WORDS & PICTURES MALCOLM WILLS
From St. Pauls in London to the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur in Paris, Malcolm Wills recalls tracing a 495km “dome to dome” ride in 2016 to experience the history and culture of a well-ridden route between two great cities
Dome to dome
Arrivée154Winter2021
a tale of two cities
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FOR ME, NO JOURNEY is more compelling than London to Paris – I’ve ridden it four times. The urge to experience journey times that existed before trains, cars and planes shrank the distances between major cities is one of the fascinations that attracts me to long bike rides. The shortest route from London to Paris is about 200 miles, via the Newhaven to Dieppe crossing. With a new endurance road bike, I wanted a route that was a bit longer. This meant using the Dover to Calais crossing – a total distance of about 300 miles. I also wanted to make sure the route would pass through towns large enough to avoid the French “curse of dimanche” so I could be sure of finding shops and restaurants open on a Sunday. Finally, I wanted the ride to be suitable for a bike with road tyres and achievable by a wide range of abilities. This meant using surfaced roads without too much traffic and avoiding the hillier countryside south of Calais. I couldn’t find any existing routes that fitted the bill, so I created my own. I planned the route by starting with the most easterly result from a Google Maps search for cycling directions from Calais to Paris and then refined it turn-byturn. I used the Street View feature to check the suitability of the roads. This took a fair bit of time but was well worth it. The resulting route takes in beautiful Dutch-style landscapes criss-crossed by waterways, then gently rolling countryside through Picardy which gives way to traditional hunting forests, before
Red eye… A dawn departure from St Paul’s Cathedral
