Paris

[marvin]

Hi all
Me and 3 friends are cycling to Paris in March next year to run the half marathon and plan on flying back. can anyone give me some advice/tips of checking in a bag. Also we will need to buy bike bags in Paris - does anyone know of any good bike shops that we can contact in advance.
Thanks

 

[andym]

Decathlon? Au Vieux Campeur?

Or you could buy a Ground Effect Tardis bag and post it to your hotel.

Have you considered the train? It costs £29 for a leisure single on Eurostar (not flexible and not reimbureable but there are usually plenty of them). It would cost you another £20 (IIRC might be £25) to take the bike.

 

[rich p]

Cycle back? It's only a half!

I once cycled there and back to the Abbeville half from Dieppe.

 

[marvin]

Cheers guys.

Rich - We thought about cycling back for about 2 seconds before realising that we'll be lucky to finish what we've got planned Respect for doing it though. What's it like cycling in France? Do they have any kind of NCN going on?

Andy - As for the train, we live in Bristol and Wales so we'd need to catch the train to London, cycle accross the city to Padington before waiting for the train west. Flying seems like a much easier option.

I'm checking out the Paris bike shops you suggested but will probably need a french speaker to give them a ring for me.

Have you ever flown with easyjet and do they accept the ctc bike bags because if all else fails we might carry them with us.

 

[Telemark]

Cheers guys.

Rich - We thought about cycling back for about 2 seconds before realising that we'll be lucky to finish what we've got planned Respect for doing it though. What's it like cycling in France? Do they have any kind of NCN going on?

Andy - As for the train, we live in Bristol and Wales so we'd need to catch the train to London, cycle accross the city to Padington before waiting for the train west. Flying seems like a much easier option.

I'm checking out the Paris bike shops you suggested but will probably need a french speaker to give them a ring for me.

Have you ever flown with easyjet and do they accept the ctc bike bags because if all else fails we might carry them with us.

Have you considered the ferries across the Channel? There are quite a few routes to choose from, and you get to load/unload your bike yourself (as far as I know).

T

 

[Over The Hill]

Hi

Three of us did London-Paris last may. We took train to London, cycled to Dover and first B&B in Calais. day two was to Amiens and day three into Paris. That was about 95 miles each day.

We came home by Eurostar and took the bikes on as hand luggage. You can book them in though but we were too late for the check in of 1 hour before normal check in. Cab across london was only £10 for the return leg as we went via waterloo.

With the flying option of return - how do you get to the airport? It is a fair way out of town and I would really recommend cyling the least you can in Paris. London was simple by comparison. Paris really is hell on a bike.

PM me if you want some route details or any other questions.

 

[andym]

Andy - As for the train, we live in Bristol and Wales so we'd need to catch the train to London, cycle accross the city to Padington before waiting for the train west. Flying seems like a much easier option.

Well maybe... it depends a lot on how close you are to the airport at either end. CDG and Orly are both a hike out of Paris (and Beauvais is even further).

Cycling from St Pancras to Paddington is dead easy (I'm originally from Bristol so it's a trip I've done many times - there's a cycle route that goes parallel with the Euston Road and is much easier and more stress-free than the Euston Road). You can also take your bikes on the Circle Line or Hammersmith and City (except in rush hours) but I wouldn't particularly recommend it.

There are some really good bargains to be had on FGW if you book ahead - I'm coming back from Bristol Parkway on Monday morning for the princely sum of £13.50

Decathlon have an English language site www.decathlon.co.uk - so you can see what bags they have and how much they cost. I had a look around on the Vieux Campeur website and a search on 'housse' and 'velo' were both unsuccessful - so it looks like they don't do bike stuff which is a shame as they are nice and central on the Left Bank.

You don't have to cart anything with you though - just send it to your hotel (I'm assuming you are staying overnight rather than finishing the marathon and then heading home). Alternatively send it poste restante to a post office en route.

 

[marvin]

Cheers for all your comments guys

We've decided to stick with the plane. We figure we're going to be quite sore after the whole trip and (once we've got to the airport) this will be a lot less hassle.

I'll keep you posted and I suspect I'll be back for more advice closer to the date.

Ta

 

[andym]

We've decided to stick with the plane. We figure we're going to be quite sore after the whole trip and (once we've got to the airport) this will be a lot less hassle.

After the screw ups of the last few days I can understand how you feel!

 

[Haitch]

Excuse my ignorance but if you are going to Paris by plane to run a marathon why do you need a bike? If you are planning to add a day or two to the trip to do some cycling in France, why not hire a bike locally?

 

[marvin]

Excuse my ignorance but if you are going to Paris by plane to run a marathon why do you need a bike? If you are planning to add a day or two to the trip to do some cycling in France, why not hire a bike locally?

Hi Alan, we are cycling to Paris and then catching the plane back.

I've seen the mamouth thread on taking bikes on a plane and feel a lot better about it now.

 

[Haitch]

Hi Alan, we are cycling to Paris and then catching the plane back.

Ah, now I understand. Good luck with the bike-run-fly triathlon.