After arriving on the banks of the river Seine in the outskirts of Paris last night we pretty much set the tent up and then simply collapsed…...truth be told I think Marc put most of the tent up around Dan who just instantly fell into a deep, Dan like (i.e. noisy) sleep. Clearly he was awake enough later to take a mocking snap the two old timers (one of whom has had to make his own pillow!)

Doze over, Marc visits the camp shop and comes back with a glittery jacket and some hot pants (boom boom…honestly I think this is one of my best ever jokes!!) .....he actually comes back with dinner and beer and then cooks us up an epic feast in the form of tomatoey pasta, with cheese and salami. By 845 that’s it...we are done for and it’s way past bed time. What a long day!

I could of course moan for ages about trying to sleep, in a tent, on a skinny little bedroll and just in case I haven’t mentioned it, with no pillow but on balance it was really not too bad. I guess it’s a measure of how tired we really are that the absence of pillow has little or no impact. A 6am visit to the wash-block reveals a different story with a total stranger looking back at me in the mirror......I really do look wrecked, to the extent actually I don’t want to post a picture here in case people worry!

Once we have packed and loaded up we head off in search of the Eiffel Tower and immediately realise that rush hour Paris early on  a Monday morning is not the most bike friendly place to be. It’s not helped by the fact the Garmin (yes I am blaming the technology again) takes us down numerous dead ends and cobbled footpaths and even at one point a multi lane tunnel...

…..which all three of us agree is not something we ever want to do again .I can assure you it was much more scary and smelly than it looks!

We evertually do arrive safe and sound at the tower…..

….take the obligatory selfies….

…and then we are off again following the Seine out to the south east of Paris. It’s far from the most scenic part of the world but needs must.

Once we have finally started to get out of Paris we stop for a second breakfast picnic around 11am in a forest somewhere literally not a clue! NB - have since checked the map and it was the Foret de Senart….apparently!) consisting of stale pain au chocolate, biscuits and jam with tea cakes (the latter combo sounding so much more civilised than it actually was)….

We press on, continuing to the south and east although now with a really horrible wind in our faces. It’s not really very strong but after the last two days it makes a big difference and it’s enough to really drain the energy mile after mile after mile….it’s a slow, horrible torture.

Having checked trusty google maps (should have done that yesterday it would have saved a lot of tantrums) we find a massive Carrefour just off our route and so head off in search of lunch .

Five miles later we pull over at the side of the road and refuel. It’s clear just from the way we each pounce on our food that our efforts are really taking their toll although Dan even seems to have regressed to medieval times....

We drop down into Fontainbleu and pause briefly outside the chateaux ….

…..where we pause for a quick photo break. This is what happens if you ask Dan if he wouldn’t mind taking a nice selfie of all three of us….

….and then we press on again through the French countryside towards our final destination at Montargis….

....some 20 miles later we arrive at our campsite just before 6pm and apparently some kind of weird, highly unattractive yoga thing instantly happened before we went foraging for food. If by some chance you are interested in what a three men and a tent looks like, feast your eyes…

 Its just before 6pm and we have done another massive 95 miles today. If you had any lingering doubts about whether or not this is a serious challenge then nearly 280 mile in three days is let me tell, pretty daman serious….please, now is the time to donate.