We left Gouvieux quite late on Sunday, with the intention of having a short day, following our 100km effort the day before. The day got off to a great start – a yummy lunch in Chantilly (Matt had his first escargot), cycling past the beautiful Chateau de Chantilly, and cruising up into Senlis and it’s cobble stone streets and magnificent cathedral.
After Senlis, we encountered what is becoming a common problem for us in France – campsites that are a long way out of towns and quite often a long way off the route we are following. Rather than go 20km out of our way to the nearest campground (most likely with a few wrong turns thrown in along the way), we decided to push on and see how far we could get, and take our chances with a campsite. Which to cut a long story short led to us finding our first wild (free) camp of the trip. Not a bad spot and right on the route!
The next day we got up and moving early. However, strong head winds made progress hard, and by lunch the previous two long days had caught up with us, and I was beyond exhausted. We made it into Beauvais, and found a quaint little hotel, and holed up for the rest of the afternoon. Best decision we’ve ever made.
4ks an hour 