London to Paris – Tours

J886atv wrote:

GPX files appreciated – thanks Stratman

You’re welcome, hope it goes well

CXR94Di2 wrote:

I did the route from London(Tower Bridge)-Newhaven Dieppe -Paris with the kids. We took 3 days. Our own organized route

We did it with the wife who provided a little support with food stops. 

We mainly travelled along Avenue Verte, absolutely fantastic.

 

The hard day is from London to Newhaven to catch the ferry at teatime, so a bit of time pressure . You also arrive late in Dieppe (midnight), so have rooms booked.  From there, glorious cycling to Paris.  We got a tad lost in Paris Suburbs, but sorted it to arrive at Arc de triomphe.

i’ve done that route to Dieppe and from there to Rouen, straight off the ferry at 4am. I fell asleep on a bench in Rouen waiting for the landlady of the gite to let me in. Later I took the train to Paris and cycled back to Rouen more or less along the Seine, which was a fantastic ride, stopping over in Versailles and Vernon on the way.

I’ve also ridden from Dunkirk to Paris (and beyond), which is another good ride.

on both trips I’ve seen and chatted with people doing organised charity rides and they look very unpleasant to me, very industrial and using roads that I avoid as much as possible. On the other hand I met some old boys (which is to say, older than me), who had used the Avenue Verte there and back, and they loved it. One of them was in his late 80s and had decided on a whim to ride to Paris and back from his home on the S Coast, which he did entirely without maps and without a word of French. 

I’ve done a lot of cycling in France, and you meet some great people en route. French roadies will often slow down beside you to say hello, and if your French is up to it they will ride with you for quite a long way, very interested in the bike, the kit, the experience of touring in France. Wonderful place. I’ve even met British people who moved there specifically because they liked the cycling so much.

I’ve created it from the

I’ve created it from the ridewithgps track of the ride.  It will have a few wrong turns in Farnham, where we got lost in a one way system, so I’d look at it carefully around there, and it goes to Weybridge as we have an office there.

Be interested in those GPX

Be interested in those GPX files.  Group of us planning on doing that next year some time

Ta

I went on a sponsored ride

I went on a sponsored ride organised by work colleagues.  We did it in two days, London to Portsmouth (c85 miles) and then Dieppe to Paris (135 miles).  Sleeping on the ferry.

UK highlight for me was the South Downs, route through France was pretty good, included a long stretch of Voie Verte, which was car free tarmac.  I’ve still got the gpx files of the route.

I’m glad that I did it, it was really great getting to the Arc de Triomphe, but I’d say that there are nicer places to ride.  A couple of years later we did the Yorkshire stages of the TDF, missing out the York to Harrogate bit.  That was harder (we split the stage to Sheffield into two) but more scenic by far.