Day 10 - Rest day at Paris

Day 10 brings a well earned rest day for the team and as like before, people went off in little groups and did their own things.

Russell, Phil, Paul, Anthony, Gavin & Dave all went together and headed off walking into the city centre, where they managed to visit a few sites and do a spot of shopping. Here is Phil auditioning for the lead role in the remake of Some Mother's Do 'Ave Em!

They also went onto visit Pere Lechaise, which houses the grave stones of Jim Morrison & Oscar Wilde.

Luke & Katherine, Spike & Danielle, Simon & Tracey all went off separately to do sight-seeing. It transpires that they all pretty much went to the same places. So much so, that both Spike & Luke got frisked by the same man at the Eiffel Tower. They also each went for a French meal - however not sure a cheese & ham baguette can be classified as that. As Spike was still hungry, he topped it off by going to McDonalds - these lads are so cultured.

Rik and his wife Sue, went for a walk and got fleeced 22 euros for a coffee and Orange Juice. Sue then had to head back home, leaving Rik to map out tomorrow's route and clean his bike.

Myself & Kinga went to Montmarte, the location of Sacre Coeur. I have to say that the area is filthy and stinks of badly run park toilets! Such a shame they have let it get like that. However, excellent views of Paris from the top. This was followed by a trip to the Arc and browsing in the shops down the Champs d'elysee. We then headed back to the hotel and took advantage of happy hour in one of the local bars.

This evening saw the arrival of Dylan & Shelley who are cycling with the team from Paris back to Hatfield. They flew over on seperate easyjet flights and both of them were delayed by 60 & 90 minutes respectively. The drama did not end there for Shelley - at the airport the taxi driver advised her that the main motorway into Paris had closed so he refused to take her so she had no choice but to opt for a motorbike taxi, who ended up dropping her off at the wrong hotel meaning she had to walk 10 minutes down the road to the correct one!

Let's hope the rest of the trip is not as traumatic for her.

After chatting to some of the group, a lot of us cannot see what the big fuss about Paris is - the city is dirty, smelly, not very romantic and a total rip-off. Roll on Belgium.