David Betteridge
Theme

London to Paris

In September of 2022, Mary and I cycled from London to Paris mainly following the Avenue Verte route. Our actual route can be found here.

Preparation

Due to a very busy summer, we left most of the preparation (such as buying bike panniers) to the day before. This meant we hadn't had time to try out a lot of equipment and our packing was a bit last minute... With I expect more luck than judgement it all turned out OK and on the whole, we had all the things we needed.

Day 1 (Friday)

Our first ride with our Panniers was the two miles from our house to York station. We were a bit wary about being off balanced with the extra weight but we soon got there without incident.

We caught the 8am train from York down to London. (Straight forward we had booked bikes on the train in advance.)

Once we got to London, we cycled to Trafalgar Square and then walked down the Mall to see people paying their respects to the Queen. Although the official start is the London Eye, it seemed more fitting that we should start at Buckingham Palace. In hindsight we should have studied the route through London a bit more in advance - but with Mary navigating using Strava on her phone we successfully intercepted the actual route after about 15 minutes without any real trouble.

As expected, the traffic in London was quite heavy and we were both glad when we managed to escape it. Lunch was from a Spar like shop in Woodmanstene followed by a navigational error - we took the wrong road from the shop. The next stage was the crossing of the M25 and the hills of the North downs. I think these are the highest hills on the route!

After passing Gatwick and Crawley Mary's bike began to make a loud squeaking noise every time she peddled. We both checked her bike, and we couldn't see anything wrong. We tried removing the panniers, but the noise still persisted. The plan was to carry on and hope it fixed itself, however on the next mile her chain came off. After putting the chain back on we continued and five minutes later it happened again, both times after she changed to using her highest gear. After another examination of her bike we spotted that the bolt holding the rack on has come lose and was catching on the chain. At this point we learnt however to remove the back wheels from gravel bikes and then spent ages trying to do the bolt back up. In the end Mary hit it with the multi-tool and the thread finally caught.

Back in business, Mary's bike now working better than ever! We quickly passed East Grinstead and were taken along a cycle track heading East. With a combination of walking to the Palace and the bike issue meant we were now slightly behind schedule, so we decided to continue cycling once it got dark. After some hilly country lanes we stocked up with Coke and Water from a shop in Rotherfield. (We worked out that we could carry 3l of water, but we weren't sure at this point how much we needed for tea and breakfast).

After some route-finding trouble in the town of Heathfield we decided to start looking for a place to camp. We were on a cycle track through a wood and spotted a sign for a picnic site about 5 meters from the track - perfect! We were undisturbed after than some locals who normally used the area as a drinking spot - they didn't seem to be bothered and went somewhere else. I think I work up every time someone went down the cycle track and with an early start meant I didn't really get much sleep.

Day 2 (Saturday Morning)

Up at 4.50am as we had to get to the ferry port before 9am. The tent was down, and the bikes loaded in about 20 minutes and we were off. For breakfast we decided just to have a cereal bar and would have a better breakfast later. In hindsight this might of been a mistake as after a couple of hours of cycling we were getting hungry and slowed down.

Heading due South, we were almost in Seaford before we saw the sea for the first time. We then turned along the coast to the port of Newhaven. This seemed to take ages, but I expect it was only 3 miles!

After a quick debate as to if we should board as passengers or vehicles, we correctly picked vehicles. Passport control was quickly passed and then we were searched by customs. They let us decide which bag they should search which I thought was a bit strange.

All the cyclists had to queue up together, which was quite social as we chatted about our plans. One chap was off on a 80 day cycle down to Portugal and a group of six were off to Geneva via Paris.

Initially we were quite pleased to be first on the ship, however that meant all the other bikes were placed in front of ours. This slowed down our exit. The ship was quite empty and finding seats was easy. The time was used to have a proper breakfast and to charge as many electrical items as possible.

Approaching Dieppe we noticed that they had a festival, this was going to be our first port of call!

Day 2 (Saturday Afternoon)

The afternoon begin with calls of "Ahh it's a roundabout - how do we go around it on the right hand side", and "This junction is far too scary you go first!" We soon got the hang of it, passed a field of very small sheep and then reached Dieppe town centre. After a walk through their fantastic kite display it was time for our first bit of French shopping. Mary and I then took it turns to stock up on water, cheese and dried bread.

The plan was only to do about 10 miles that day, but then we discovered how good the French cycle tracks are. The one from Dieppe runs along side an old railway line and is very flat and smooth. The provide facilities (camping spots, toilets and herb gardens) for the cyclists along the route. After stopping for Lunch we were passed by the group off to Geneva, but we soon caught them up again just before they headed off to their hotel for the night!

The laws regarding wild camping in France seem a bit more relaxed, and we read that you should only camp between 7pm and 9am. We reached another picnic site, this time by a car park and road junction. We used the remaining daylight to cook tea and then put up Mary's tent as it began to get dark. (I was in a bivi bag). Once I got used to the barking dogs, some loud music and the odd car I managed to get a better nights sleep.

