calories we could get as we were staring down our longest ride yet.

At 130km, Arras to Beauvais would cover a great deal of the same roads and trails we covered ten years ago. Arras was also where I set off on my journey, meeting Ryan and Dan along the way in Amiens --which we again passed through on this trip. This time, as we rolled along certain roads or buildings, the memories came flooding back to me: camping in Conty, loosing Dan after going through a roundabout outside of Mouy, the wheat fields that we took turns ducking into for photo ops. 

Despite the day's distance, we powered through our ride, perhaps fueled by our calorie-rich galettes from the night before. Though, we were going a little crazy from the blistering sun and probably some minor dehydration. We dropped into Beauvais and reached our next Air B&B quite abruptly, falling into what at this point became an autonomous series of functions: shower, change, search for good places to eat (tonight would be a pub), walk back home after supper, check out Facebook and YouTube and sleep.

 

  

We were nearing the end of our ride. Beauvais to Paris was a moderately flat affair, slightly less than 100km. With thunderstorms in the forecast, however, we knew we would be racing against the clock.