To Senlis

June 3, 2022

Our amazing spell of fine weather is coming to an end for a few days, and there’s the threat of showers or thunderstorms rumbling later in the day. We plan to get an early start, and check with our lodging in Senlis to see if we can arrive earlier than the 6 PM check-in time. We plan on arriving early in the afternoon and hang out somewhere or even have lunch as the main meal if we can’t get access to our room yet.

There’s a snag though. I can’t find my Pendleton shirt anywhere. It doesn’t take long to confirm that it’s not in our room, so tiny that there’s not much place to hide.

Image not found :( — Our room. Other than the small bathroom with shower, you’re seeing most of it. Note that the door is ajar, because Rachael just left and it stuck open, jammed against the rumpled covers on the corner of the bed.

There’s only one reasonable explanation - I left it at the restaurant after dinner last night. They open for lunch at 11:30, and we decide it’s worth waiting around until then to pick it up before leaving town even though it means we’re risking getting wet by the end of our ride.

We check out of our room and bike over to the restaurant, arriving about 11:10, hoping maybe someone will be there getting set up for lunch. No luck though - the place is dark. I peek in the window hoping to see the shirt hanging up somewhere, but don’t. So we stand around on the sidewalk, wait, and look around.

Khan Tip, a very nice Thai restaurant on Procession Street. The restaurant is dark at the moment. Rachael’s waiting on the opposite side of the street, reflected darkly in the restaurant window.

At 11:40 the restaurant is still dark, and no one answers their phone so we give up and decide to hit the road. For the rest of the day we’ll be anxiously watching the darkening sky and thinking back on this almost three hour fruitless delay. Before we leave we drop a message to Susan and ask her to check with the restaurant later. Assuming the shirt is found, we’ll figure out later how to get it back where it belongs. There’s no rush though - it’s June, and I won’t really need it until autumn.

Before leaving the city we swing by Place de la Concord to see the Luxor obelisk. It’s worth the diversion, although it would have been better to have come by yesterday. Hopefully we won’t pay for it by getting drenched later.

Also, I finally read up on why the obelisk is here. It’s not some sordid tale of colonialism run rampant. The obelisk was given to France in 1830 as a gesture of appreciation for Champollion deciphering the hieroglyphics. Moving and re-erecting it here was an immense project, involving the construction of a single use barge to ship it up the Nile and on to Paris, and the construction of a new canal. Apparently it took some time to agree on where and whether to erect it, because offense was taken at the anatomically correct baboons at its base. I believe the offending base was not exposed to the public and was shunted off to the Louvre.

And the second Luxor obelisk, which I think still stands tall above the Nile? It was supposed to come to Paris also, because they are given as a set. Paris declined though, deciding one and once was enough.

The Luxor obelisk. Susan tells us that it was placed on the site where the guillotine was busy chopping off heads during the French Revolution.

The four sides of the base are enshrined with historical background and illustrations of the great task of moving and re-erecting the monument. Much less offensive than staring at aroused baboons, I think you’ll agree.

So now we’re really leaving town. It’s nearing one and we still have 35 miles to ride so we make the best time that we can. The first five or ten miles biking out of the city are amazing as we follow one bike lane after another - logistically and navigationally as easy an exit of a great city as could be hoped for. It’s an unnerving experience as first though because there’s so much traffic in the two-way lanes! We may have passed or been passed by up to a thousand bikers before getting far enough north that the traffic abated. I think in most blocks we’d pass about ten to fifteen bikes streaming toward town, and be overtaken by faster bikers threading the needle between us and oncoming traffic.

By about the time we get to the Saint-Denis canal and turn west, traffic has mostly abated. We bike alongside the canal for a mile or two, astonished by the extraordinary series of murals and graffiti, and then stop in a small canal side park for a quick bite.

Along the Saint-Denis Canal. Even the cement terminal is a work of art.

Video sound track: Blight of the Fumblebee, by Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan

Finally we seem to be out of Paris and it’s excellent network of well marked bike paths. We’re back on the roads, biking through a series of suburbs and then pass through the lane, featureless open plain surrounding DeGaulle airport. We make good time profiting from a decent tailwind, but the sky looks increasingly ominous. Darker behind and lighter ahead, so at least we’re going the right way today.

With about 15 miles we’re doing well and thinking we’ll arrive in Senlis about 4:30 and hopefully dry, when we enter the huge expanse of natural parks and forests Senlis sits in the center of. Progress slows to a crawl in places as we navigate a network of lanes, paths, ancient stone roads, and sand traps. We do well to avoid taking a spill, helped by several stretches where the only reasonable option is to walk - it’s not much slower than the speed we were biking at anyway.

This looks great! Paved paths, no traffic, miles for beech forest.

Until it looks like this, which slows us down a bit.

Not better. This looks like it could be an old Roman road.

For a mile or two it was like this. Stones, mud, sand, and a narrow but rough band at the side that was more or less bikeable if you were slow and careful.

Or best and probably at least as fast if you just get off and push. Note the pannier covers, which we broke out when it started showering. We’re in and out of it for the next hour, with me stashing the camera in a dry bag for awhile and then taking it out again when conditions improved.

Finally we’re back on pavement, going downhill and making good time again. Rachael’s off in the distance out of sight and I’m tracking her on the Garmin, speeding along at 13 mph about a quarter mile away. Then, I see that suddenly she’s barely crawling, at 2 mph. I wonder what’s up.

Finally we arrive at our room, damp but not drenched. Our host has been waiting for us since three, when we said we hoped to arrive. He shows us to our room, we clean up, and soon we’re off to dinner at the restaurant Rachael booked for us right next to our hotel. The room and restaurant are both worth commentary, but that’s enough for today. We’re staying here for two days so we’ll get a longer look tomorrow.

We ate at this restaurant this evening. A great place, worth some photos. Not tonight though - this post is already getting on the long side.

Well, just one because I know you’re burning with curiosity to know what’s behind that door. . A Chablis for Bob, who favors it. What do you think of this one, Bob? Nice color!

After dinner we wandered the streets of Senlis for a few minutes, looking for a restaurant for tomorrow night.

We made a reservation for tomorrow night at this Italian restaurant, and then I took this photo to show the door to our B&B to show how close it is.

I was wrong though. This is our door, right next to the one above. A bit more of a walk to dinner, but still pretty close - you can see some fresh pizza on their way home for dinner. It’s a nice place, worth a few pics. Not tonight though - as I said, this post is already getting on the long side.

Well, just one because I know you’re burning with curiosity to know what’s behind that door.

Videographer at work: Senlis, June 2022.

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Ride stats today: 41 miles, 1,500’; for the tour: 2,331 miles, 112,200’

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 2,359 miles (3,796 km)

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Suzanne GibsonWhat a ride!
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1 year ago

Kelly IniguezWe've had two times this past week that businesses weren't open during their advertised hours. The Verizon store in Rifle, and the Subway here in Glenwood this morning. I told Oren that they operate on Mexico time - the posted hours are just a suggestion. Perhaps it would be more correct to say businesses now are operating on COVID time - posted hours are a suggestion?
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonYou’re right. I think this is one we’ll remember. i wasn’t really expecting much from it, but you never which ones will be really interesting.
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1 year ago