There follows a series of WattsApp messages sent during my 2024 trip to Paris to celebrate the 1881 Commune. The Commune may have been a big disappointment, but the 2024 journey was a big success.
Eventually.
30/08/2024 SDB:
The train journeys to and from Leipzig were dreadful.The train journey to Athens this Autumn is off.
On Thursday I hope to cycle to York. Then spend the night there before getting trains to Dover and a ferry to Calais. From Calais train to Paris where I hope to meet Phil. His brief is to give me an in depth account of the 1871 revolution in Paris which established the Commune.
It failed.
They ended up eating the animals in the zoo. Maybe better than vice versa, but not ideal.
On Monday 9th September I set off by bike back to Calais.
This journey is planned to be unplanned. I will see how far I get each day and look for accommodation once I am there.
Hey, I can do what I want. Or go wherever I want.
31/08/2024 SDB:
Not before time I have started to limber up.
Today at 07:00 I set off to cycle home to Huggate in the Wolds and back. A similar distance to home to York. All went well until I reached Wansford – about 15 miles from home. The road was completely blocked off over a stream. Never mind, I would go back happy. Then decided to get the train from Nafferton. On the platform were two mature ladies who were camping at a local farm. They had been Assistant Cub Scout leaders.
“The children were terrific. It was the adults who were difficult“.
They had taken their Scouts to the Netherlands from Wakefield twice and were incredibly
enthusiastic. We had a very happy quarter of an hour exaggerating how well we had done.
My very positive memory was of the week we spent on a river based camp at Aldwark north of York on the river Ouse.
Hey, we were good.
31/08/2024 Lesley: We were indeed
02/09/2024 15:39 – SDB: And I never told you, out of a sense of modesty, that at the end of the world beating camp at Aldwark the man in charge of the site asked to see me.
“Your scouts have been the best behaved of all the groups this year. When we called them in off the water they came in“. It sounds as though that was above expectation. And we took George with us.
George had his moments.
05/09/2024 SDB: Day -4
It started off raining. By the time I was ready to go this settled down to a drizzle.
The original plan to cycle over the Wolds to York was altered to cycling to Beverley and getting the train. Following the closure of the critical stretch to Hutton Cranswick I found an alternative route starting along an ‘A’ road towards Hull and then cutting across country along minor roads to Leven. Then to Beverley. This was a bit of a challenge. There were long stretches of road works on the Hull road. The journey was lightened by a group of workers cheering me on to the amusement of everyone except the car drivers wanting to come the other way. They would have to be patient.
Once off the main road it became much easier. There was very little mud on the lanes, and after about an hour the rain stopped. Sadly the route hit the Hull road again and the last 6 miles to Beverley was by the side of another main road towards the Humber Bridge. I’ll not do that route again.
But it’s all character forming.
I have now become quite shameless about asking people on a train to lift my bike up to the hook from which to hang the front wheel. The young man who helped didn’t seem to have enjoyed the warm glow that he should have done.
That’s a pity.
I am now ready for tomorrow’s challenges. Train to Kings Cross then train to Dover. If all goes well I will be able find out whether they will let me take my bike on a train to Paris. When I try to book a ticket with a bike the SNCF web site says “Can’t be done“.
We shall see.
My plan for the return journey to Calais is to cycle to Le Havre or Dieppe and then along the N France coast back to Calais. I can do what I want.
If it rains I will get wet.
06/09/2024 SDB: En route.
It has been an interesting day.
The train to London was hardly late at all.
The train to Ashford International could not have been better.
Ashford to Dover was surprising. It was only going to Folkestone as there was a dead body on the line.
It is only 10 miles from Folkestone to Dover. What’s the problem?
Well, none at all as when I got off the train and asked the lady guard she said “Weren’t you listening? I said that we were going to Dover now.” She spoke with a very thick London accent so I had not made out what she was saying. So to Dover, got lost in the many lanes to the ferry terminal. It rained. No matter. A man in a van had been sent out to find me, and I followed him. If I had known what I was doing I could have caught an earlier ferry.
The sea was very calm to the great relief of the people in the boats presumably.
In Calais another man in a van told all the cyclists to follow him. We did. We are almost certainly all of us illegal immigrants as we bypassed any passport checks.
An easy cycle ride to Calais Ville station.
It then got difficult. The next train to Paris is tomorrow.
No matter. I am on my way to Lille and will get a train to Paris from there.
Assuming there is one.
It’s much more exciting than a package holiday.
