L'Avenue Verte

I am riding from London to Paris using l'Avenue Verte at the end of August.

http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/leisureandtourism/countryside/cycling/cyclinginfrance/default.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11447348

It goes down to Newhaven, then ferry to Dieppe before on to Paris.

Has anyone else done this? Any tips?

Thanks one and all.

Its a great route. Gets a bit tough when you get to the Paris suburbs but otherwise lovely.

Take a map. There's a PDF online somewhere of the whole route.

Lovely route, the avenue vert is a nice introduction to France, very flat, just keep an eye out for families and people wandering all over the track.

I think the Donald Hurst route is the best to follow, just Google it.

Elvis is right once you get into Paris finding your way can be a right PITA, to be honest we just headed in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower spent a night kipping under that (wouldn't recommend it!)

thanks very much. how long did you guys take to do it? we are leaving early on a thursday and have a eurostar booked to come back the following tuesday evening.

planning to get to Newhaven late Thursday afternoon then ferry on Friday morning

Sugoi, looks like I will be on that same ferry with my little group. Say hello! :)

We did a ride in April loosely based on the Av Vert. The PDF we found useful in route planning was this one...

http://www.donaldhirsch.com/dieppeparis.pdf

I could post our route sections but we took a more direct route to Newhaven, detoured via Rouen and the route into Paris my brother mapped out was a complete fucking shambles.

We took 5 days over it which was a pretty easy pace (I did it fixed while the others were mostly on hybrids).

And Newhaven is a shithole but the Italian restaurant was ok. The Newhaven Lodge B&B was good, the guy running it very helpful and let us lock all our bikes in the utility room overnight.

thanks very much. how long did you guys take to do it? we are leaving early on a thursday and have a eurostar booked to come back the following tuesday evening.

We did it in a day from Brighton. Got the overnight ferry and just got started at 4am. Got to Paris for dinner. We weren't going very quickly and stopped for meals so could be done a lot quicker.

Sugoi, looks like I will be on that same ferry with my little group. Say hello! :)

safe! Yes, will see you on the boat. I will be on a dawes galaxy tourer (with a Carradice saddle bag)

Ah, yes my friend has shown me the donald hirsch route. excellent.

We did it in a day from Brighton. Got the overnight ferry and just got started at 4am. Got to Paris for dinner. We weren't going very quickly and stopped for meals so could be done a lot quicker.

blimey! well that's something to aim for. I have a feeling we will be going for the multi-stop for a glass of wine kind of pace

apologies for posting this in the wrong section originally, and thanks for moving it to travel and trips. most appreciated

We took the route from the BBC guy recently (the via Gisors option). It's significantly longer than the Donald Hirsch route. My understanding is that this route (approximately) will be the official Avenue Verte route in 2012. Great route except going into Paris! Absolute nightmare, the Seine towpath just stops due to construction and the Canal St Denis, to put it bluntly, smells like shit and piss, has multiple construction sites along the way and is full of dead rats. We gave up and went in on the road.

As for the person who was asking about pace, we started just outside London on Friday, got the ferry to newhaven Saturday morning, half day cycling to Forges Les Eaux, Sunday we cycled to the national park vexin via Gisors (amazing ride! best day by far), Monday we finished into Paris.

Oh, French drivers are wonderful around bikes. They actually indicate and pull out into the other lane to overtake you as if you were a 'proper' vehicle doing something 'normal'. Amazing!

British drivers seem to like brushing past even on open country roads.

Oh, French drivers are wonderful around bikes. They actually indicate and pull out into the other lane to overtake you as if you were a 'proper' vehicle doing something 'normal'. Amazing!

British drivers seem to like brushing past even on open country roads.

I meant to add this myself. The French are great around cyclists, they will wave and give you so much room - ah if only England was like that.

I meant to add this myself. The French are great around cyclists, they will wave and give you so much room - ah if only England was like that.

fantastic! looking forward to it

We took the route from the BBC guy recently (the via Gisors option). It's significantly longer than the Donald Hirsch route. My understanding is that this route (approximately) will be the official Avenue Verte route in 2012. Great route except going into Paris! Absolute nightmare, the Seine towpath just stops due to construction and the Canal St Denis, to put it bluntly, smells like shit and piss, has multiple construction sites along the way and is full of dead rats. We gave up and went in on the road.

As for the person who was asking about pace, we started just outside London on Friday, got the ferry to newhaven Saturday morning, half day cycling to Forges Les Eaux, Sunday we cycled to the national park vexin via Gisors (amazing ride! best day by far), Monday we finished into Paris.

We'll probably get to paris on the monday morning I expect. I hope so, as we only have a place to stay booked for the monday!

Cycling to Paris in September.....but thinking the avenue verte seems a lot of map reading and getting lost....tempted to take the D915 which goes all the way from Dieppe to Paris. Has anyone ridden this? Or know what D roads are like in France? Are they the equivalent of an A road in the Uk?

Thanks in advance...

Are you doing it fast or slow?

If you're not on a sprint I would say the navigation, getting lost, looking around and arseing about is part of the fun.

The D roads can vary and may include dual carriageway stretches but as has been noted they are much more used to seeing and dealing with cyclists on the roads.

Here is one leg of our trip, a small part of wich was on the D915, as illustration of the road types rather than suggesting any particular routing. I did not feel unsafe on any of these roads.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/382910

Not a sprint but fairly fast and not carrying much.....

Thanks for that...will update with feedback once I've done it!

I set off tomorrow from marble arch at 09:30. wish me luck! rain forecast...

Good luck and more importantly: have fun.

Looking foward to a ride report when you're done.

great route. have fun

we did it! got home at about 9:45pm. had a superb time, I can't recommend it enough. riding in france is indeed a pleasure. the english section definitely the worst by a long way.

full write up to be on my blog soon