Eurostar for touring to Paris

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Bellabow

Regular
Location
Midlands
Hi. I'm wanting to tour across France to Paris in July to catch the Tour de France. I want to go by rail but don't know where to start with organising and booking it. Help
 

Turbo Rider

Just can't reMember
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
Some things to take into consideration - accommodation is Paris is likely to be scarce and expensive on the days preceding the Paris arrival you need to get your finger out booking that. Try googling for hostels in Paris and cheap hotels in Paris. There's plenty of rooms available at the moment. You haven't mention how long you want to go touring for or where you intend touring from. For a simple introduction to touring, you might like to consider the Avenue Verte. It's a cycle route, low traffic and takes you into the heart of Paris. It's not a bad route and I enjoyed it last Easter. A GPS or smartphone with GPS would be helpful but not essential in Paris but you'll definitely need maps of the route especially for the Paris end.

So:

Look at the dates that you want to be in Paris.
Look up accommodation in Paris
Consider using Eurostar to get back from Paris.
Mug up on the Avenue Verte and estimate how many days you will need to cycle it.
Look at the ferry schedules and book an appropriate ferry - use the one that reaches France v early in the morning, you'll get a full day's cycling in but make sure that you have some food and drink with you for the first couple of hours of cycling.
Look at the train times to get you to your UK ferry port and book the appropriate trains with bike reservations.

Have fun with your planning.
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
Looking back at the title and your first posting there seems to be a bit of a conflict:

Do you want to catch a train to Paris or do you want to pedal across France to Paris?
 

andym

Über Member
As Vernon says, can you clarify what your question is? I'm guessing that you want to take a train to somewhere in France, and then cycle to Paris and then ....?

Any road up, you might find this little step-by-step guide to travelling with a bike on eurostar useful:

http://italy-cycling-guide.info/getting-there/getting-to-italy-by-train-eurostar/

The official page is here:

http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/trave...ng/luggage/travelling-with-your-bike-eurostar

For travelling with a bike on trains in France, you might want to check out this article:

http://italy-cycling-guide.info/getting-there/finding-bike-friendly-trains-across-france/

It you want to go to say Marseille, or Avignon, you might need to carry your bike in a bag.

For a trains in France where you need a bike reservation your best bet by far is:

https://www.capitainetrain.com/search/

For general advice try seat61.com.

Oh and get your skates on - tickets for that time of year are already on sale.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Bellabow

Bellabow

Regular
Location
Midlands
Thank you everyone. I want to tour with my bike across fance to Paris so I will only be using Eurostar to cross the channel. Loads of helpful advice and links. Thank you!
 
Thank you everyone. I want to tour with my bike across fance to Paris so I will only be using Eurostar to cross the channel. Loads of helpful advice and links. Thank you!
If you just want to hop across the channel, you want Eurotunnel, not Eurostar
 

Hammywho

New Member
Hi everyone
Newbie to all this stuff so please bare with!
Riding the Avenue verte on Wednesday 20 th May and I'm beginning to panic
Currently riding a Marin 29 er and I'm undecided whether to whack my slicks on or not
Can anyone advise if this is doable on slicks?
I've bought the Verte book and Map etc and it says there is some off roady bits?

Thanks in advance

Slightly panicking 42 year old man!!!
 

StuartG

slower but further
Location
SE London
Probably too late but slicks on the AV is fine. Indeed most of the French roads are so well tarmacked that you wouldn't want to use anything else.

IMHO the AV is a bit boring. I prefer taking the D road up to Sain Saens.and then over the hills to Gisors. Superb cycling, nearly empty roads, drivers great but a few errant canines. Relax, its even more enjoyable at 66 :smile:
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Thank you everyone. I want to tour with my bike across fance to Paris so I will only be using Eurostar to cross the channel. Loads of helpful advice and links. Thank you!

Ferry is not only cheaper, but with a bike it's probably a lot less hassle, and by the time you have taken the door to door time into consideration, probably not that much slower
 

briantrumpet

Legendary Member
Location
Devon & Die
Ferry is not only cheaper, but with a bike it's probably a lot less hassle, and by the time you have taken the door to door time into consideration, probably not that much slower
And you've got time to eat and relax a bit on a ferry. Even if I'm doing my 19-hour drive from home to home I think I prefer the ferry: the 55 minutes saved by going through the tunnel doesn't compensate for the change of scenery and chance to relax that the ferry affords.
 

Hammywho

New Member
Probably too late but slicks on the AV is fine. Indeed most of the French roads are so well tarmacked that you wouldn't want to use anything else.

IMHO the AV is a bit boring. I prefer taking the D road up to Sain Saens.and then over the hills to Gisors. Superb cycling, nearly empty roads, drivers great but a few errant canines. Relax, its even more enjoyable at 66 :smile:
Many thanks for your reply.
Slicks were deffo the way forward
Thoroughly enjoyed the route throughout. Worst part was falling off at the idealic village of ummmm Gatwick !
 
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