As soon as I know that I can get to Paris from Lille I will ask Phil to meet me at the Gare du Nord.
07/09/2024 SDB: Day -2.
Lille.
Calais to Paris was more of a problem than expected. It could be done by getting a train to Lille and then a train to Paris.
Go for it.
A black lady addressed me in French. I sort of replied to the best of my ability.
“Are you English?”.
“How did you guess?“
She spoke perfect English. She had been brought up in Orleans and spoke English. Her husband spoke no other language. They had 2 children. A black little girl aged about 2 and a white baby.
We were all going to Paris.
People helped getting my bike down the steps to the platform. A strapping young man this time.
I met the couple on the platform. She would help me catch the right train in Lille.
Could not have been better.
If the train had been on time.
It was over half an hour late arriving and then delayed quite a time on the journe
When we got to Lille we had missed our connection to Paris. The only one left was a super- fast one which they couldn’t afford and which wouldn’t take a bike.
She got very upset in French with an official. To no avail.
“You find a hotel and I’ll book us all in“.
We spent the night in a hotel next to the station.
The train to Paris leaves in 40 minutes.
There will be more later. I have a sneaking feeling that you can’t take a bike into Paris this early.
I am now registering as a sponsor of SNCF. I have bought a third ticket to get me to Paris. They cannot refund the unused tickets at the station however late the trains have been.
Good job my OAP arrived on Friday
07/09/2024, SDB:
1871 revolution? How quaint.
Phil took me to La Place de la Bastille to watch the protests today, 7th September 2024. The People are not happy. Thousands of them. They have been shuffling past for over an hour now. He said it was going to be a march. Not a chance.
It might have been boring but there was no end to the different unhappy people here. Regular Communists and Anarchists of course, but a contingent from Greenpeace and Palestinians more than unhappy about Israeli aggression. And hundreds other discontented organisations. Not all very organised, but definitely not going to put up with it. There was a great sense of outrage about M. Macron’s appointment of M Barnier as prime minister. An hour and 15 minutes after the start of the march the Union Nationale Des Syndicalists Musicians are coming past.
It wouldn’t happen in Bridlington.
With a bit of luck Phil will have filmed some of the more spectacular groups.
The demonstration was noisy and people were upset, but it all seemed good natured.
When it was all over we went to the cemetery Pere Lachaise. Here a number of interesting people have been buried. We were looking for the corner where the revolutionary Communards were buried as a job lot in a corner.
There were any number of fresh bunches of flowers laid out.
One included an inscription “Ni dieu ni maitre“. “Nor God nor master“.
They had been given a very unsatisfactory account of God, but it’s too late to tell them now.
08/09/2024 SDB: Yesterday’s demonstration in Paris was covered by the BBC. There was a sense of grim determination from the crowds which reminded me a lot of the CND marches of the 1950’s. Certain of the justice of their cause and refusing to believe that they will not win in the end. And here we are 65 years later.
I slept extraordinarily well.
Today we go to Montmartre where the Communards barricaded themselves in and fought to the death. I hope to attend the morning service at one of the Lutheran churches in Paris, assuming that I can find it. This afternoon it is forecast to rain but Phil has found a museum dedicated to the 19th century revolutionaries. It will probably be dry in there.
I continue to look at the world from the point of view of someone constrained by a wheelchair. The Paris public transport system is wholly inadequate, for all the fuss they are making about the Paralympics. Still, at least in some respects the world is inching forward in its recognition that all men, of all genders, are not equal.
Concerning which, Judy was convinced that the principle “Do unto others as you would they do unto you” is complete rubbish. I got her an Airfix kit for Christmas once.
08/09/2024, 14:10 – SDB:
Here we are outside le Musee d’Art et d’ histoire de Saint-Denis.
Inside there is a resumee of the attempt by Parisians to fight back from the betrayal of the city and country by cheese eating surrender monkeys.
The attempt may have been glorious, but it was futile.
A lot of earlier principles of the need to destroy the Church (Romanist) and the bourgeoisie resurfaced.
The revolution was strong on slogans but not so good at solutions.
It was all so sad.
You could hear echoes of the revolutionaries in the chants of the crowds yesterday.
08/09/2024, 20:19 – SDB:
The explanatory text was excellent but unaccountably in French. I spent a long time over it and made sufficient sense to realise that the People were pitted against the Prussians and did not stand a chance. It took me a long time to read it all. Then Phil drew my attention to a second room with even more detail about the workings of the Commune, but my brain had started to wear out.
