Dome to dome – a tale of two cities

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

MALCOLM WILLS

Dome to a tale of

dome WORDS & PICTURES two cities

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

No correction needed … Malcolm outside the former Canterbury prison

approaching Paris on a well-surfaced canal tow path. By stalking the A26 and A1 autoroutes to Paris (without ever being spoiled by them), the balance between benign terrain and directness is optimised. The route can be ridden as a short tour in anything from two days to a week, depending on how much you want to sample the many distractions along the way.

My second ride from London to Paris had been “tower-to-tower” (Tower Bridge to the Eiffel Tower), so I decided to make this journey “dome-to-dome”. The Basilica of the Sacre Coeur was an obvious destination in Paris. It is on a hill with great views, you can ride by a canal to within two kilometres of it. The depart had to be from St Paul’s Cathedral.

To pioneer the route, I teamed up with fellow AUK member Julian Sharples. We planned a three-day trip, with two days of about 180km and a final day of 130km, to allow for proper meal and hotel stops as well as time to explore points of interest on the route.

It was 5.50am when I set off from St Paul’s. Julian and I enjoyed dawn views of the city as we crossed London Bridge. In Greenwich Park, home of another famous London dome at the Royal Observatory, we came across 300 cyclists who were preparing to set off on a charity ride to Paris… with the benefit of rolling road closures, food stations, mechanics, massage therapists and an extra day!

We then joined the old Roman road over Shooter’s Hill, heading straight towards Dover. Gravesend looked at its

Julian prepares to tackle the steepest climb of the ride

best as we passed through around 8am on a sunny September morning.

After crossing the Medway we stopped for coffee in Rochester, then weaved through Chatham and Gillingham and out into the country, admiring the “candlesnuffer” steeple in Upchurch which made a surprising change from towers and domes. We rode through Kemsley and Sittingbourne as quickly as possible and into the country again, passing farms where the hop harvest was in progress.

After Faversham there was a climb of about 100m up to Dunkirk, Kent, followed by a welcome downhill into Canterbury. However disappointment lurked at Christchurch Gate, where it turned out you couldn’t get close to the exterior of the

Old style… the Café Au Stop in Busnes

cathedral between 9am and 5.30pm without parting with north of a tenner. Fortunately, spiritual consolation was on hand from a monk standing by the gate, who turned out to be an actor shooting a road trip film about a pilgrimage.

Feeling blessed to be on our way again, we headed out of Canterbury, passing the former prison. Have you noticed that many long distance cycle routes pass prisons? Perhaps I’m particularly tuned into this because I was working at the headquarters of the prison and probation service when I first starting Audaxing. HMPs Erlestoke, Channings Wood and Dartmoor are all on celebrated Audax routes, and my Easter Arrow in 2017 took in HMPs Whitemoor and Humber.

We finished off the last of more than 1,300 metres of climbing on the 134km stretch to Dover, comforted by the knowledge that the English stage of this ride is by far the hilliest. The day’s only route-planning failure involved having to wheel our bikes across the frenetic A2 just above Dover, due to a footbridge I’d imagined would be there, but wasn’t.

At the port, Julian successfully attacked the 10 per cent ramp to the ferry on his single speed bike, watched by an audience of truckers waiting for us before they could embark. The drivers had the last laugh, though, as we had to wait until every other vehicle was off the ferry in Calais, as there was no cycle lane in the port.

From Calais, we made an easy getaway into the French landscape of canals and red brick houses. Many of the place names in the area are a reminder of the influence of nearby Flanders – Nortkerque, Zutkerque. Where’s Kaptinkerque, I wondered?

An early point of interest is the Pont D’Ardres where the Calais to St. Omer Canal meets the Ardres Canal at the same point that the main road from Calais to St Omer is crossed by a minor road, the D228. To further complicate the junction, it must also accommodate four towpaths and another minor road. The solution built in 1750 was known as the “Bridge without Equal” – until it was blown up in 1944.

Arriving at our hotel in St Omer at 8.30pm, the manager denied that they had agreed to let us keep the bikes in our rooms but eventually allowed them into the conference room. St Omer was buzzing on a Friday night with lots of options for dinner.

Day two started with another engineering feat, a few hundred metres off the main road heading south east from St Omer. The Fontinettes boat-lift at Arques levitated vessels 13 metres (replacing five locks) until it was retired in 1967. Once out of town, the route leaves the busy D943 and delivers some carefree riding, criss-crossing the Canal du Nord.

In Busnes, the Café Au Stop is an old-style cycling café which serves as the headquarters of the local cycling club. We au-stopped there for an espresso, admiring the trophy cabinet and chatting to the locals.

Entering Bethune from the north west I was able to tick off my second prison of the ride as we passed the Maison d’Arret de Bethune – conveniently located near the fantastic Art Deco style Palais de Justice in Place Lamartine. The main square in Bethune, with its typical belfry, is a scenic spot for coffee and snacks.

A surprise awaited us on the D937 just after Bethune, when we spotted the Eiffel Tower looming in the distance. We reached it quicker than expected, as it turned out

Are we there already… a surprise awaited us just after Bethune, when we spotted the Eiffel Tower looming in the distance

to be a scale model in the middle of a roundabout in Sains-en-Gohelle. Even the wisdom of the internet does not tell us why it is there, but it saved having to cycle across Paris to take selfies at the end of the ride!

