Translated by SFT
After visiting the Orsay Museum,
we rode along the boulevard, passing the Arc, the Grand Arc andthen we left Paris. At the Arc, we met a lot of passionate fellow countrymanfrom Taiwan and oversea Chinese from Malaysia.
We have learned fromgetting lost often, so we planned ahead for the route we were going from Paristo Dieppe.
Although the highwaysstarting with letter D have no shoulders, most drivers yield to us. Policeofficers did not stop us to ask us to ‘have tea’, either. See Uncle Jim, avoiding police contact.
The green grass isour dining table.
We usually havesimple meals. Once in a while, we do treat ourselves a nice meal.
Money I got from thestreet shows is used to pay our food.
There are severalports from France to UK. Our originalplan was to depart from port Calais to UK because it is the closest port to UKand the least expensive one ( 17 euros each passenger). However, aftercomparison, we found although it cost more (25 euros each) from Dieppe toNewhaven, it’s 60km less far to Dieppe than to Calais from Paris, which couldsave us a day cycling, thus we would not have to worry that we may exceed theallowed 90 days’ stay in Europe. Therefore, we decided to leave from Dieppe.
We were buyingtickets at the Dieppe custom and the clerk faxed our passports to the UK custombefore selling us the tickets. He thenexplained to us, “The custom in France is very friendly, but it’s a differentstory in UK customs. Last year, there were two students from Brazil and theywanted to visit UK. They left France without any problem, but they had to takethe next ferry back to France. If you are from any country not in Europe, it’spossible that UK will not let you into its land without giving you any reason.”
We comfortedourselves, “Don’t worry. We are from Taiwan.” We were confident we would notbecome the next news of being turned down to enter UK.
There’s one hourdifference between France and UK, thus even though we left France at 18:00 andarrive in UK at 21:00, it’s actually a 4-hour trip.
Our tickets are forone-way trip, but we had prepared our plane tickets from London to Taiwan andshowed them to the UK customs. Hurray, we were in UK!
Another lucky eventhappened 2 hours before we got on the ferry.
Jeremy noticed ourbikes, so he chatted with us. We found out we would be on the same ferry toNewhaven. After he knew we planned tocamp near the port in Newhaven, he and his wife invited us to stay in theirplace for the night. They live in Brighton, 20km away from the port.
He drewthe map for us.
“I don’t sleep untilmidnight and the doorbell is out of order. Just knock at the door when youarrive,’ said Jeremy.
Facing the strongwind with drizzle, we pedaled forward. Lightrain was in and out. The bright and big moon reminded us it’s now the eve ofthe Moon Festival. With a hand-drawn mapto guide us to the country road, we rode against the wind at night. It’samazing that we did not get lost, considering we often got lost even during ourdaytime travel in new places.
Anyway, it’s a veryunique invitation in a foreign country. Let’s go with the flow.
Jeremy explained tome when he was drawing the map, “There’s a very bright spot near the ocean, soyou would not miss it. When you see it, turn right at the circle after you getthere.”
“Don’t doubt if youare truly in UK when you see the buildings (We found out later it’s the RoyalPavilion) on your left even though they may look like the Taj Mahal inIndia.
Move ahead and then you will seea big church on the right. Continue on the London Road.
Turn left when you seea gas station.
After you pass thebridge, turn right and then left.” Jeremy forgot to tell us it’s a steep hill...
“Here you are in ourhome.”
What is thedifference in UK? Yi just told me not to ride on the right side of the road.
The first Day we arein UK and the first time we stay in an English place.
What would happennext?
Please check back toour blog for my ‘snail’ updates.
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