Another time.
He then took me to Montmartre. I bet you didn’t know it’s on a steep hill. Hence the ‘Mont’. You did?
Well, I didn’t.
We didn’t find much information about the defence by the Commune of their position there, but by then I was getting exhausted.
As an encouraging tailpiece we visited somewhere else with a statue of one of the many Alexandre Dumases. Nearby was a huge shattered shackle and a little black girl celebrating the end of slavery in Haiti in 1804. This predated the abolition of slavery in the UK colonies by 29 years. One of the Dumases was also engaged in the freedom of slaves.
I’m about to go to bed ready for an active day tomorrow. I have bought a railway ticket to Argentouil, North of Paris, confirmed that I can take my bike, and will set off for the Gare du Nord after breakfast tomorrow.
09/09/2024, 07:31 – SDB: Day 1.
And of course yesterday I attended 11:00 service at a French Lutheran church in Paris.
It is raining.
I have had breakfast.
The plan for today is to wait until 09:00 and then cycle 6 miles to the Gare du Nord. A man sold me and my bike a ticket to Argenteuil nearly out of the city. Then I will see how far North I can go before booking a night’s accommodation. That’s the plan.
I will check what my options are for going to Calais with my bike by train if I have problems on the way. Not all trains take bikes.
“Be Prepared” it’s the Boy Scouts’ marching song. Be prepared“.
There’s a very hilly bit about half way to Calais. That may be interesting.
So with a glad heart I set off in about half an hour.
09/09/2024, 14:48 – SDB:
Hmm.
I thought that Argenteuil was on the edge of Paris. It is, sort of.
However the route to Calais is through built-up areas all the way to Pontoise where I am staying the night. I have decided to divert towards Amiens which I expect to reach in 2 days. The route entails a serious climb tomorrow, but it will be OK as long as there is not a continuous stream of traffic hassling me.
If it goes OK I will be in Beauvais tomorrow.
Cycling in Paris was not too much of a problem again. However native cyclists seem to regard traffic lights on cycle lanes as aspirational, not compulsory.
10/09/2024, 06:50 – SDB: Day 2:
It is very chilly and presumably won’t be any warmer up the mountain (?).
I woke up at 05:00 as usual so my body must have adjusted to local time.
Pontoise is uncannily like Totnes. It is very hilly and the streets are crowded with improbable houses which fit in somehow.
At 06:00 I wandered into the centre of town looking for a boulangerie. There were several of them not yet open.
However right in the middle of town was a station. Trains run from here into Paris but also to Beauvais and Amiens (pronounced with a short ‘A’ as in ‘hat’ ).
It’s a thought. I will wheel my bike to the station later and see if I can go somewhere else. I didn’t enjoy the suburban ride yesterday and the route for today includes 25 miles of roads and state roads. Nothing much for cyclists.
I will look again at finding a cyclist-friendly route. If there is an information bureau here I will ask, or go to Beauvais and ask there.
There is still plenty of time. I can do what I want.
It looks as though the boulangeries open at about 06:30. I went to a small one with a happy looking boulangere (if that’s what he is called) and his equally happy assistant. She served me the tiniest coffee you have ever seen and a pastry item lined with custard. Regular customers came in and out and it was very cheerful. Small towns are good places to live.
10/09/2024, 10:34 – SDB:
It’s all very exciting.
I was pleased to cut out the ride which didn’t look very good for cyclists and went to the station to get a ticket to Beauvais. Cannot be done. But the lady could sell me a ticket to Paris where someone else would sell me a ticket to Beauvais. Reading between the lines the routes to Beauvais are maintained by a different operator from the one serving Argentouil. While Beauvais is less than 30 miles from Pontoise “Between me and thee is a great gulph fixed“.
I continue to sponsor the native railway system.
I needed to book a ticket which covered a bike from a real man. The option to do it was disabled on the ticket machine in Paris
So now I’m on my way. I intend to cycle to Dieppe in the next 2 or 3 days and will see how it goes. If I am up to it I will cycle up to Calais. If it’s all just too much I can get the ferry from Dieppe to Newhaven. Or cycle to Le Havre and then get a ferry to somewhere else.
10/09/2024, 16:55 – SDB:
That’s a lot better. Most of the ride was on a cycle route with a number (V16) I think it goes all the way to Dieppe. It looks as though it might have been once the route of a railway line.
