L'Avenue Verte

nice one sugoi. i'm doing this next weekend solo. did you do donald hirsch's route?

nice one sugoi. i'm doing this next weekend solo. did you do donald hirsch's route?

Thanks! Yeah, we used the Donald hirsch route. Excellent instructions nearly all the way. A couple of tiny gripes but on the whole it was very easy to follow

my photos from the trip are here (going to be making a wee film of it too):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blatez/sets/72157627565236104/with/6101014041/

Did London to Paris on the road avoiding traffic as much as possible but quick. The road from Dieppe to Paris is very simple and would be relatively easy to join up with the avenue verte for the final leg into central Paris. We did it on road bikes but would be well suited for fixed/single speed no major hills on the french side especially. Give me a shout if anyone is planning a similar trip and I can give you tips/a route.

I have just come back from following the recently published 'official' Avenue Verte (on the French side). I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

From the 3 slightly different routes to choose from (BBC, Donald Hirsch and the Official one) we chose the official one mostly because of convenience, since for a large part of it you can simply follow the official ‘avenue verte’ signs.

My Advice:

Get a good map (recommendations below) and plot your route very carefully. Once you get to Paris outskirts the official ‘Avenue Verte’ signage is sporadic at best. The official route is not finished yet. It’s supposed to be done by the Olympics 2012 but as of 01 July 2012 there are still big gaps in signage and some dedicated AV paths in the outskirts of Paris are still under construction.

We set out to do a mix of both Donald Hirsch route and the official one but in the end we found it navigationally easier just to follow the official route. I should however echo previous posts above in saying that Donald's route is very well researched and is full of useful tips and advice, so you may feel you want to honour his efforts by following it instead! He is also due to give his response to the official one on his website soon, and besides, his route into Paris takes you a very different route via the Eiffel Tower.

Map recommendations:

Day 1: this very quiet London to Brighton route, amended to stay in the YHA in Telscombe

Day 2 Newhaven/ Dieppe to Forges Les Eaux
**Map 107 **(from the 1:100,000 IGN Top 100 from Stamfords )

Day 3 Forges les Eaux to around Vigny
**Map 108 **(from the 1:100,000 IGN Top 100)

Day 4 Vigny to Paris
Sheet 101 (from the 1:53,000 Micheline Zoom 'Outer Suburbs' )

Problem areas where the maps above need a little help:
1) Dieppe: Worth studying the circuitous one way system if you intend to go off piste (eg to pay a visit to the Intersport shop for some last minute bike tools/innertubes etc) look

2) Forges Les Eaux: worth getting a more detailed printout of this little stretch. The maps 107 and 108 don’t quite overlap and there is a little gap: PRINT

3) the stretch heading east into Maudetour en Vexin is a farm track, unpaved, rutted and could be tricky in the wet on slick 23s. You might want to find a paved alternative. LOOK

4) same around Vigni LOOK

5) Jouy le Moutier: Official signs stop once you cross the River Oise. The Official route takes you right, down Rue de Conflans, then Rue de Fin D’Oise, then following the D55A under the bridge to the Oise. Stay on the Rue de Fin D’Oise as this purpose built section might not be finished. LOOK

6) N184 cycle bridge to the beginning of the forest area. PRINT

7) Avenue Albine: easy to miss from the forest. LOOK

8) D106 Bridge crossing Seine: Seine Path ends here, turns inland and throws you off course. Print this area out in detail until the beginning of Route Principale Du Port. PRINT

9) St Denis. Loads of road works for the new grass tramway / misleading temporary official signage. Print this out to get from Rue du Port to the canal towpath. LOOK

Bike

I did it geared, but I reckon it could be done SS or fixed. Tyre wise, I did it on my trusty well worn Bontrager race lite hard case 23’s that I should have changed a year ago, but they still did fine in the dry. If it’s likely to rain, you may prefer wider ones with some proper meaty tread for the rough farm track sections mentioned earlier and the gravely muddy towpaths in Paris.

