Le Arc de Triomphe

There is only one thing worse than striking the tent in the rain and that it is pitching it again. You cannot hang about waiting for a tent to dry unless you have hairdryer weather. It certainly ain't gonna get dry if it is raining. So the inner tent was dry and went in a separate bag to the wet fly and off we go.
We were over an hour late, leaving at 10.30. We returned over the smaller bridge and took a right onto the D190 and then took a fairly immediate left under a rail bridge on to Rue de Chanteloop. After a brief hill the road headed straight east through a couple of towns until it met the north bank of the Seine just beyond Andrésy. After crossing the Oise we followed the river via cycle path and quiet road all the way around until we were heading south west. The road left the river and finished at a T-junction north of the D308. We took a left up to a one way system and took the second right, the Rue de Bezons, going south east. This was a quiet suburban road but eventually we had to bite the bullet and take the D392 onto the bridge and into Paris.
I'd read a few accounts of routes into Paris. I also imagined cycling into London for the first time from any direction. The roads aren't fast but are congested. They can often change from single to dual lane and you might have go most of the way around a roundabout vulnerable and exposed. That is just the way it is. Some of the accounts advised to avoid certain routes due to the roads. If I was on a charity run and did most of my usual cycle around a small town then any road in Paris would be a fright. Any way, the roads were dual-laned but the traffic was reasonably light until La Defense loomed up ahead. There were major roadworks going on and trying concentrate on that meant I missed the D992 splitting and the left fork on the D908. We had to take a left and head north away from La Defense to get back onto the D908/Rue de Verdun. From the bridge into Paris town centre was quick and all that was needed was the appropriate right fork to take us up to the Arc De Triomphe. From turning off the Seine until the centre - may be 6 miles - there were no reliable and continual cycle lanes as they were under construction and so that route will be good perhaps in six months (maybe late 2011). Most of the bridges carry busy roads of the Vauxhall Bridge ilk so at some point you will face traffic.