I had wondered whether I was past it. The day will come, and I will certainly be able to give thanks for all the surprising successes.
Last year’s was good but probably the biggest surprise was the ride from Prague to Wittenberg. It was about 18 years ago when we had moved to Bridlington. It was the first one after my hospital stunt. So many things went right. The weather in late October was extraordinarily kind. The forests of the Czech Republic were stunning. People didn’t rob me (I half suspected that they might). Food in the most unpretentious towns was even better than ours at home. I sang Ein Feste Burg. And my eyes leaked. And Phil looked after me and showed me how to find what part of a train takes bikes.
It helped a lot that I was unimaginably naive.
Nothing wrong with that.
11/09/2024, SDB: Day 3:
Best one yet.
I woke up at 03:00 local time for a customary liquid out. The US presidential debate was in full swing but thought that if it was going all wrong I would find it difficult to get back to sleep, so didn’t watch it.
Went straight back to bed and slept soundly until 06:00.
It sounds as though I needn’t have worried about the debate, but the decision was probably wise.
I have stopped for a refreshment break. Yesterday I left eating until I had reached my night’s accommodation. That wasn’t a good idea, especially after a nothing much breakfast.
After a break I now intend to cycle for another couple of hours and then look for somewhere to stay. I will not be far out of Dieppe and could even get the ferry from there. It will mean coming home early. While I’m winning.
This morning I cycled at a break-neck AVERAGE speed of over 8 miles an hour.
11/09/2024, 23:32 – SDB:
It’s cold and wet up here in the mountains.
In the mountains? You weren’t going up any mountains.
Ah.
If any of you carp a lot or sneer then stop reading. This will make your more unlovely attributes even worse.
I was doing well. On course to getting to Dieppe today.
I start off each day with a full kit – 2 pairs of cycling trousers, one pair of flannel trousers for jogging, 2 vests, 2 shirts, 2 waterproof coats and a flimsy high Vis over garment. It is cold here in September.
As the day goes on I discard the jogging trousers. When it gets really warm I have a complete review of the upper garments. This entails taking off my bum bag to get off both shirts and one of the coats.
It always feels good when they have gone.
I did all this at a rest station where 2 older cyclists had stopped for something to eat. They offered me a coffee.
I ate my bread stick end that I had lined with butter and stuffed in some cheese and a bit of what had once been one of God’s creatures.
The rest had done me good as I was reasonably certain I could reach Dieppe.
I cycled on in good heart.
Unaccountably after nearly 2 hours I checked my bag for my passport.
What bag? I must have taken it off when discarding my clothes. It contained money, a debit card, and my passport.
So still with a positive attitude I cycled 15 miles back, my average speed for the day was now over 9 mph.
The tables still there but no bag. There were 2 13 year olds around being silly. Perhaps they were in love. Too young.
They had not seen the bag.
I asked them in some fort of French “Où est la prochaine gendarmerie?” 2 miles back to the way i had just come.
Komoot is excellent for this sort of situation.
I planned a new route from where I was to the police station in Neufchatel en Bray. The police station was open for another hour.
The Gendarme was able to fill in my details from the photo of my passport. He gave me a report of my lost (not stolen) possessions, and gave me a glass of water.
And another one.
But why up a mountain?
There are no hotels in Neufchatel en Bray. Or anywhere near,
I kept on cycling towards Dieppe, again, for an hour and tried looking again. Nothing much
The nearest place on offer was a farm about 3 or 4 miles away. Try that. They never said it was up a mountain. And it was. And not only up a mountain but also along a heavily overgrown track. In these circumstances the best you can do is to remember that each pace forward is one fewer to the end.
At the farm a large farmer welcomed me and showed me to my room. It reminded me a lot of the farmhouse that my Aunt Doll had lived in. There, however you could hear the mice(?) in the rafters. You went to bed with a candle. This farm at least had electricity.
Let me digress. Aunt Doll was easily my favourite Aunt of 16. She was funny, disrespectful of authority, and the only person who ever said anything about my father. “He was a lovely man“. If I am like any of my relatives I would like it to be Aunt Doll. She was also very kind in a most undemonstrative way.
12/09/2024, 07:10 – SDB:
the Gendarme didn’t seem to foresee any problem of me leaving France without a passport.
What does he know?
I will tell you later.
So now, breakfast finished, I am off to Dieppe.
Who knows what will happen?
12/09/2024, 11:09 – SDB:
I am in the ferry (DFDS) ticket office.
