At some stage in the past couple of years a dear friend suggested we cycle to Paris. From London, not North Yorkshire. COVID-19 put paid to the adventure in 2020 and, whilst we very nearly escaped the 2021 expedition, a warm Friday morning saw us cycle from our overnight stop in Greenwich to Trafalgar Square to join a small group of idiots ready to set out and conquer Northern France. They’re welcome to it, we say. 

Let’s face it, it was the cheap solution. There are several ‘paid for’ trips and a number of charity events, where you agree to raise a chunk of cash. We did the cheapest ‘paid for’ trip we could find…and it was fine. We didn’t actually camp but we breakfasted at around 5am courtesy of a camping stove in the ferry car park. The Sunday (day 3) was a fast 50 miles to Paris, the last 10 miles slow as we tried to keep together through the busy Sunday traffic. There was clearly ‘something big’ going on, as the roads around the Trockadero were at a standstill and our support van stuck in traffic. Alas, we had to wait in a bar for about 4 hours until the van finally made it and we could say goodbye to our bikes and go exploring Paris.

Frog XVI was ideal. They brew their own beer and, just to make sure, we sampled rather a lot of it.

Bar Frog XVI, 110 bis Av. Kléber, 75016 Paris

Thawack!, the black IPA…lovely

…and only a snip over 71