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Sunday 21th August 2016 Calais to Nevers Today we broke our fast at the Beffroi Hotel (it means Belfry but we generally referred to it as the BetFred Hotel, after the betting company) then visited the military cemetery in Calais before cycling the 6+ miles to Calais Fréthun railway station.
At the station we took the wheels off the bikes and stowed them in the pockets inside the bike bags. Then off came the rear mudguard and the rack and the handlebars were removed but left with the brake and gear cables still attached. The bars were just turned in line with the frame and tucked away next to it. The frame then went in the bag, along with the bars, rack and mudguard, the bag was zipped up and strapped to take in any saggy slackness. It took us half an hour for each bike.
We then waited for the TGV train to Paris Gare du Nord. It turned up 20 minutes before the depart time of 12.32 and was quite full. It was a bit cumbersome manhandling the bagged bikes and panniers and difficult to find anywhere to put them. In the end Andrew stashed his on the luggage rack near the door and I took mine to the rack upstairs on the upper deck. After that the journey was smooth and fast and we arrived in Paris at the scheduled time of 14.14. At this point we had precisely 1 hour and 46 minutes to get to Paris Bercy station, three miles across the centre of Paris, and our original plan had been to quickly re-assemble the bikes, ride the three miles, re-bag the bikes and catch the train. Fortunately we decided to take a taxi instead, as judging by the time it subsequently took us to rebuild things in Nevers we’d have missed the connection by probably hours!
Anyway, as I said, we decided to take a taxi and after asking a few found a taxi-driver prepared to ferry us across for the sum of 30 euros. It was only a largeish hatchback with the rear seats still up so it was a bit of a squeeze getting everything in but the driver manhandled one bike into the boot and another into the rear seats area, meaning Andrew had to sit up front while I was jammed in with the bike and panniers. Ah well, not so comfy but off we went and the bloke got us to Bercy in good time where we then waited a while for our next train, the 16:00 Intercité for Clermont Ferrand, calling at Nevers. Once again the train was on time, clean, quiet and fast and we arrived dead on time in Nevers at 17.57. It then took us one hour and twenty-five minutes to re-assemble the two bikes - ace mechanics or what! Still we managed it in the end and cycled up the road about half a mile to our hotel for the night, the Hotel Beausejour – basic but ok.
It was a bit late now so after a quick shower we set off into town, found a square with a few café-bars and got a meal (Tartine Provencal avec frites). I noticed the bar did a few cocktails so I tried a Pina Colada, my first ever – it was fair enough, a bit coco-nutty. We were both a bit done in from the heat, the travelling and the faffing about with bikes by this point but we found a bar and had a couple of Kronenburgs then called it a jour. Nevers elevation: 548 ft | ||||||
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