During the day, we saw a number of war cemeteries, reminding us of a less peaceful period for this part of Europe. A highlight of the day was the Canadian National Memorial at Vimy. On the climb to the ridge we were passed by two WW2 jeeps, loaded with tourists in army fatigues. The atmosphere at the memorial was very peaceful, contrasting with the echoes of history created by the surrounding trenches and shell craters, left untouched and defenceless against advancing nature. We pedalled reflectively to Arras where the mood was lifted by pizza in the square.

That afternoon, the landscape of big fields and even bigger skies was punctured by the futuristic spire of the church of Our Lady of Rocquigny. This architectural homage to NASA’s Cape Canaveral launch pad must be secret as it doesn’t appear on Google Street. It made a stunningly modern contrast to the many traditional churches we passed.

We re-joined the roads running alongside the Canal du Nord, culminating in a steep hill, then a refreshing swoop down through suburbs to the centre of Peronne. As we were behind schedule, we could only explore the chateau housing the Museum de la Grande Guerre from a nice bench in a car park. Leaving Peronne, the route crosses lots of waterways connected to the Somme river. To recoup some time, we stayed on the D1017 rather than the towpath alternative.

The final stage of our second day included some fast riding on undulating roads which swept us to Noyon, where the imposing 12th century cathedral looks out of proportion to the buildings crammed around it. Noyon is the birthplace of Jean Calvin, a Protestant reformer who fled to Switzerland in the 1530s – thereby missing

The day’s highlight… the Canadian National Memorial at Vimy

out on some decent restaurants if our experience nearly 500 years later was anything to go by.

Departure on our third day was nearly delayed after I slid down some tiled steps on my cleats, on the way to retrieve the

No through road… one of the roads I’d checked on Google Street View turned out to be blocked by a recently constructed embankment for a new bypass!

bikes from the basement. A quiet route out of Noyon provided a relaxed start to the day. However, plans went awry when one of the roads I’d reconnoitred on Google Street View turned out to be blocked by a recently constructed embankment for a new bypass. The silver lining materialised when we retraced our steps and found signs to the Oise Piste Cyclable 3, also not on Google. This is a fantastic route through forests to Choisyau-Bac and on to Compeigne for our breakfast stop.

The town of Compeigne is famous as the start of the Paris-Roubaix bike race. It also boasts a fine Hotel de Ville (town hall), where a small band with hunting horns and dressed in red coats played us on our way as we set off into the Foret de Compiegne. As well as being a hunting ground for Louis XIV, the forest is where the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918.

After leaving the trees behind we were challenged by a rare climb up the escarpment to Villeneuve-sur-Verberie. Once on higher ground the route runs at right angles to a series of four ridges, spread out over a distance of about 40 kilometres, and feels surprisingly remote despite the proximity of the metropolis. This section is fast riding on quiet rounds, including some fun descents off the ridges, the best about halfway between Rully and Baron, featuring a single elegant hairpin on silky smooth tarmac.

We messed up our lunch stop on the final day – reaching Ermenonville (with its landscaped park honouring 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau) too early to eat and then making the mistake of assuming there would be plenty of opportunities later on. There weren’t.

The only option was a four-star hotel, where the receptionist dealt coolly if professionally with two English cyclists in search of nutritional salvation. In any case, the menu offered the opposite of fast food and we settled for a liquid lunch.

As we climbed to the highest point on the day’s ride, we were sucked into a bewildering one-way system in the hilltop town of Dammartin-en-Goele. But it was worth the effort as the descent offered our first view of Paris, just over 30km away. After passing through the villages of Messy and Gressy, we joined the Canal de l’Ourcq cycle path for a 20km ride from the rural fringes to the urban heart of Paris. As you near the centre of the city, look out for the sculpture of a half-buried giant bicycle in the park of La Villette.

After leaving the canal, the final two kilometres along the Boulevard de la Chappelle provides a complete contrast and culture shock after three days of riding the quiet country lanes. Surging crowds of people and honking traffic made me feel disorientated. But at the right turn just after Metro Barbes Rouchechouart the climb to Montmartre started. A fantastic hilltop finish on cobbled streets delivered us to our destination, the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur. Our Dome-to-Dome distance was 495 kilometres.

The area to the front of the church was heaving with tourists in 32 degree heat. After the obligatory photo opportunities, we retraced our steps down to Rue Lamark where we got every cent’s worth from our beers at 7.5 euros each and then moved to the restaurant next door for an even better value pizza.

With a train to catch, we headed round the back of the Basilica to complete a loop back to the Boulevard de la Chappelle and then to the Gare du Nord. We checked in our bikes (with thanks to the London Cycling Campaign and others who campaigned to make the operator keep open the option of carrying bikes without disassembling them first).

By 10pm we were collecting the bikes from the back of St Pancras and by 11pm we were home. With no mechanicals and no rain, it felt like this dome-to-dome ride was truly blessed by the cycling gods!

Dome sweet dome… Our final destinations the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur in Paris