The Le Touquet Enduro is a one of the biggest off-road beach races in the world, thousands of petrol heads race for 3 hours along a massive sandy beach. Archway Project arranged a trip for 14 members to spend a day in Paris followed by the Le Touquet beach race.
Although our journey to Paris took long it was fun, France was the best trip I’ve been on with Archway Project. It was the first time I had been on the Eurostar and it was an exciting experience as we got on the train but once you get in you find yourself trapped between walls and cars as if your being boxed in. The disadvantage of the train was that the toilets were open to all and they smelt. As we departed the Eurostar we stopped for food, after the struggle of understanding French and trying to order food we headed off once again to our destination, Paris. We got a little lost in Paris and finally got to Chateau de Grande Romaine at midnight, everybody was exhausted from the journey our first thoughts were sleep, secondly what rooms to have and who to share with.
We woke, had breakfast and went to the train station for our planned visit to the Eiffel Tower. We found the station shut and so decided to drive to the Eiffel Tower and had a guided tour in the Archway minibus. Once at the Eiffel Tower we all got harassed by an army of salesman trying to sale souvenirs. After getting away from the street sellers we set off up the 1665 stairs to the second floor, we then discovered some people were a little scared of heights but still got to the top. We had a good look around and took some pictures of the view; we went to the shop at the top, then back down the stairs. After the Eiffel Tower we walked to the ark de triumph, it is brilliant! and the way drivers just fly onto the roundabout with no consideration is nuts.
Today we had to get up extra early and drive from Paris to Le Touquet. As we got closer to Le Touquet we hit mega traffic so decided to ditch the minibus and walk as this would be quicker, boy did we walk. At least there were lots of gleaming superbikes and the dressed up quad riders to keep our sprits up. It took us an hour to reach the sand pit “Le Touquet beach” and we had trouble trying to find a good spot to see the race, it was packed! We eventually got a space and watched the exhausted racers battle it out for the best position possible; accidents arose with bikes smoking and flaming, people falling in agony, and crowds screaming to see more. The sand flicked up and racers fell down; the adrenalin junkies continued to fight for their respect. The race was won by Mickaël Pichon but we didn’t hang around to watch the award ceremony, we were all cold and decided to start the long trod back to the buss and then home.
