London to Paris Route Help! (London-Newhaven-Dieppe-Paris) Leaving in a week!

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Frawley33

New Member
Hi there, stumbled across this forum while looking for some cycle routes and thought I would get involved as I say some great advice on other peoples posts!

Ok so next weekend (1st May) a few of me and my friends are doing the London to Paris ride. We aren't racing or aiming to get there quickly, just a nice leisurely ride and was wondering if anyone has some good suggested routes?

At the moment we are planning on leaving London on the Saturday 1st at 4am, aiming to be on the 11am ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe.

Once we get off the Ferry we are most likely going to stay in Dieppe that night as we get off the ferry about 4pm. Is Dieppe worth staying in, or is there somewhere near by (10 or 20mile from Dieppe) that may be nicer/cheaper?

Once we get to Dieppe, we don't really have any routes planned, we have a tom tom which will get us to Paris, but from what I have read on here there are some nice, easy, quiet roads to take, and I think the tom tom would just take us on main roads, which I would prefer the more scenic quiet roads. Someone said something about a paved unused train line?

If anyone could suggest some routes from Dieppe to Paris, and we are doing it over two days, so any suggestions of a nice place to stay a night roughly half way?

Hope to hear from some of you soon, am getting rather excited for this ride! Or if anyone has any good tips or stories that could benefit me that would be cool too!

Cheers!

P.S preferably flat routes, we are all doing it on single speed bikes! (crazy I know but its something different! We managed the hills on the ride to Brighton last weekend so hopefully we wont hit to many worse than some of them)
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
The unused train line is the Avenue Verte. It runs from just outside Dieppe to Forge-Les-Eaux - 40 km. (or at least that's where it finished 2 years ago, it may have gone further since). It's intended eventually to run all the way to Paris, so it's in the right direction. It's lovely. Wide, smooth, flat, even gaps at the barriers where you are supposed to give way to minor roads crossing (in practice, these are very very quiet, and you rarely have to stop) are nice and wide, no Sustrans tank traps.

http://thames-path.com/MU/avenueverte/discover/

Forges les Eaux looks to be about 2/3 of the way to Paris, so perhaps too soon for a stop, although we stayed there last time, having arrived in Dieppe on the early morning ferry, and had a gentle first day.

Quiet roads is a good idea - they will be virtually empty, and any drivers you do encounter will be very courteous and careful.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
oh, when you look at the that site, the google map at the top needs moving (drag it down and left) so that you see the route of the Avenue, starting at Dieppe...

Edit: Actually, the red line seems to follow the road, not the rail line, so I don't know what's going on there...
 
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Frawley33

Frawley33

New Member
thanks so much for this, i will have a look now and check it out!
i was a bit worried about riding on busy roads and wasn't sure how the french were with cyclists on the road, but this is reassuring! :smile:
 

GrahamG

Guru
Location
Bristol
photocopy a french road map (1:250k or 1:300k) and just stick to the D roads - it's amazingly easy to plot quiet routes through France, especially when there aren't mountains to go over.

France = created by god for cyclists.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Frawley33 said:
thanks so much for this, i will have a look now and check it out!
i was a bit worried about riding on busy roads and wasn't sure how the french were with cyclists on the road, but this is reassuring! :smile:

Compared with most, many, some British drivers, they are gods and angels.

I go every other year with a group of friends (all of us on recumbents, it's quite a sight!) and drivers nearly always past us right over on the other side of the road. I've seen oncoming cars pull further away from us as the pass. Pretty much any car that comes too close, will have a GB sticker...

Also, sticking to quiet roads and passing through villages you'll find that so many still have a cafe/tabac/shop, where in this country they'd be lucky to have a pub still open.
 

arallsopp

Post of The Year 2009 winner
Location
Bromley, Kent
Arch said:
Forges les Eaux looks to be about 2/3 of the way to Paris

Eh? From memory, Forges-les-Eaux is maybe 1/3rd, with Beauvais or Gisors at the 2/3rds point.

Oh right. I see, starting from London, yes. 2/3rds then ;)
Last I did this, it was:

Day 1: leave London early, arrive Dieppe late
Day 2: leave Dieppe via Avenue Verte, tea in Beauvais
Day 3: Beauvais > Chantilly > Paris for tea.

I'd do it a lot faster now, and probably take a map too. :ohmy:

Looks something like this:


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhKD8At5640
 

iLB

Hello there
Location
LONDON
arallsopp said:
and probably take a map too. :ohmy:


don't be ridiculous ;)

i think we'll look to do it in 2 days in july, maybe taking 3 to get back, seeing the TdF in paris should be awesome, yey!
 

rickangus

Über Member
Location
west sussex
"At the moment we are planning on leaving London on the Saturday 1st at 4am, aiming to be on the 11am ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe."

Huh? I've never seen an 11.00 ferry from Newhaven. There's a 9.30 ferry 22.30 ferry. You might want to check exactly what you're booked on...
 

dnrc

Veteran
Location
Norwich
I wouldn't recommend dieppe for anything, me and some mates stayed there either last year or the year before and it's absolutely dead.

If you want food after 7pm, tough!
 

StuartG

slower but further
Location
SE London
dnrc said:
I wouldn't recommend dieppe for anything, me and some mates stayed there either last year or the year before and it's absolutely dead.

If you want food after 7pm, tough!
You are dead right. The free live music around the city finished at midnight on the dot. So repaired to a bar which got itchy at 2am. Oh and not a BigMac or BurgerKing amongst all those so poncy so-called 'restyeraunts' dishing up fish and no batter. Oh a bit later than 7pm if you had adjusted your watches to local time.

No mate - get the boat back to Newhaven, the haven for good food, drink and amzing views of a shoreside scrapheap.
 
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Frawley33

Frawley33

New Member
thanks again everyone for this, there is a 11am ferry on saturday the 1st and thats the only one they have that day which is wierd? but its full so plans have changed.
staying in newhaven Saturday night then 930am ferry to Dieppe and riding till dark and staying somewhere that isnt dieppe, as non one seems to be fond of it haha.

anyone know anywhere decent to stay around 30miles from Dieppe on the way?
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
arallsopp said:
Eh? From memory, Forges-les-Eaux is maybe 1/3rd, with Beauvais or Gisors at the 2/3rds point.

Oh right. I see, starting from London, yes. 2/3rds then :wacko:

Ah, no I was thinking of from Dieppe, so I was wrong...:sad:

30 miles-ish from Dieppe:

The first year we went, we stayed at a hotel in Neufchatel, le Grand Cerf (The Stag)

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re...fchatel_en_Bray_Haute_Normandie_Normandy.html

The next year we went on further to Forges les Eaux and stayed in a Logis Hotel, I think it was this one. Dinner was fab, I remember.

http://www.logishotels.com/fr/hotel-Hotel-La-Paix-4238.html

Forges sn't too much further than Neufchatel, and it's all flat cyclepath between them.
 
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