On Friday morning at the crack of dawn we take the Eurostar from Kings Cross to Paris with our bicycles, wetsuits and lycra in tow, lots of lycra. For the next 10 days we are going to be triathloning (I know that isn't a word), cycling, sight seeing and drinking proper champagne.
From Paris we drive our rental car to Chantilly which is about 100km north of Paris. We are both competing in the Chantilly Castle triathlon on Sunday which is hosted in the grounds of the Chantilly Castle, the swim is even in the old mote :-)
It's Natale's maiden triathlon so hold thumbs for a smooth race for the bosslady.
From Chantilly we head out to Epernay which is basically the capital of the Champagne region just south of Reims. We spend 4 days here where we have three, one day cycles planned. Each day is roughly 50km of sight seeing and wine tasting around the region. Each evening we return to Epernay for Champagne tasting and hopefully some fine French cuisine.
Once all the Verve in Champagne has been consumed by yours truly and partner we take the rental back to Paris for two days of sight seeing. My lovely wife has booked dinner in the Eiffel Tower which should be very romantic. A French colleague of mine mentioned that the Louvre is open at night from time to time so hopefully our timing will be good and we can go at night. He claims the Paris night-lights reflect and refract off all the glass and it is something to behold. Exciting innit.
On Sunday morning we return to London on the Eurostar.
On a side note I signed up to my first half ironman yesterday which will take place in Lisbon on May 2013, scary but exciting stuff. You can check it out here: http://www.lisboatriathlon.com/ There are 15 of us competing from our tri club so it should be a memorable weekend.
That's it. Holiday report to follow.
RJB
