Avenue Verte London to Paris

[hotfuzzrj]

Looking to try a little trip with my husband and our daughter, she's 18mo and would be in a trailer.
I have cycled L2P before but not towing a huge toddler in a small tank :-D Husband has not done it at all but is a good cyclist and would cope.

A few questions...
Is it realistic? We were thinking of 50-or so miles a day, take a week or so to get there...
Does anyone have experience of the London-Newhaven "AV" route? Are the paths good and wide, that we could comfortable fit our trailer?

Failing that we are interested in going round Isle of Wight, is this a goer, if the other isn't?

Any thoughts/tips/pointers at all would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[Tim Hall]

I think some of the London - Newhaven AV route goes on gnarly offroad tracks, but could be wrong. I'm thinking of where it crosses the North Downs in particular, but haven't ridden those bits for a while. Actually, scratch that, I've just had a look at their map and it seems there's a "temporary route" in place which goes over Farthing Down at Coulsdon on tarmac then whizzes down the other side. Getting over Fathing Down towing an 18 month old in a trailer will be character building but I don't think width of any of the tracks will be an issue. Certainly the bit from Redhill as far as Eridge will be plain sailing. I'm unsure what the stretch from Eridge to Heathfield is like, but you pick up the Cuckoo Trail there for a while which is quite pleasant. Be prepared for Rubbish Signposting though.

 

[mcshroom]

I've just got back from riding the route (well the French bit, we made our own route up to Newhaven).
The section between Dieppe and Gisors is very trailer/family friendly. Mainly down a wide old railway line, though it gets a bit lumpier in places. I'll have to check the maps, but about 20km closer to Paris the route leaves the big off-road cycleways, and starts to become patchier and rougher.

There's a bit of singletrack before Vigny which I wouldn't like to try and get a trailer down, and again between Cergy Le Haut and Cergy it gets very rough. I wasn't enjoying it on 25mm slick tyres.

Riding into Paris involves some cycle-unfriendly gates alongside the Seine, and there was a section two rather muddy MTBers recommended we avoided a bit before St Germain, instead we followed a quiet road round the outside of the river meander.

I thought the rural section as far as Cergy was much better than the section after, which becomes an urban cycle route, often on a towpath, but sometimes sharing the road with trams and traffic. I don't tend to like cycling in cities too much anyway though, and it was getting to be quite a long day by then, so I may have a biased view.

Also, French drivers (outside Paris at least) are far more patient than their British counterparts. We chose a few D-Roads over the route in a few places and they were actually a joy to cycle, and felt pretty safe.

 

[seraphina]

We have a 3 year old and an 18 month old at the moment. The current 18month old would probably be okay in a trailer for the time it takes to do 50 miles a day (well, he'd sleep most of it, and then refuse to sleep at all at night); when the 3 year old was 18 months old she would have gone bezerk being confined to a trailer for that long, especially for a few days on the trot. YChildMV, but you need to try a few long runs out for everyone's sake. Plan very conservative distances each day; it goes without saying that it's nicer to have some time to spend at a playground rather than be dealing with a toddler meltdown at 5pm and still having 15 miles to go before you can sink a beer.

Riding with our kids works best when we have no real plan, so if they are getting crunchy, we stop and mess about/have a snack/play with some bubbles before carrying on.

Think seriously about who's going to be towing the trailer; if your husband is a stronger cyclist get him to pull it. IoW is quite child friendly but full of bastard hills in my dim and distant recollection.

 

[toffee]

I've just got back from riding the route (well the French bit, we made our own route up to Newhaven).
The section between Dieppe and Gisors is very trailer/family friendly. Mainly down a wide old railway line, though it gets a bit lumpier in places. I'll have to check the maps, but about 20km closer to Paris the route leaves the big off-road cycleways, and starts to become patchier and rougher.

There's a bit of singletrack before Vigny which I wouldn't like to try and get a trailer down, and again between Cergy Le Haut and Cergy it gets very rough. I wasn't enjoying it on 25mm slick tyres.

Riding into Paris involves some cycle-unfriendly gates alongside the Seine, and there was a section two rather muddy MTBers recommended we avoided a bit before St Germain, instead we followed a quiet road round the outside of the river meander.

I thought the rural section as far as Cergy was much better than the section after, which becomes an urban cycle route, often on a towpath, but sometimes sharing the road with trams and traffic. I don't tend to like cycling in cities too much anyway though, and it was getting to be quite a long day by then, so I may have a biased view.

Also, French drivers (outside Paris at least) are far more patient than their British counterparts. We chose a few D-Roads over the route in a few places and they were actually a joy to cycle, and felt pretty safe.

We did the same just after Easter. Very easy route but the closer to Paris I wouldn't want to be pulling a trailer .

Some photos of the route in France

 

[mcshroom]

Ooh - got any maps/recommendations of web-sites? I'm quite interested in the Dieppe - Paris bit.

I rode with the Openfietsmap mapping of France on a Garmin Etrex, and the Sustrans book for Avenue Verte (link) in my pocket which is pretty good actually*. Paris was a little more awkward for navigation simply because of the dense layout (and us being tired) but I think with a bit of time the book would have been ok there too looking back at it now. I think it would have been nice to have an actual map as well as the guide book as the mapping is a little disjointed if you are not sticking exactly to the route, but otherwise ok.

Until around about Cergy Le Haut, the signing is actually very impressive, and you could do most of it on signs alone.


I'll have a think about other resources when I get home this evening, and when I get pictures through from the rest of the group I'll be putting together a more extensive ride report.



*Though it reversed the positions of two hotels in Dieppe which was annoying when I guided the group to the wrong one at 11pm.

 

[toffee]

Very helpful - thanks!

Which route did you do, as I understand there are two variations of the Avenue Verte from Dieppe to Paris?

Just make sure you are taking notice of the sign where it splits and that you don't ignore the beeping gps aswell. The hill to get back on route was the first switchback I have cycled up, although the ride down the other side was brilliant.

Also don't expect to find any where to eat after 6pm in Gisors except McDonald's and a small pizzeria.

Derek

 

[mcshroom]

We ate in the small pizzeria which was nice, but there were a few other places open such as the Japanese restaurant and one Brasserie. It was Friday Night though.

@User - We took the shorter Western route as we were doing a three day charity challenge ride. We also didn't stick exactly to the route (partly because we got lost on day 3 by continuing down a lovely cycle path to Gasny instead of turning back onto the road at Bray-et-Lu )

These were the two days' route we took
Dieppe to Gisors
Gisors to Paris

 

[hotfuzzrj]

Excellent advice all, thank you.
Lots to think about. Must do plenty of trial runs I think, if we're going to go for it.
Thanks!