Day 1
London to
Bordeaux
Mum and I departed on our Race across Europe from London, on a beautifully sunny Saturday morning. The start was at Herne Hill Velodrome in London. Both of us were terribly excited as we headed across London to the start line. We couldn't stop telling people. We told the hotel receptionists, the breakfast waitress, coffee server at St Pancras and even the ticket clerk. Whether they wanted to hear about it or not.
At the velodrome, the event room was brisk, corners of the room crammed with cunningly packed backpacks. We registered, met the Lupine Travel team, and collected our race packs and some red Lupine Racing wristbands, so that other Racers can recognise us. Checkpoint instructions were sealed inside bright red envelopes, not to be opened before the official start at 10:30am.
The room crackled with excitement as more and more Racers arrived and registered. Discussion centred on luggage choices, competitions (about half the Racers intended to compete for a prize, the rest not) and likely checkpoints. Racers were a diverse range of people, of all ages, from across Europe and even North America. About half the room seemed to know each other from previous events, but the other half were new, like me and Mum.
The atmosphere was buzzing. The red envelope of the race pack felt like it was burning a hole through my backpack. I was desperate to know where we would be going.
Mum was desperate to know which regional dishes we would be sampling.
“We’re foodies”, she told each new person proudly. “We’re going to try all the local specialities.”
We chatted to a father and daughter, a group of retired ladies, lots of friends, and plenty of single travellers. This event was in term-time, so no families with school age kids this time around (other events are deliberately scheduled for school holidays, so that families can participate). One guy lived nearby and had no luggage at all. He had booked an evening Flixbus to Paris but it wasn’t due to leave until this evening so he was going to watch the Saturday afternoon football first.
With about 15 minutes to go, we were ushered to the start line. The crowd of gathered Racers was tense with, bristling with excitement as Race Director James finally announced the checkpoints and routes - the first time we all discovered where we will be going this week. I’ll explain the options in a moment, but were widespread cheers when he mentioned Valencia. Clearly Mum and I were not the only ones keen on paella.
At 10:30am sharp we finally set off to Morocco in a blare of pumping music and cheers. People at the front were actually sprinting! A smattering of taxis, rental bikes and scooters materialised from nowhere, whisking gleeful Racers to various stations.
The rest of us - not competing to be fastest finisher - set out on foot to the nearest Tube station. On the platform, crammed backpacks swung to the floor, hands filled with ripped-open red envelopes. After almost of year of looking forward to this , I couldn’t believe we were actually underway.
A solo Racer near us had speculatively booked TGV train tickets to the south of France for a song 6 months ago and was delighted that the gamble had paid off and they would be able to use them on one of the optional routes.
On the train, Mum and I squeezed ourselves into a seat together and finally opened our race packs to scan the details. Months of anticipation were finally over. There were some choices to make, which we had expected. Paris was first and Marrakech last, which we already knew. We now knew what would be the intervening four Checkpoints.
At least one specific photograph must be collected at each checkpoint, as evidence of our visit. There will be two photographs to collect in Paris:
a selfie with the first branch of La Durée, the legendary purveyor of delicate Parisian macarons, and
a second photograph, which would depend on which of the optional routes we had chosen.
So we need to choose quickly, before we arrive in Paris. As the train clattered through London towards the Eurostar terminal, we immediately ruled out “Island Hopper” route. We’ve each visited Mallorca before (see Unwritten Guideline 5).
Ideally, we want to get onto one of France’s famous high speed train lines this evening, gobbling up the distance (and putting expensive Paris behind us). However, the final high speed train in any direction tends to leave Paris in the early evening. So that means we’ll need to be quick in getting our Paris checkpoint completed.
With 2 checkpoints to cover in Paris it suddenly seemed important to get a move on. We switched our Eurostar tickets to an earlier departure (easy to do on Eurostar for a fee) and joined the packed lounge, where red envelopes were dotted around the crowds. The Race WhatsApp group (an optional feature for everyone in the event) had been relatively quiet so far, but now messages were flashing past while Racers shared their selected routes. There was too much information, it was a bit overwhelming.
Checkpoints
Paris
Choice of:
“Pilgrims’ Picnic” route: St-Jean-Pied-du-Port, and then Santiago de Compostela
“Mountain Goats” route: Chamonix, and then Andorra de la Vella
“Island Hopper” route: Toulon, and then Palma de Mallorca
Valencia
Tangiers
Marrakech
Mum and I really need to get a wiggle on and make a choice ourselves.
“If Chamonix’s in the mountains, is it going to be cold?” Mum wondered. She was now thinking with her Mum head. A comment typifying Mums everywhere lined itself up to trip off her tongue: “We won’t have packed enough jumpers.”
I was thinking with my stomach. “If we choose the “Pilgrim’s Picnic route, I wonder if we can stop in San Sebastian? It’s famous for food...”
The data was horribly slow in the overcrowded lounge, and it was hard to search while standing awkwardly over our bags, so we gave up and bought lunch instead. On the WhatsApp group someone posted about a rail ticket sale. I tucked that away for later – that could be extremely useful.
Meanwhile, the first Daily Challenge arrived from the Lupine team. The Challenge arrived every day during the Race at noon. For us the Daily Challenge eventually turned out to be a fun highlight of the Race. Today’s challenge: send a selfie of yourself with a bus - which has a specific route number. First to correctly reply wins. We were not going to be able to find a bus with any number from inside the windowless Eurostar lounge. Two young women waiting to board a bus at Victoria won almost immediately. Good for them.
