London to Normandy

[Mclaren]

Hi all,

I've just bought a bike to commute to work in London, and I'm thinking of riding from London to Normandy in France at some point. I've worked out that it's about 190 miles it total.

Does anybody have any tips? Would you recommend some sort of bicycle sat nav or good old fashioned maps? I'm a little concerned about getting lost! Or is anybody aware of any decent cycle route websites that would cover such a distance?

Thanks

 

[andym]

You won't get any agreement on maps vs GPSes - some people use maps and come over all fundamentalist at even the mention of a GPS while others happily use them. Plenty of people use both.

In any event it's best to plan the route for yourself (or there are cycle route websites). A car SatNav will take you down main roads that are good for cars but horrible for bikes. If you do go for a GPS get something like a Garmin Hcx Legend and use it (in conjunction with a map) to follow 'waypoints' you've input at important junctions.

The first thing to do is plan where you want to cross the Channel. Britanny Ferries out of Portsmouth are good but there are alternatives.

My top tip would be to take a train out of London and then start outside London.

 

[rich p]

Which bit of London are you satrting at too?

 

[rich p]

There are various routes on the CTC site if you're a member but as a mappite but not a fundamentalist I would look at a map and choose some fairly direct non-main roads and be prepared to change it en route.

 

[psmiffy]

Mappite? – How unlike it is of you, the Richp to be sowing seeds of division among the peaceable tribes of the CC.

As a self confessed GPS carrying fundamentalist mappite I would suggest that you get the OS Tour maps (about 1:100,000) for the bit before the channel and assuming you are going to go somewhere in Normandy when you get to the other side of the Channel the bog standard Michelin for the other side.

Lay them out on the dinner table and have a quick look for the route you fancy avoiding the big stupid roads – make a mental note of your waypoints – or just run a highlight pen along your selected route – I prefer the first as I tend to make it up as I go along anyway.

If you have time dump the basic waypoints into a bicycle friendly mapping programme (no idea a web based ones - I use MS Autoroute) and check the distance - add 10% to the computed distance - to get an idea of the overall distance and maybe where you want to stop overnight

Do not worry about getting lost – worrying about being lost is probably the best way of getting lost of all – if you have any doubt where you are going just keep going in the same direction (or better if you have a small pocket compass or are happy working out which way from the sun – can be dodgy thing to rely upon in England – go in approximately the right direction) until you come to a town or village sign or a sign post – in England and France they come along pretty quickly – regroup – work out where you are on the map and onwards.

Getting out of a big city can be an absolute pain and very time consuming– unless you are a fundamentalist cyclist and eschew all forms of motorised transport it is probably better as Andym said to get a train out to a suitable starting point.

 

[mcr]

Newhaven to Dieppe is the shortest and (usually) cheapest crossing - Newhaven's about the closest bit of the south coast to London and Dieppe is in Normandy, though maybe not in the 'classic' area W of the Seine if that's what you had in mind.

Re the map/gps question: use a map to plan where you want to go (on paper, or google/multimap/streetmap etc online), and a gps (with mapping installed) to reassure yourself where you are when you're on the road.