Heart Route 46 in Paris - Home, to your true self

Follow your heart

Cycle your heart out... home, to your true self

Sudden loss, dramatic change and heartbreak can shatter you to the core, and leave you with such a mix of emotions, that overwhelm engulfs you. You may feel ungrounded, insecure with zero energy, you may question your very existence, what you really want in life, who you are, and why you're even here.

After many months of listening to my heartful ride meditation, one city and theme kept coming up. That saying "home is where the heart is" finally started to make sense. Deeply embedded, free from any bricks and cement, location free, lay my home, my heart. 

If you're going through something similar, I hope my poem rides you back home, to the doorstep of your true self.

The Ride Home
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Ride until past pain softens and future frets fade
Until your ocean breath returns
And your saddle feels like home
Ride with no real plan
To feed your soul
To find freedom
To get back on the path
Of yours
And no one else's

Location

 I rode the train to Paris from Barcelona. It only took about 6 hours and left me in the heart of the 12th arrondissement, at Gare du Lyon Station. A short walk from the station was the peaceful Coulée Verte René-Dumont, a 4.7 km elevated park built on top of an old railway track, and great for walking your dog! Me and Maya spent the first night soaking in the warm sunset along the river Seine, and the silhouette of Sainte-Chapelle. 

Heart route

​​A beautiful 13.95km ride right through the heart of Paris! Creating this route involved the help of some good friends, helpful strangers, a cute bike cafe, and a pinch of serendipity! 

To make the route I downloaded this map highlighting all the bicycle friendly paths in Paris, and then plotted out a rough heart shape. With no real knowledge of what I was riding past other than the Eiffel tower, I was happy when I showed my good friends Elodie and Astrid, who both confirmed the route goes past some of the most beautiful spots in Paris! I always love a good physical map in my hand before I ride, so I picked one up from a hotel and brought heart route 46 to life!!
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Click here to view the the heart route on Strava! 

Cycle Your Heart Out

The morning of my ride I was walking Maya along the Coulée Verte René-Dumont Park searching for a bike to rent on Google maps as the local bike app did not seem to want to work on my phone. At that moment I luckily bumped into a lady called Lorraine from Australia! She recommended a bike cafe called Le Peloton who also rent bikes! When I arrived I was served by a lovely lady called Julia from Barcelona. She was super helpful with renting me a bike with a basket for Maya, and also gave me tips of places to eat along my route. 

Highlights 

-Jardin du Luxembourg
-Fontaine de l'Observatoire
-Cycling along the beautiful river Seine through the 1st and 8th arrondissement
-The Eiffel tower heart balloon photographer!
-Finding Maya’s twin! @ourslespitz 
-Ending the ride on the river for sunset
-Seeing the Notre dam lit up at night

Spread the Love

-Elodie from Paris, my sister from another Mr! For our beautiful friendship around the world, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona and now Paris! For reminding me to run with wolves, and remember my worth. For showing me the beautiful Parc de Belleville by night. It has the most incredible views of Paris, and the area was also the hometown of La Vie en Rose singer Edith Piaf!

Food and drink:
- Thanks to Fabian and Ely at L'Ébouillanté restaurant, their salmon crepe was divine!
-Lou Pascalou - try their cheese board! 

Inner Ride Question 

What can you do today to help get you back on
​your own path? 

After an intense period of change or loss, it's quite common to feel anxious, ungrounded and lost. Finding ways to cope led me to reconnect even more with my mind, body and soul. Here are some of the ways that helped ground me and get back on my own path:

• Going on a 10 day vipassana silent retreat in Herefordshire in England (one word.. Life changing! I will be writing in more depth about this in future posts so watch this space)  

    

• Learning about the healing benefits of reiki thanks to Michael Kaufman who I found through the London Light center. 

 

• Limiting my amount of sugar, gluten or dairy as they simply don’t agree with my body. After just a few weeks my mind felt calmer and clearer. Making decisions became easier and I suffered less from brain fog and procrastination. ​

 

• Having a consistent morning routine of meditation, affirmations, yoga, chakra dance, mindful dog walking and heart shaped cycling! Check out my Spotify music playlist below to help get you up in the morning! I made one for each of the 7 chakra's so you can try a different one each day!

​Meditate with me

If you'd like some help riding inwards, click below to download your FREE Heartful ride meditation.
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​(You can also follow and listen to me on the Insight Timer app)

Download Meditation