Stage 13: St.Florentin to Samoreau

We had been toying with the idea of an early start for a while, and with a big 60+ mile day ahead and the prospect of returning to the village of Samoreau (where we lived in 1998-2000) to spur Greg out of the sleeping bag, today was the day. With much protesting, we physically manhandled Greg out of the tent and arranged his half comatose body on his bike. With the tent packed away with military efficiency, we hit the road at 7am.

Following a team meeting the previous night, we had decided to blast down the a-road for the first 30 miles of the day, hoping to reach the town of Sens for breakfast. It proved to be as grim as we had feared, with frequent lorries blasting past at huge speeds, the draft often blowing the Probert team members off the road. To add to our woes, visibility was reduced to a few feet by a torrential downpour, forcing dad to the back of our formation (apparently as he has a bright rear light) and leaving Tom to 'lead out' the team all the way to Sens into the headwind and rain.

Just over two hours later, Greg woke up, and the team tucked into croissants, cakes and hot chocolate in a Sens cafe, which was all the more satisfying with 30 miles already under our belts.

All we had to do now was the same distance again, on what Dad promised would be picturesque, car-free lanes. Once again though, the GPS had other ideas and we were once again powering down the hard shoulder of a 3 lane main road, with Tom once again taking a battering from the vicious headwind.

The end of the team's slog along the dual-carriageway brought us the the picturesque town of Montereau, where a soaked and exhausted Tom took out his bad mood on an unfortunate motorist who had the audacity to beep at us as he went past. In a novel test of his French skills, at the next junction Tom launched into an animated argument with the driver, who was clearly in the wrong.

From the dribbling gargoyles of Montereau, it was a straightforward ramble through small villages and dark forested sections until we reached the famiar sight of the Samoreau water tower. We coasted down the steep valley side hill on which the town is built, stopping to reminisce about our old house, Greg's old school, and of course the boulangerie (closed for the customary 3hr lunch break) before we arrived at the river side camp site.

After a quick freshen up and nap, and realising we'd done all our day's cycling before 2pm, we caught the bus (free of charge, for reasons we still can't work out) in to Fontainebleau, the nearby large town. Once in the town centre, we ignored the legendary chateau, found a bar, and indulged in our favourite activity of watching 'Le Tour' and sampling some of the local beers.

With this important cultural learning taken onboard, we just had time to pick up a boulangerie supper of quiche and cakes before buzzing back to our cozy tent to eat and drift off to the sound of barges chugging down the Seine just outside our door.