As we boarded our international train it seemed like every other passenger was a Racer with a crammed backpack and a red envelope. A team of four ladies told us they had ruled out the Mountain Goats route already. In contrast, two guys behind us were polite, but resolutely silent on their plans. They were intending to compete for Fastest Finisher and did not want to give away their strategy. We wished them good luck! We did not see them again until Morocco.
The WhatsApp group was now in full flood: “We’re in Carriage E if anyone wants to come and say hi…”
We had already narrowed it down to 2 options (Mountain Goat, and Pilgrims’ Picnic) but how do they compare? Sadly, we’ll never know. The two-and-a-half-hour train from London to Paris failed to produce any kind of useable wifi or data at all.
“Ok, quickly. Why don’t we just vote for our favourite, and go with that?” said Mum, as we pulled into Gare du Nord.
I was thinking “the Pilgrim’s Picnic” - the route that will take us across northern Spain. It turns out that Mum was thinking the same. Choice made! Perhaps we have been overthinking it too much.
Our proposed route
Well, we’d made it to mainland Europe. The race had really begun!
In Paris, the earliest ever branch of La Duree was our first checkpoint target. I love La Duree macarons but have never visited this particular shop, awfully elegant in mint green and pale lavender. Visiting a cake shop. I feel like I’ve been training for this moment for years. We obtain a photo of the building, as required for the checkpoint.
“Hang on, Mum,” I add. “We need to buy some macarons, too.”
“Do we?” Mum starts rifling through the Race Pack, frowning. “I don’t think it says that here…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get some, and then we’re covered,” I say. “I don’t mind stepping up and volunteering.” For the mission, you understand. Mum just rolls her eyes and laughs.
Another direct connection on the Metro brings us to Tour de Tour Saint-Jacques, the traditional starting point for pilgrims heading to Santiago de Compostela (where we are also headed – Santiago is now our Checkpoint 3). Laden with bulging bags and hampered by the heavily crowded pavements on one of Paris’s main throughfares - it was slow going to obtain the requisite photograph. Done. What’s next?
On the “Pilgrim’s Picnic” route our Checkpoint 2 is St-Jean-Pied-du-Port, which turns out to be a village in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. By now we were searching blogs and train timetables frantically. It looks like the only way to get there by public transport from the French side is go to Bayonne and change there. We jumped on a Metro headed to Gare du Montparnasse (mainline train station for departures for the south west), arriving there at 5:45pm, ready to leave Paris.
The final train to Bayonne departs Gare du Montparnasse at 6pm.
We firstly tried to buy a ticket in great haste from a ticket machine. I do not recommend this. After several minutes of struggling with the machine we realised we were just going to miss that Bayonne train. What other options are there? No more trains all the way to Bayonne this evening… but there is a train to Bordeaux, last one leaving at 6:30pm. That takes us about half the distance we need.
Checkpoint 1: Paris
I remembered that the rail ticket sale (thank you, WhatsApp group!) and we used that instead to book two tickets to Bordeaux. It felt like fate. We’d said all along that we wanted to go to Bordeaux. It wasn’t the perfect train for the race, but it was for us.
By now the WhatsApp group was full of updates. Most Racers have spent the afternoon scattered across Paris, covering their Checkpoints, although we hadn’t bumped into any of them. The most unlucky person so far seems to have experienced delays boarding their Eurostar due to a faulty ticket machine and then also delays in Paris due to protests.
As we pull away from Paris we are treated to fine views of the sun setting over the green farmland of central and western France. We shared a table with a smartly-turned out elderly couple. I explained the Race to them in halting French, about which they were exceptionally polite. It turns out that they both spoke excellent English.
As it got darker outside we began to turn our minds to tomorrow. First of all: we booked some inexpensive Ibis rooms close to Bordeaux train station using the Accor app. We also booked train tickets for tomorrow from Bordeaux to St-Jean-Pied-du-Port using an app (again enjoying the sale! The Race WhatsApp group looks like a useful source of information).
We both agreed it had been a great start to the race. We had completed one checkpoint and will finish half-way to the second. That seemed like quite an achievement. We had been in full agreement about our choices all day, which seems like another. No falling out so far!
It was dark but not too late when we pulled into Bordeaux, although it was already approaching Mum’s bedtime. Outside the train station, a slew of restaurants and bars prettily lit up in red and gold, tables full of diners and drinkers filling the pavements. It was unmistakably French. It felt like a warm welcome.
It had been an intense day. Before bed, I tried searching for options along the route. We had not thought further ahead than the next checkpoint, but later in the week we will have to make our way from Valencia (checkpoint 4) to Algeciras to get a boat to Tangiers (Checkpoint 5). I couldn’t work out how to achieve this while still satisfying Unwritten Guideline 3 (avoid very long unbroken trips). Looks like Algeciras doesn’t have a fast train. This will require some thought.
Checkpoint 1: Paris
Race day 1 at a glance
Checkpoints completed: Paris
Countries visited: UK, Paris
Stopping for the night in: Bordeaux
Biggest decision: Pilgrims’ Picnic route
Best food: Ladurée macarons
Team morale: excited and exhausted