E5 Days 41-45

Monday, April 15

“Your departure is approaching”

• writes our accommodation for tonight while we are still having breakfast in our previous accommodation.
• ‘We haven’t even arrived yet!’ I say indignantly between two bites of croissant.
• We spend the morning in our relaxed accommodation, as I still have a phone call with TU Delft regarding Digi-Forms.
• At lunchtime, we set off on our short rest stage to Dreux.

• We reach the town via a very flat route and blissfully dry country lanes between blossoming rapeseed fields.

• We cross the ‘Blaise’ over a really beautiful stone bridge.

•  At one point we see markings that look as if a run had passed here – with hearts <3.
• And we pass a library housed in an old half-timbered house – very, very nice.

• As we walk along the cycle path next to a major road, we see something curious:
• A car drives past us with a trailer carrying a lawnmower tractor with a red cover. This very cover comes loose and is now being towed behind, attached to the trailer only by a string. We are wondering whether and how we should draw the driver’s attention to this when the cord tears right before our eyes and the red cover skids across the road onto the opposite side of the street – directly in front of a camper van coming from the opposite direction. We get a huge fright and think we’re about to witness an accident, but thank God the cover continues to slide across the road – aaah, straight towards us! We are briefly shocked again by the thought of being hit by a lawnmower cover, but thank goodness it skids right in front of us into the grass verge between the road and the cycle path and comes to rest there – right in front of us. The car continues unperturbed, the driver probably hasn’t even noticed, only the camper van driver looks a little startled.
• Dreux really is one of the larger towns we pass through on the E5 and gives us a shock at first with all the people, cars, noise and hustle and bustle – we are no longer used to that after the national park stages!

• Our accommodation is super central, close to the main square.
• When we arrive, the cleaning lady is still there, so we decide to pay a visit to the Domaine Royale first.
• It towers over the city and houses the tombs of the French royal families.

• It was originally built as a fortress, but is more like a castle in all its splendour.

• One particularly great feature is a long corridor that leads into the catacombs of the cathedral-like building and from there up a majestic staircase – which creates a real ‘wow’ effect.

• When we finally enter our accommodation, we are startled: ‘Stupid question,’ says Matthäus: ‘But where is the bed?’

• Ah, we finally realise: it’s a pull-out sofa and very comfortable!
• We’re getting hungry (the washing machine is already switched on), so we think we’ll take advantage of Dreux being a city and order something, which is good anyways as all our clothes are in the wash and we’re only wearing towels.
• It does seem a bit decadent when we discover that the pizzeria we ordered from is directly opposite our house on the square and you can even see it from our window…

Tuesday, April 16

We hiked the first 1000 km of the E5!

• Today it’s a proper monster stage to Gressey, which I constantly called ‘Grässi’ with a proper Austrian accent when planning. As a consequence we now have to giggle like teenagers every time we hear or read the name.

• It’s super sunny, although we are occasionally surprised by small rain showers, but our clothes dry quickly in the sunshine that usually follows.
• The hiking trails have the usual flair: country lanes, forest paths, small roads, fields of rapeseed in bloom, small castles.

• Sometimes the path leads through small villages.
• For most of the route, however, we are far away from any civilisation in the middle of the forest as we know it, and we feel back in our comfort zone after the hustle and bustle of the city yesterday.
• The paths are dead straight and lead to huge crossroads and rotundas in the middle of the forest, the likes of which can only be found in France.

• For a break we discover a place with a bench and table near a small village, which is super cosy – it even comes with a playground (some people never stop being children)!
• Today, at kilometre 26, we calculate that we have covered the first 1000 kilometres of our long-distance hike – wow, that’s a real milestone!
• We proudly take a photo to celebrate the day (and here you find a blog article on our highlights, lowlights and hiking statistics for the first 1000 kilometres on the E5).

• The route continues across fields where, annoyingly, you can already see Gressey in the distance, but you still have to make a slight detour as there are a few fields in the way.

• We finally reach the village and move into our fantastic accommodation, a ‘chambre d’hôtes’, where we are welcomed by a lovely lady who lives here with her mum and occasionally hosts guests in her extra room with its own bathroom.
• There is even a pool, but unfortunately it is currently being renovated =(

• As if she knew that a celebration was in order, the lady baked my favourite dish – a lasagne- for us, poures us a glass of red wine and we enjoy dinner together – but only the three of us, as her mum, she tells us, is rather shy.
• Our French is now so good that we can even have a reasonably meaningful and somewhat in-depth conversation over dinner and have a great time.

Wednesday, April 17

Olympia and Sushi

• We have breakfast with our host-lady at half past seven, but she has to leave for work soon after.
• That is convenient, because we have a New Hope/Talking Hands meeting at 8am, which we dial into straight away.
• The ticket sales for the Olympic Games start at 10am and we’d like to try and get tickets for climbing at the Olympics.
• So we both log in with our mobile phones and refresh when the pre-sale starts, which promptly lands us both in the queue.
• Having given up all hope, we wait resignedly as the ticket website suddenly opens on my mobile phone.
• I quickly give the mobile phone to Matthäus, who is better at keeping a cool head in such situations, and he manages to buy tickets for the men’s final and the women’s semi-final in the lead! Wooow!!!
• I’m so hyped that I spend the rest of the day repeatedly shouting ‘Goo, Jaakob!!!’, ‘Gooo, Jessi!!!’ out of nowhere – into the forest. (For all those who are not so familiar with the climbing scene, Jakob Schubert and Jessica Pilz are representing Austria in climbing at the 2024 Olympic Games).
• Mega! Excitement, excitement! (An article about our visit to the Olympic Games in Paris will of course follow – but just as a teaser, it really was an amazing experience!)

