We’ve enjoyed a rest day in Orléans. It is a beautiful city. Joan of Arc or the Maid of Orléans is much celebrated here for rallying the troops against the English to lift the seige of the city in 1492. She is a national hero as she turned the tide for the French monarchy when all seemed lost.

The cathedral has been heavily restored after bombing damage by the American Air Force. It is peaceful inside with a further memorial to Jeanne d’Arc which is also a war memorial to the allied dead of the first and second world wars.

There are many half timbered buildings which give the city a delightful ambience.

We wandered down to the Loire in the afternoon. The scene is typical of this river which is full of shoals and islands.

We didn’t use our bicycles today. This was an opportunity to check them over for our final 130 km. It’s just as well I did as I found my rear wheel had a broken spoke. Fortunately there was first class service from a bike shop less than five minutes away which had the spoke replaced in 30 minutes. I have in the meantime also ordered an emergency spoke replacement kit for next journey.

I suspect I should replace the wheels on my Dawes Super Galaxy in any case. With a necessary change to front rings, it will only leave frame, forks, handlebars and front / rear changers as original but there’s life in them yet.

We cycled almost due south today to get to Orléans. This city is situated at the northernmost point of the Loire.

In the age of the sailing boat it was much easier to sail up the Loire from the Atlantic with the prevailing wind than to struggle up the Seine to Paris due to the bends in the Seine. Orléans grew rich being the port where goods were offloaded for a land journey to Paris.

Our journey took us over the watershed from the Seine to the Loire. Now any rain falling goes to the Atlantic rather than the Channel.

We had a final climb to the plateau between the two river systems and then a gradual run down to the new river.

As we continue to head south we can see the crops are more advanced. Maize is now pollinating with the cobs starting to form. We saw our first field of sunflowers.

We decided to take the direct route as the main road was quiet. It is the first time I’ve cycled 50 km in a straight line. At last we reached Orléans and the Loire.

Tomorrow we will have a rest day and wander around the city. A brief excursion showed delights in store.

We departed Paris this morning. As might be expected Paris on a Monday morning was busy with traffic but we made our way out relatively easily and without incident.

After about 8 km from the centre we joined the coulée verte, green corridor, which was a delightful cycle through the southern suburbs of Paris. Beryl was excited to see our first Camino scallop sign.

The coulée verte went for about 10 km. I wondered how so long a corridor could remain in a busy city. It turns out the land was originally acquired in the 19th century for a railway which was never built. In the 1980s a cut and cover tunnel was built for the Atlantic TGV line to Nantes. The land on top was reconstituted as the coulée verte which was being used by many in the community. A great way to develop transport infrastructure.

Our journey consisted of many small satellite towns of Paris. It was all rather slow work and a real jumble of conditions. One moment we were going along an unpaved road through fields and then a couple of km along it was a busy road lined with fast food outlets.

We came upon this wonderful marketplace when we stopped for lunch.

We climbed slowly up most of the day as we started to leave the Seine behind us with one serious up to test the legs.

Étampes is a typical small French town. Not much has happened here but Theobald of Étampes is known as the first scholar to lecture at Oxford and hence is a forerunner of the university.

The main church had a good Romanesque spire and a curious crenellated wall built around it. There were some old wall paintings inside.

On to the Loire valley tomorrow.

After a further three days on the road, we have stopped in Paris for two nights. Fortuitously it has been 14 Juillet or Bastille Day with the French Republic celebrations.

We decided to watch the proceedings on the television but could see the flight past from our hotel window. It’s quite a thing seeing all the French military on display.

Later, as we walked around, there were plenty of armed soldiers, police and gendarmes keeping an eye on things. We’ve seen on the news there were a few skirmishes on the Champs-Élysées at the end of the parade so we were pleased we decided to stay away.

The Tour Saint-Jacques, or Tower of St James, is the traditional starting point in Paris for the via Turonensis, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela via Tours. The tower is all that’s left of an old abbey. We had to walk to the tower to begin the next stage of our Camino.

Afterwards we walked over to Notre Dame cathedral which is all surrounded by fencing after the dreadful fire. There were large wooden joists which were being fitted into the flying buttresses.

Beryl has been much impressed by a Rodin sculpture of St John the Baptist which we saw in Cardiff. We headed over to the Musée Rodin. It was curious that although the identical sculpture was there it didn’t seem to have the same power when it was surrounded by similar works.

There were a couple of van Gogh paintings which I didn’t know but were instantly recognisable as his work. They were very impressive.

The whole museum was fascinating. Rodin was a great observer of the human form.

This evening we will go to one of the bridges over the Seine to see the fireworks at Tour Eiffel.

Our journeying recommences in the morning.

Our route today took us through woods and prosperous estates to begin with. Mostly we were on road but there was some hard packed earth.

The roads were surprisingly quiet even as close as 25 km from the centre. We had a ridge to get over and then our first sight of Paris in the distance.

Our route into Paris took us through some of the poorer parts of Paris, a part of the city rarely visited by tourists. These were some of the renowned banlieus. It was all peaceful but then we came across a squad of armed soldiers on patrol who were distinctly apprehensive. We kept moving.

Eventually we came to a large canal which we followed all the way to the centre.

I had booked a hotel on the left bank which I’d visited in my business days and much liked. I said it was all nice and quiet. That was true until the Sapeur Pompier (Fire Brigade) ball started up next door which is due to go on till 4 in the morning. Not so peaceful.We had a good walk through the Tuileries to Place de la Concord. It so happens that tomorrow is Bastille Day. There was large staging for tomorrow’s parade.

