Milly-la-forêt 16km

Today was by far and away the shortest ride of the trip which saw us leave Pascal and Carole’s and take the short ride back in Milly. I was told that there would be a welcoming committee for us as we rode into Milly and really had no idea what to expect.

Pascal and Carole have a great little Citroen 2CV in very unique colours and they escorted us to the town hall. I’m not much of one for a great fuss so was really pleased to see a small group of people gathered outside the ‘Maire’ to welcome us with warm applause.

It was a nice little turn out, with a photographer and a reporter from the local newspaper. We were greeted by the Mayor and invited to have our photos taken with him outside the town and under the signpost bearing the name of both villages.

After that we were invited into the town hall where they had laid of some light refreshments and of course Champagne! Monique the chairman of the twinning association gave the following short speech:

Paul and Tom

The twinning between Milly-la-forêt and Forest Row is happy to congratulate you for this so as to give great and incredible feat which will bring something more to the world: the certitude that to give from oneself as to give to the others is the most important thing in the world.
Here is our small participation to Parkinsons UK research.

Let your life be as great as your heart.

With this they pressed a very generous donation for Parkinsons. As today was also my birthday I was toasted and wished Bon anniversaire. It was then my turn to give a small speech in which I closed with the sentence “we are so close to home but in some ways amongst you all here we feel we are already home”

I then answered numerous questions from people about my trip before we were given a short guided tour of the town hall.

We didn’t really have long to look around the village as Monique who was hosting us for the next evening instructed us to follow her back to her and Michel’s house. We were joined for lunch by Carole and Pascal and no sooner had we arrived was Michel coming round with yet more Champagne. It was patently clear that we wouldn’t be riding anywhere else today.

Another delicious lunch followed before we retired to the garden for yet more Champagne and chocolate cake served with as they called it crème anglaise. The weather was nice enough for the sun loungers to be brought out for an afternoon laze in the sun. Is there a better way to celebrate ones birthday?