The Valley Of Heaven And Hell - Cycling In The Shadow Of Marie Antoinette

When the author and her husband set off on a bike ride from Versailles to the vineyards and champagne cellars of Epernay and Reims, they knew nothing of the Marne valley through which they would ride, except that it had been the scene of unimaginable horror and devastation during WWI. Their route followed the coach tracks and footsteps of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in their abortive attempt to escape the French revolution, leading finally to the square in central Paris where they died on the scaffold. In three weeks the couple cycle 500 miles, dining sometimes in luxury and often on weird makeshift meals in their tent. Along the way there are traumas, epiphanies, occasional matrimonial disagreements and the odd glass of champagne. "It is unlikely that any other cyclist could be less competent than the author, nor be so unsuited to wearing skin-tight Lycra." Susie Kelly