Avenue Verte...London to Paris

[jonyjony]

Sooooo.......i am champing at the bit to get my old bum in the saddle and have just come across this web site and was wondering if anyone has done this ride and had any comments to make , either or .

http://avenuevertelondonparis.co.uk/the-cycle-route
This would be a nice tester for me to see if i am still fit enough to do a much harder ride in April .

 

[jonyjony]

User13710......Thanks for the link .That doesn't seem so bad, if the weather gods are feeling generous .

 

[CopperBrompton]

I wouldn't bother with the British side, but the French side is lovely. Just don't make the mistake I made by taking the overnight ferry. :-)

http://www.benlovejoy.com/cycle/tripreports/londontoparis/

 

[jonyjony]

Trikeman.........many thanks for your reply and the link to your ride report .

 

[Douggie954]

I am doing this ride in the summer with some friends. Some excellent advice on here, as there was for last years LEJoG. Can't wait.

 

[PK99]

We did L2P on skinny road tyres last year using the Hirsch route > http://www.donaldhirsch.com/dieppeparis.html

this is a great all quiet road route, not traffic free but back roads in that part of france are sooo quite as to almost qualify as traffic free.

Friends have done the Avenue Verte on mtb & crossers and advise that sections ar definitely not for skinny tyres - our route crossed the AV at a number of points and from the view we got of the lumpy tracks we would agree.

We did
D1 S london to Newhaven for overnight ferry
D2 Dieppe to Friends @40 miles up the AV (old train line, fully tarmac)
D3 to outskirts of Paris (all the way would have been fine but we were in no hurry)
D4 20 miles through the woods into Paris

No nasty hiils
No nasty traffic - the Hirsch route into Paris is fantastic!
One mistake we made was to not have breakfast on the boat or take something with us, the start off the boat was so early we found nowhere open till we were 30 miles of steady climb up the railway route, that ended up being the toughest day of the ride.

 

[jonyjony]

PK99........many thanks for taking the trouble to post the details of the route and the link .

 

[steveindenmark]

I wouldn't bother with the British side, but the French side is lovely. Just don't make the mistake I made by taking the overnight ferry. :-)

http://www.benlovejoy.com/cycle/tripreports/londontoparis/

Trikeman. Thanks for this report. It is probably the best European report I have ever read, and I have read a lot of them. I appreciate the time and effort it must have taken you. Its a good model of how to present a ride report.

 

[Lemond]

Sooooo.......i am champing at the bit to get my old bum in the saddle and have just come across this web site and was wondering if anyone has done this ride and had any comments to make , either or .

http://avenuevertelondonparis.co.uk/the-cycle-route
This would be a nice tester for me to see if i am still fit enough to do a much harder ride in April .

Did this last summer over 5 days with a couple of friends. From London to Newhaven we followed Chris Smith's "low traffic" route out of London, and set ourselves two days as we weren't in a rush and wanted to treat it as a mini holiday. This part took ages to complete; while it was true to its word (very low traffic), the route took us here, there and everywhere. Day one was only 55 miles, but having left the Tower of London at 1pm, we didn't arrive at our hotel until 9pm. Day two wasn't much better and we made the mistake of staying in Brighton rather than Newhaven - the road in was very busy and not helped by a very strong wind which blew one of our group right over - away from the traffic, luckily. Never experienced anything like it.

On the other side of water we followed the Donald Hirsch route, which was very good (great accommodation too). The first proper section of Avenue Verte, which you pick up outside of Dieppe, was an absolute joy.

The one thing I did notice is that Suffolk is bloody useless for training. There are hills in Suffolk, but nothing remotely like those in France that Hirsch describes as "gently rolling".

 

[mmmmartin]

Trikeman. Thanks for this report. It is probably the best European report I have ever read, and I have read a lot of them. I appreciate the time and effort it must have taken you. Its a good model of how to present a ride report.

agreed, this really does set a high standard for ride reports.

 

[TheDoctor]

The only problem with this ride is Newhaven, IMHO. There must be a more wretched hive of scum and villainy, but I'm hard pressed to think of it...