5 June 2025 (cloudy with showers) 22km

Slept for five hours last night and woke at 4am. Neither of us could sleep, so after a half hour writing up yesterday's blog, we climbed out of the tent, into the cool morning air and went for a shower. Washed a couple of items of clothes and back to the tent. 

Not for too long though as Julia thought it would be good to get out and see Versailles early, before the crowds and while it wasn't raining. We donned our jackets and rode off down the hill, but not too far. At the pattiserie on the corner, we purchased two croissants pur buerre and downed them immediately, then on to the Palace of Versailles. 

As we rounded the corner at the top of the hill climb, we noticed a very impressive road with the Palace at the end. All the buildings down this stretch of road would have had some seriously wealthy residents residing there back in the day. Huge beautifully built stone masterpieces with stables and the finest decor of the time. And with old Louis just up the road as a neighbour, it would have been "wigs a wavin, painted faces and debauchery every night". 

We were riding on a cycle path just off the road, when suddenly Julia goes straight over her handlebars. Her front carrier had snapped, detached and fallen under her front wheel, stopping her dead in her tracks. 

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. One minute all good, the next she's "doing the matrix" over the bars and onto the ground. I thought "this is not going to end well" as she was mid air, but somehow she managed to correct herself and land on her feet with no damage done. At least not to her.  Her carrier had snapped one of its supporting rods and broken two screws. We were very grateful the carrier hadn't snapped yesterday, when we were flying along with the rest of Paris on the busy roads. 

For the interim, we used strapping to keep the carrier on and shot over the road to take in this "finger in the air to peasantry" piece of architecture.  Took a couple of snaps and then read a notice explaining that the Palace would not be open, as the Government were on strike today. Say what.....?

Got some shots from outside through the railings and rode back down the "avenue" to a little cafe, really only to use their loos. What an expensive distilling process that was. Eighteen bucks for two cups of "less than what we expect "coffee. 

Some shots of the township while looking for a SIM card. It was very easy to get distracted from our task.

We also used the cafe's free wifi to suss out where the local bike shops were and rode to one about 2kms away to see if they could fix the rack on Ju's bike. We found Velocite and the nicest two middle aged Frenchmen (we think they were brothers) who took Julia's bike and did a thorough job of fixing the carrier. Supermarket visit on returning to camp and we were feeling pretty good now. 

I had to call in to the office to pay (we'd decided to pay for two nights as we want to explore more of Versailles and let Julia's knee rest). That's when we got the third hit of the morning. We were charged $92 per night for our pitch in the trees, where, last night a bird had shit all over our tent. My jaw nearly hit the floor. For this pitch we have no kitchen (common in many European campgrounds), they have a pool, but it's only 14 degrees today so won't be using that, and we are pitched on hard dirt. So hard in fact that when we put the pegs in with a huge rock yesterday, Julia was fearing for her fingers.

With nowhere to eat the food we'd bought, we once again ate in the tent, with the only other option being the outdoor tables at the cafe, which I'm sure wouldn't go down well. 

To round off a somewhat peculiar morning, as we went to pull our glass cups out of the kitchen bag (which had been with us that morning at the accident), one had smashed and sent glass into the bag.

Never mind, we still had one Keepcup and now had camping gas so we could at last make tea or coffee. 

Ju pulled out the stove and attached the camping gas and then pushed the ignition switch. Nothing. So she cleaned the stove in case the gas holes were blocked, but still nothing. She took the stove over to a group of English in their campervans and used their lighter to try and start the stove. Still nothing. But the English crew did realise the severity of our situation when they heard we hadn't had a cup of tea since arriving in France, and boiled some water up for us. 

Early afternoon and we cycled back to Velocite to have Julia's bike checked as the gears weren't working properly. Found out that the guys are twins and have worked together their whole lives.

Anyway he tinkered and pushed and adjusted and sprayed and after twenty minutes, we rode back into Versailles, Julia feeling the difference immediately. Her knee felt better too so we're wondering if the bike was somehow damaged in transit as there were a few holes in the box. 

Our aim now was to find a Sim card. Nowhere could we find a mobile shop. Hunted high and low without success. Frustrated, we began our journey back to camp as the rain began again.  For a short while we thought we would get soaked, but lucky for us it faded to the odd drops although the forecast does suggest otherwise later. Picked up dinner and breakfast and hope the weather clears by tomorrow when we carry on, hopefully with a dry tent.

Met a fellow bikepacker who has moved in next door for the night. His name is Jan (pronounced Yan) and is a young Dutchman who is cycling to the source of the Seine and back to Holland. Had a great chat with him and gave him our email address as he's keen to cycle in N Z. 

I've been cold most of the day, although still in shorts, so I've no excuse. Julia was working out that since we left New Plymouth four days ago, we've only had 14 hours sleep. No wonder I find myself correcting so many words that have four u's or three l's. 

Its now 5.32pm. We still have the odd drops of light rain, but expecting more tonight. Hopeful it will be done by morning for our pack up.