Paris - Sun 05-Aug-2007

It is 9:00AM EST and we were on our way to Bradley Airport to start our 3 week trip to France. The plan was hatched 3 year earlier. I had started riding bicycles again in my early 40’s after about a twenty year layoff. I had bought a Rivendell Rambouillet and while researching the bike on the internet I kept reading that it was a good bike for riding brevets. I had no idea what a brevet was but a little more research turned up the fact that a brevet was a timed ride over a specific distance and they were part of a sport called Randonneurring. If a rider completed a series of rides (200k, 300k, 400k and 600k) in a given year he qualified to ride in a grand randonnee of 1200K that had to be completed in 90 hours or less. The most prestigious of these rides was Paris Brest Paris which is held every 4 years. The next time it would be held was in 2007 the same year I would turn 50, what better way to celebrate turning 50 then riding across Brittany with 5,000 cyclists from all over the world. I started training and reading ride reports published by other Randonneurs. In 2005 I attempted to ride my first brevet series, I made it through the 200k and 300k and then blew out my knee with and overuse injury called ITB syndrome. I was down for the year but read up on the injury and how to train properly and was back at it in 2006. I completed a full series of rides and a very grueling 1200k ride called Boston Montreal Boston. This gave me a good feeling about qualifying for PBP. About this time my wife, Lorraine, realized I was serious about going and made it clear that I would not be going to France without her. She also pointed out that travel to France was not cheap so we might as well stay as long as possible. We started planning on a two week bicycle tour before PBP for a total of 3 weeks. Now all that remained was to qualify for PBP. I started training Thanks Giving weekend and completed two brevet series by the time qualifications closed, we were going to France.

After another two months of preparations we were sitting in the airport waiting for our first flight.

We left Bradley for a quick hop to Philadelphia, a long layover and then we were in the air bound for Paris. We left Phili at 6:10PM to start our 8 hour flight to Paris. The early part of the flight was fun, we made it over the East Coast while there was still day light. Many of the places we were familiar with from sailing were now visible from a different vantage point. The Connecticut River, the Thames river, shelter Island, Block Island, Naragansett Bay, Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket rushed by. Soon the sun was setting and for the next couple of hours we catch glimpses of light dotting the east coast and then finally darkness and fitful sleep for the next several hours.