Thankyou(s), Good evening(s) and Goodnight(s)

D-Day's drawing closer, and in 48 hours time I should have completed the first leg of my journey! This is made all the scarier by the fact that 48 hours ago I was enjoying a farewell (hopefully au revoir more than adieu) visit from my friends Louise and Lawrence, culminating in the late night hair cut you see here...sorry mum and dad.

This blog gives me a great chance to stay in touch with you all, and I'd like to take this opportunity to extend my most heartfelt thanks to all who have sponsored me so far. I'm up over £2000 pounds now, and almost halfway to my target of £1 per kilometre. It is difficult to contemplate the scale of work the Save the Children face, but 'every little counts', and if you feel you can help, even if only in a very small way, please do. If Terry Wogan's reading he'll be proud.

If any of you care about the route, and don't just find the thought of me getting lost somewhere in France for two months absurd and hilarious, here's a little more info...I take the N-17 north out of Paris, ultimately heading towards Lille, to complete the first leg of the 1907 tour after 3 days and approx. 300kms at Roubaix. Hopefully I'll get to take in the First World War sights of Compiegne and Arras en route. If you fancy a laugh, search 'Paris-Roubaix cycle race' on Google, and you'll find why Roubaix has such rich cycling heritage. I'm just glad I've got a seat with testicle holders.

A la prochaine, Ed

The Route

Well...here it is, my first blog. May I firstly thank you for taking the time to even find this page. As you can see on the left, my route is now 'finalised'. This is of course only a rough estimation, and the place names marked were the stops on the 1907 Tour de France that I'm recreating. Whilst in their day they would ride from place to place in one day, these distances are often around 400km, so I shall be breaking the stages. I'm setting off on April 1st, and theoretically should arrive back to Paris on 9th June. Incidentally if you're reading this and thinking that you live on the route and would like to offer me a bed, or just somewhere with a roof for the night, then please do contact me on 0033 6 33 83 22 33. Otherwise it's the tent.