• In real April weather, we finally start our stage across fields and along a railway line, following our own intuition (always a good idea) and taking the dirt track instead of the road, which forces us to make our way through the thicket in the forest at the end.

• A really steep bridge takes us over the motorway.
• We continue past a fortified monastery complex that is already on the verge of collapse.

• In the middle of nowhere, we discover a bus station with waiting owls (‘The bus to Athens probably leaves from here,’ I say to Matthäus).
• Eventually our path leads into the forest and becomes increasingly muddy, almost swampy in places, turning into lake-like conditions.

• On top of that, it starts to rain and we are semi-happy about that.

• Still, the forest is beautiful, especially as the start of spring is making its appearance in every corner: Fresh green buds are forming on the tree branches, fruit trees are blossoming and lush purple flowers are sprouting from the forest floor.

• Our second highlight of the day is probably the ‘Danger Zone de Chasse’ sign, which immediately gives us an earworm of the song ‘Welcome to the Danger Zone’ and Matthäus adds ‘de Chasse’ in a sombre tone of voice – a running gag that will stay with us for the rest of the hike.

• After almost 30 kilometres, we reach the village of Montfort l’Amoury, which once again has a very beautiful old town centre, and find our accommodation (thanks to a really good description) straight away in the backyard in a semi-basement.
• It reminds us of Bennie’s flat in NY in the series ‘Queens Gambit’ – a few steps lead down to the door to the flat.

• We want to order something for dinner, but there’s nothing =( aaah!
• Instead, we discover a take-away sushi restaurant that is very well rated on Google and has really delicious sushi – a real treat and very surprising, here in the middle of nowhere!

Thursday, April 18

Versailles – “Ante Portas Paris” (a la Mama)

• We treat ourselves to the last of the delicious, caramelised sheep’s cheese spread for breakfast today – njam!
• We even get to watch some climbing – I’m happy!
• We set off at half past ten for today’s long stage – to the gates of Paris to Versailles.

• We make such good progress on the flat, wide paths and are so engrossed in conversation that I am quite surprised when I look at my watch for the first time and read ‘1:02h’ and ‘5.7km’ – really? That’s almost Komoot average (where I selected ‘pro’, which means Komoot automatically assumes a walking pace of 6.3km/h).
• The whole day the route runs along the railway – here the suburban trains already run into Paris.

• And the roads are also getting bigger, busier – it’s clear: we’re getting closer to Paris and as every child knows: ‘All roads lead to Paris!’
• You can also tell from the places we pass through that we are approaching the big city: they are becoming increasingly characterless, less beautiful and more suburbs full of tower blocks than nice, cosy places full of stone houses.
• We even pass a huge Renault car dealership (or garage).
• A man taking a break on a bench approaches us and asks us what we are doing, where we are going.

• As we begin to explain our endeavour in our broken French, he interrupts us in the cleanest German and says: ‘Ah, are you from Germany?’ – What?
• Through ‘Plaisir’ – which contrary to what its name promises is the ugliest suburb we’ve passed through so far – we reach the last forest before Versailles.
• It’s a bit hilly and I’m just about to complain about the climb when suddenly, around a bend, an amazing view appears: Versailles, the palace, the gardens and we even catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower in the background!

• Apart from that, the hike through the forest is not so nice, because apparently the forester has a massive problem with hikers – at least he has consequently cut down all the trees with a marker on them and left them lying across the path..

• We take a finisher selfie in front of the castle gates and when we see someone having to clear out their entire rucksack at the entrance, we decide to walk around the castle instead of through the garden.

• In the villa where our hotel is located (we treated ourselves to this today!), a gentleman/employee walks up to us and politely asks us in the finest French and in the tone of someone asking if you are lost: ‘Can I help you somehow?’

• We explain to the astonished gentleman that we have reserved a room here, whereupon he apologises visibly ashamed a thousand times and immediately takes us to reception.
• We check into our room in the winter pavilion and treat ourselves to two hours in the swimming pool, spa, sauna and hammam – mega nice!

Friday, April 19 

Lunch Walk to the Eiffel tower

• Our plan to go to the spa before breakfast is rescheduled at short notice as the spa is not yet open.
• So we go straight for breakfast, where there are even Eggs Benedict – with salmon. What a treat!
• Totally full and satisfied (maybe even a little overeaten), we then chill out in the hammam, enjoy the sauna and splash around in the swimming pool – nice!
• We check out on time at 12 noon and pop into the bar where we order our welcome drink – champagne and pear juice and something else – the opposite of ‘unfortunately your departure is approaching’, so to speak.

• Then we set off – well after twelve, which is why my watch calls it a ‘lunch walk’ – on stage 45 into Paris.
• It starts quite nicely through a forest, which we wouldn’t have expected, and then the suburbs alternate with parks, with the buildings becoming increasingly dense and the green spaces looking more and more artificial.

• One of the parks we’re walking through is being renovated and there’s a lot of sand-pushing and hammering around the fountain.

• At one point we walk along a really big road and are super happy that we are walking, because the cars are all stuck in a massive traffic jam.

• The city sign of Paris only appears many kilometres after we have already walked through residential areas.

• From here begins a neighbourhood of Paris that is more likely to be inhabited by well-off Parisians, as one magnificent 19th-century building follows the next – a bit like the cliché Paris that you expect as a visitor to the city.

• Finally – although we already saw it from a distance yesterday – the Eiffel Tower appears on the other bank of the Seine! Yeah!
• Of course, we take a detour and walk along the Seine towards the city centre and the Invalides.

• We cross the Champs-Elysee – I take the obligatory Arc de Triomphe photo in the middle of the street and we find our hotel in the fancy neighbourhood.

• The receptionist is mildly surprised to see hikers arriving in her hotel and kindly offers us a welcome drink, which we gratefully accept.
• Then chill out in the room and good night Paris!