People want to give the appearance of being helpful. But.
They will attend to my problem when the next ferry leaves.
They will send a copy of the police report and the photograph from my passport to someone and will ask whether I will be allowed to leave. The earliest next ferry is at 18:00.
Someone overheard my problem, gave me €4 and said ” Get yourself a drink”.
That’s the second time that sort of thing has happened in the last couple of months.
I still have water in my bottle and will wait until later before buying a drink.
Let’s look on the bright side. I am keeping plenty of people in work.
12/09/2024, SDB:
And now at 13:04 DFDS have told me I can go on the 18:00 crossing.
Life is certainly interesting.
They don’t know what reception they will give me in Newhaven, but at least I will be able to spend the night in an English jail.
The only downside to this is that they have signed me up to Google pay. Presumably I can disinfect the phone when I get back home.
12/09/2024, 17:22 – SDB:
I am on the ferry to Newhaven. It gets in at 21:00 (9 o’clock in the evening to you).
I have booked a room for the night and will get trains to Bridlington tomorrow.
With no pressure.
The sea is calm.
13/09/2024, 06:43 – SDB:
Almost all problems solved.
I was impressed yesterday that the passport people at Dieppe and Newhaven were expecting me.
At Newhaven the lady needed to fill in a form and gave me another one to complete later.
So are all problems solved?
Not quite.
To buy a ticket from Newhaven to Bridlington online I have to present my card to the machine issuing tickets. It is still in France.
Maybe Google pay will solve that one. I will be annoyed if it will.
Or maybe if I try to book a ticket with the Northern app it will just give me one.
13/09/2024, 10:45 – SDB:
I wasn’t going to chunter on any more but then this morning the world came alive again. All is not lost.
The problem to be solved was how to get to Bridlington without a card or money. Just a cheerful disposition.
I cycled in to one of the stations at 07:30 and there was a real man in a real ticket office.
“It can’t be done“.
“I can transfer money to an account to pay”.
“It doesn’t work like that”.
In to Newhaven and there was a police station. Closed, but a little farther on was a Post Office. It had a notice about them being to rescue you if you had problems with your Identity. The man in the Post Office said “You want to go across the road to the café and see Naomi”. The café was closed but the Newsagents next door was alive and doing business.
There were 2 customers in the shop and a nice lady serving. I asked her if she knew when Naomi would open up.
“What do you want?“.
I explained.
“I can sort that out“.
“What I would really like is to transfer the money to you, then you can buy the ticket, and if you can get it to me somehow I am back at home“
“Easy“.
In the middle of this we all got talking about Scouts. The lady customer in the shop was going to take the ashes of a relative to Brown Sea Island. They wanted her to write a memorial to go with the ashes.
The other customer had been in the 2nd Lewes Group. A very long time ago. When he was about 9 years old his mother had said that there was no hot water for a bath. “That’s OK Baden-Powell says that a cold bath is good for you“. And he had no other again.
Aren’t real people wonderful!
The assistant identified herself as Naomi and she had helped with Cubs. Well. I certainly was among friends.
I transferred more than enough to Naomi, she bought a ticket all the way to Bridlington and gave me a £10.00 note..
Ah, the ticket gave you a code to enter into a machine. You then needed to present the card you had used to book.
Naomi rang her mother to ask if she could come with me to the station.
Just then a young man came into the shop.
“You will do.”
The young man had helped with Scouts.
Naomi told him what had happened. She gave him her card, he took one of my panniers and walked all the way to the station. While I put the 2 panniers on the bike I had locked on a cycle rack he went in to the ticket office and came out with tickets and an itinerary. He shook my hand, gave me a £5.00 note, said he would be upset if I did not take it, and we left the best of friends.
I am finishing off this narrative sitting on a bench at Kings Cross waiting for the 12:30 Edinburgh train to Doncaster.
It’s been a good day.
13/09/2024, 11:55 – SDB:
And Baden-Powell would have expected no less.
13/09/2024, 16:26 – SDB:
Safe home, safe home in port,
Rent cordage, shattered deck.
Torn sail, provision short.
And only not a wreck.
But O the joy upon the shore
To tell the voyage – perils o’er.
The prize, the prize secure!
The athlete nearly fell;
Bare all he could endure,
And bare not always well:
But he may smile at troubles gone
Who sets the victor-garland on.
And who makes himself eggs on toast with the excellent egg and bread that Jeff has left me.
Yippee.
Naomi was extraordinary.
jbrip 