Day 2 Portsmith, England to Bernay, France

September 9, 2011

Well we have managed to complete day two of our bike ride from London to Paris. We began in Portsmith at 5:30 AM and made our way on the bikes to the Ferry where we crossed overt to Caen, France.

Our Ferry in Portsmith

Getting on the Ferry

Now the good news is after a challanging first day we began the second day not riding but hanging out on the boat: The harbor was very cool, and the British Navy was pretty obvious:

We had a nice French breakfast and hung out

Voils! Simon Hanging out:

Voila! Mike hanging out

... Voila!and me hanging out:

I'm no fool - "Sleep is a weapon." quote from Jason Borne and The Borne Identity

Our first stop was at Le Pont Pegasus

Made famous during the D-day Invasion and the movie "A Bridge too Far"

And then day 2 we biked:

Length: 58.3 miles
Total riding time: 5 hours 10 minutes
Elevation Gain: 2,988 ft
Calories burned: 4,020  (Net, net, big dinner tonight.)

Here is the route we took:

The French countryside is beautiful!

And now the lunch, a French picnic:

,... note the proper bagettes, and if the Charchruterie had not closed for lunch,

 I would have shown up with even more provisions.

La Belle France in the afternoon!

But by mid afternoon food reinforcements are needed. So Simon applies the home-made power bars his daughter Lucy made us for the trip.

Thank You Lucy!!

...and Lucy least you think Simon was the only one who had the power bars, and he did not share:

All in all a very good day. We love the French countryside. And the best part of our French dinner at the end of the day was the Cheese from Normandy with major rations of Cyder from Normandy and Red wine from Bordeaux.

The operative question now is after the French dinner, the cheese, the wine and,.... oh did I forget to mention the Calvadose...how well will we do tomorrow when it is time to bike 105 miles to the Arch de Triumph in Paris.  God help us.