Have done the Donald hirsh route a couple of times, once geared and once fixed, found it to be an excellent route and didn't get lost, no map either. The campsite at forge les eux is really good and incredibly cheap, around 3 euro per night! Campsites (2 next to eachother) at triel sur seine not as nice but still ok and cheap ish at around 6 euro a night.

Just came back from doing the Avenue Verte again 11 years later. It's in really great condition and was a lot of fun. 4 days was just right.

The main complication is the return leg, but we found an alternative to the Eurostar that took a little longer but worked really well for our group of 6. We didn't want the faff of disassembly and bike bags, so we took a couple of bike friendly TER trains from Paris to Calais (via Amiens), then the DFDS ferry and high speed from Dover Priory direct to Stratford.

Happy to post more details if anyone is thinking of doing it.

Welcome thread dredge this!

Nice one, well done. I did this a few years ago (blimey, time flies. It was actually 2015) and really want to do it again. We did it in circa 22 hours.

Left circa 19:00 on Friday evening and rode to Newhaven to catch the 00:30 ferry

https://www.strava.com/routes/2750774586362589550

A four hour ferry crossing plus time difference (GMT v CET) sees us arrive at Dieppe and start riding circa 05:30 following the avenue verte route

https://www.strava.com/routes/2750774415459763356

Arrived in Paris about 4pm local time and after the obligatory pics on front of the Eiffel tower and a few beers we were on the 19:30 Eurostar back to St Pancras.

Made it back home circa half past midnight, Saturday night and lay awake for a while wondering what the hell just happened.

As others have mentioned a good map or a good Garmin that you can easily follow the route are essential once you hit Paris. It's amazing how something as large as the Eiffel tower can disappear once you get amongst the buildings.

A good coffee stop for breakfast at Forges-les-Eaux and lunch at Saint-Germer-de-Fly kept us well stocked

Yes, having a Garmin made navigation much easier this time round. We only used an edge 25 but that was enough (with a powerbank).
The route we followed was from the gpx files on the AV website which looks less direct than that one ^ and it does have a fair few unpaved/gravelly sections. Worth choosing some good puncture resistant tyres if sticking to this route, at least 28's with a decent tread I'd say - I was very happy on my 38 crossroads. A couple in the group managed with skinny 23s but one of those suffered punctures in both back and front tyres.

We went for a more leisurely beer/food orientated run than a sub 24 hour dash as we are not as young or fit as we once were, (mainly because of beer and food).

Day 1 - 06.30 start from Stratford and got to Hope Inn in Newhaven just before 14.30 for a well deserved pint. The DFDS Ferry (16.30) had great food, cheap too and lots of space. In Dieppe, we headed to one of the bars still open after we checked in late on Friday night.

Day 2 - Saturday morning Dieppe market was fun, lots of tempting food, which made for a late start. Light lunch at the old station in Neufchatel en Bray, great local cheese there and really lovely cider.
Gourney en Bray for the second night - not great for food but we still had a fun time in one of the little brasseries. The weakest beer was 8%. I'd look into making more progress than Gourney on Day 2 if I did this pattern again.

Day 3 - longer day, very impressive scenery. Well timed coffee stop in Gisors, and a hearty lunch in Forges near Gasny, then pushed on to Maisons Laffitte in outskirts of Paris for the last night. Really great dinner in one of the nearby bar/restaurants. Also managed to convince the Ibis manager to let us store all the bikes in a solid floored meeting room (was a bit of a squeeze in their bike bunker).

Day 4 - we abandoned the official route along the river and headed straight through the confusion of La Defense to Arc de Triomphe/Trocadero (for obligatory Eiffel Tower pic)/Notre Dame. Plenty of cycle paths that way. Then on to Gare Du Nord by 11 am for the train to Calais at 12pm. Back home by 10pm.

The return journey avoiding Eurostar (by TER train - ferry - high speed train) worked surprisingly well. Although it took a while, it was a relaxing way to do it, and a 2 hour stop in Amiens for lunch and mooch around the cathedral was far more enjoyable than trying to fight the crowds in the centre of Paris. Cycle storage on the TER train to Calais was exemplary, free and no booking required.