After 370 km or 230 miles we’ve arrived at our first goal of Paris.

We headed further towards Paris today. Our journey was mostly gently downhill with a tail wind helping us on. It made for a pleasant day of riding.

The roads were quiet until we got close to Chantilly. There were sights of impressive châteaux.

We were following a small stream down and then reached the Oise which joins the Seine downstream of Paris. As we were cycling along I was musing on my fascination with the flow of the rivers. When on a bicycle we are very aware of the landscape which has been shaped primarily by water and ice. Where the water flows is often the easiest route to cycle.

The roads became much busier after this bridge over the Oise as we were approaching Chantilly. The area is prosperous and is akin to Newmarket with its focus on horse racing.

At the far end of the town was a large château rebuilt in the 19th century by Henri d’Orléans who inherited great wealth from his godfather, the last Prince of Condé, who owned the land around Chantilly. In the late 1800s, the French parliament set down laws which expelled from France members of the ruling families including Henri. He bequeathed the chateau to the Institut d’France and was thus allowed back to France.

We cycled on to our chambre d’hote in the nearby village. Beryl wasn’t too disappointed I hadn’t paid the €300 for a hotel room in Chantilly itself. There were plenty of preparations in Chantilly for some big gathering. We made up for the cheaper lodgings with another lovely meal.

Our journey today took us from the drainage basin of the Somme to that of the Seine. That meant we had to go up and over a ridge. We followed the course of a gradually reducing stream, Le Poncelet, going south of Amiens.Running parallel to us for most of the day was an old railway line which is now a walking path. We checked out the Coulée Verte but it was too rough for our road bikes. This railway line was very important in WW1 for bringing up men and materiel to the Somme battlefield but was shut down many years ago.Our road was very quiet and mostly an excellent road surface. Beryl is getting much used to 7% gradients.We arrived at Beauvais having travelled the last part through a large water sports area. Beauvais has the highest roofed Gothic cathedral but was never finished. The builders pushed their construction techniques to the limit but unfortunately the roof and tower collapsed after a few years. The chancel was re-roofed and a new transept added but the nave was never started. It is still an amazing building with such a high ceiling.The building today is protected with large structural members inside and out.Our chambre d’hote for this evening is a lovely restored charcuterie.Looking for somewhere to eat this evening I found the nearest restaurant was a fine dining one. We just had to try the tasting menu.

Wednesday has been a rest day. After the chores from travelling light, washing clothes, we enjoyed wandering around the city.

Last evening when it was sufficiently dark at 1030 there was a light show on the front of the cathedral. It was amazing to see it all lit up and glowing. In particular it was great to see what the west face may have looked like when decorated in medieval times.

This afternoon we entered the cathedral. It is a marvellous space. Even the side aisles are as big as many other cathedrals.

In the middle of the nave was a labyrinth laid into the floor. We decided to walk the path to the centre. It was a curious experience going in and out from the middle. Beryl walked faster than me and so we came together and separated as we walked on the same labyrinthine path. There was something deeply spiritual about this metaphor for life itself.

Afterwards we had our pilgrim passports or Credencial del Peregrino stamped at the Tourist Office with our first official scallop badge. We’ve now realised we should have a stamp for each day so we will need to squeeze more stamps onto each page.

Most of Amiens centre has lost its medieval architecture but there were a few streets to give an impression of bygone days.

On the wall of our flat was this sign.

Beryl has translated –

Alone, one travels faster, Together, one travels further.

Finally, my local drink of the day was Picardy cider which was most refreshing.

There were no hills today as we cycled up the Somme from Abbeville to Amiens. Apart from short distances at the beginning and end of our journey, the whole route was along the river bank and traffic free.

The only downside was that the surface was unpaved. I’m not sure what this surface is called. It was hard packed with a light coating of small stones. There was no problem cycling along but it did create a bit more drag. Everything was also covered in a light dust by the end of the day.

We visited the gardens of chateau at Long. It was a gorgeous setting.

After over 40 km of swishing along the unpaved road it was a pleasure to get back onto tarmac. It is a great run into Amiens and then all of a sudden there was the tremendous cathedral pointing upwards.

We are staying in a small studio flat a couple of minutes walk from the cathedral. The door to the flats is rather unprepossessing but the flat is nice inside.

After a good helping of moules marinière and a local beer, we walked to the west face of the cathedral which was fabulous in the evening sun.

The Picardy beer was good but the label didn’t appear to be that authentically old.

Today we headed south from Hesdin to Abbeville. As I noted yesterday the rivers here from east to west. That meant our route was across the grain of the country.

Beryl wasn’t sure that it was a good way to start the day with an 8% climb away from the River Canche. Nonetheless we achieved our climb to 145 metres.

There followed a day of downs and ups. Our next river was the Authie, another crystal clear stream.

We climbed up onto the plateau again where we revelled in large open skies, grand vistas of the French countryside, and quiet roads.

As we cycled from Wadicourt to Crécy-en-Ponthieu we went over the battlefield between the English and the French in 1346 which altered the course of history for both countries for two centuries. It was clear why the English chose this ridge to make a stand with the French knights having to ride up hill over marshy ground through a hail of arrows.

Crécy was a pleasant village with a war memorial to the fallen of 1346.

We then enjoyed a pleasant onward ride to Abbeville which is on the River Somme.

Abbeville was much damaged in the wars the 20th century. The cathedral though turned out to be a unfinished building project. It did look odd with a fabulous west facade and a much foreshortened nave and no choir or apse.

Most of Abbeville is unexciting 50s and 60s development with too much access for the motor car. We are fortunate though to be staying in one of the few extant 16th century houses.