After the longest leg from the previous day, we decided to treat ourselves with a bit of snoozing in and began riding at 8am. We only had to cover 150 km, we thought it would be a piece of cake and we’d make it into Paris by early afternoon. Little did we know Komoot would surprise us with some sketchy sand paths that made us walk our bikes, which added 2 hours to our original schedule.

After coffee & bagels, we set off for our final destination — Paris. Ian’s legs felt good that day, mine didn’t. But I was looking forward to a celebratory beer in Paris, so that kept me going.

Noyon

40 km in, we stopped by Noyon to get some food at Le Galway Pub, where we binged on buttery olives and a cheeky pint of IPA.

Senlis

105 km in, we started feeling peckish, so stopped at another pub in Senlis. Feeling boujee, we got beef tartare and a sandwich. It was bloody good.

After stuffing our face with delicious food, we gave ourselves the biggest pat on the back thinking the last 50 km into Paris would be breezy. Oh boy were we wrong. Immediately after coming out of Senlis, we found ourselves riding into a forest. The roads gradually turned into gravel, then dirt, then sand… Before we knew it, we were somehow stuck in a middle of a forest, completely unridable. We had to walk our bikes out of that nightmare, onto a main road in order to get on our saddle again.

Parisian sunset

Once we were on the main roads, we raced against the clock to get to Paris, and fortunately at 8:30pm we made it into Saint Dennis just in time for the sunset! A friend of mine, Yin-Ho, kindly took us into his house for the night. He even prepared dinner for us and made us feel so welcomed in his place! 🙏 (Yin-Ho if you’re reading this, I heart you.)

Ian and I spent the next day wandering the streets of Paris.