Calais car ferry terminal was a surreal experience on bikes, but was easy enough if follow the signs for cars. We often got ushered through ahead of the cars at check points. And then exiting in Dover, we were let out ahead of everyone else. You follow a painted red line until you are completely out of the labyrinthine port area which is very helpful, but still expect a good 15min ride to Dover Priory station.

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Funny, I was just looking at this route the other day. Maybe I saw you mention it elsewhere?

I like the idea of a Eurostar-free return.

On it as we speak, just outside Paris camping tonight.

Rode to Newhaven for ferry overnight, arrived 5am yesterday at Dieppe, ended up doing 80 miles to Dangu yesterday (great campsite btw). Rained hard all day today so we're camping just outside Paris today.

Into Paris tomorrow and then back along the Siene to Rouen, then along coast to Caen as Le Harve not doing bikes.

Route is lovely so far, bit samey out of Dieppe along the old railway line, but nice and quiet. It was VE day yesterday so loads of places closed.

Met a great Scotsman running a cafe close to Gisors called Cafe Jaune.

The off-road bits today were hell. Wet, slippy, sandy. Ruined my brake pads.

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Ha! We also had a beer at the Scottish dude's café. Did my worst French attempt at asking if he did any snacks, and he replied in a broad Scottish accent.

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We went for a more leisurely beer/food orientated run than a sub 24 hour dash as we are not as young or fit as we once were, (mainly because of beer and food)

Most of my rides from that era were defined by my main riding buddy and route planner having a young family and not wanting to be away for long so we tended to smash out big days and only stay away one or two nights maximum.

Cafe Velo Jaune
1503 Rue Principale, 76220 Dampierre-en-Bray, France
https://goo.gl/maps/Y9utc2bpucBEs8DQA

That's the one. He had a single tap of a very refreshing Menabrea served in a chilled glass. We got there late in the afternoon and so only peanuts for snacks but it looks like he serves food at lunchtime.

We got some shortbreads with our coffees, no peanuts.

If you're following the route to the letter in the UK, the bit just north of Gatwick is a flooded, boggy nightmare.

Yup, we normally refer to that as 'Surrey' 😊😉

Thanks for sharing your ride experience - adding to the bucketlist

"Calais car ferry terminal was a surreal experience on bikes, but was easy enough if follow the signs for cars. We often got ushered through ahead of the cars at check points. And then exiting in Dover, we were let out ahead of everyone else. You follow a painted red line until you are completely out of the labyrinthine port area which is very helpful, but still expect a good 15min ride to Dover Priory station"

Recently did Paris Roubaix sportive and used the TER trains from Lille to Calais and P&O Ferry back to Dover Priory. The TER line trains are good and have bike hooks (4 or 5 iirc). P&O lets cyclists on first but you also get off last. Remember you have to arrive at the port 1.5hrs before departure time. Dover side depart sequence is Passport control --> manned gate--> shed to pick up tickets --> wait at assigned lane. Calais depart side: Passport control -->ticket booth--> UK passport check --> assigned lane. Dover side arrive: last to get off, and there is a gate you have to buzz to get out of. In a rush to make my train i did Ferry ramp to DVP in 11m30s flat. Arrived with 2 mins to Train depart (but it was late - go figure).

Would really recommend not booking train tickets too tightly to ferry depart/arrival times given you need to arrive 90misn before and are last off the ferry.

Takes longer vs Eurostar/Tunnel etc but a fairly comfortable (and cheaper) way to cross the channel.

I'm used to Surrey slop but this was up to the bottom bracket 😲

Has anyone got a good Eurostar-free route files for this? Preferable POId RWGPS because why do work twice? We were in Newhaven on the weekend and it crossed my mind again as something to do for a long weekend later in the year to make up for me ruining summer.

Yep I've done it on a three day route via Newhaven and Dieppe, can link you to my RWGPS routes, noting a couple of routing errors and caveats that would need to be addressed!

I've got one too from Dieppe down to Paris, over two days if needed, but it's pretty straightforward. (And back along the Velo Seine route).

Camping in Dangu was good excellent, and Cafe Jaune is nice if you pass it, run by a Scot.

Quick look on the way back from physio

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38504312

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38379498