Day 3 (Sunday) - Our long day

We awoke at 7am, grabbed a cereal bar and then packed up the tents before heading back on to the cycle track. It was quite misty so we realised that we needed to use our bike lights (something we hadn't previously account for in terms of how much they were charged). The first 20 miles were flat and easy going. With it being a Sunday, we were aware that we needed to utilise any shops that were open. At Forges les Euex we bought a baguette and placed it in our makeshift baguette holder.

Then we followed signs for l'eau potable in la fosse but gave up. We stopped at Gournay en Bray for some Water and fromage from a supermarche in the village square. After reaching about 30 miles we realised that we hadn't eaten breakfast so we stopped on the side of the path for some hot coffee and golden syrup porridge. An English speaking couple cycled by and spoke to us in French thinking we were French people being polite by speaking in English - all very confusing actually...

The mist was clearing so we plodded on before reaching Beauvais. There was a fancy dress running race involving some mud next to the large church. We finally started eating the highly anticipated bread and laughing cow cheese. After we realised that we should check the guide book to find the right way out of the park. However Beauvais was nowhere to be seen on the route. Checking the GPX though, it was clearly on the Avenue Verte. After a bit of Googling and brain power we came to the conclusion that the Avenue Verte splits into 2 sections and that we had some how missed the split earlier in the day. We then discussed what we should do. We had already done 20 miles of the new route so turning back wasn't an option. The website explained that the 1st route was quite rural whereas the 2nd route went through more towns/villages but was 50 miles longer. Further investigation showed that the Classic route, also documented in the guidebook, actually went through Beauville and then took a slightly shorter route to Paris through towns such as Chantilly. This seemed like the best of both worlds so we decided we'd attempt to follow the written instructions in the book. At first we felt a bit blind without the reassurance of the GPX route on Strava but eventually we got the hang of it.

A few voie vertes and sleepy French villages later, we made it to Chantilly. At this point we had done way more miles than the original schedule so knew that we should just get some groceries and then find a campsite. Chantilly is paired with Epsom in the UK and although it shares a similar racecourse, the Chauteau is incomparable to anything that you would find in Surrey. In a G20 supermarche we bought water, Coke Cola, une pomme and vanilla filled waffles. We also met other cyclists attemping to find the only shop ouvert le dimanche.

After a brief unintentional detour, the "campsite" on the otherside of Chantilly was discovered at the 83 mile mark. Ignoring the signs saying 'Attention Chasse!', we found a spot a few metres inside a forest.

We then ate our first and only dehydrated meal of the trip in a forest that was pretty eearie as you could just hear the occasional branch snapping, pheasant squawking and rat running around. No one came through apart from a car that randomly drove down the path at 11pm.

Day 4 (Monday)

In the morning we ate yet another cereal bar and then began the final stretch into Paris. The start of the day was fairly pleasant going through a few more towns. We did feel like we were starting to get tired mainly due to the fact we hadn't eaten enough. At Jagny sous Bois we saw our first sighting of le Tour Eiffel in the distance behind a huge electrical sub station.

After this moment the route got progressively worst. The next 10-15 miles were busy, dirty and noisy. Although most of the roads had cycle paths by the side, we had been too spoilt by the quiet and clean roads of the days before. There was a couple of times were navigation was hard which paired with the stress of French roundabouts was frustrating. (i.e. Mary was grumpy and hungry)

Despite this, we pushed on to St Dennis were we bought another baguette and had a rest on a bench after walking past the church and town centre. Then we headed towards the canal which was marginally nicer if you ignore the numerous rats. Eventually we saw a sign saying Paris and then we exited the canal and headed towards the Seine.

After the Louvre, we walked for a bit and then Mary's bike wheel nearly feel off. At first we thought we had lost a bolt and couldn't fix it but it later transpired that it could be tightened with an allen key. We arrived at the Eiffel tower and walked around before collasping on the 'grass'. The best entertainment here was the scammers getting their bottles of wines confiscated from a sewer. Suprisingly this wasn't the most dramatic thing that we saw police looking for in sewers during the trip.

We then headed to the campsite, getting lost every 100m as we were so tired. The campsite was fancy with beehives, a pizza truck, grocery, cafe, restaurant, adventurous training ground, and most importantly a shower! We enjoyed a Coke and 4 fromage pizzas before going to sleep.

Day 5 (Tuesday)

After what was the longest time it took to pack our panniers, we ventured in the grocers where the shopkeeper was appalled to find out that we only wanted a pain au chocolate and not "une baguette". We cycled back to the Eiffel Tower and then walked about 10 miles around Paris. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysee, Concorde, Notre Dame, and probably a lot of other stuff but we hadn't really read up on the local attractions.

The train from Gare de Lazare was the coolest train I had ever been on. The bikes were easily locked up downstairs and then we walked to the top deck to find our seats. There was a vending machine, little poubelles between the seats, feet rests and free wifi. In Rouen we got a smaller train to Dieppe's very overgrown platform. Then we went for a very English Fish n Chips at a Mexican/Cuban/English/French restaurant.

Kit List

David

  • Both parts of a foam bedroll cut into two pieces. (Useful as seats)
  • Bungee cord for attaching bedroll
  • Lightweight sleeping bag + liner
  • Breathable bivi bag
  • Cup and spork
  • Led Lenser headtorch
  • Passport
  • Phone + Charging cable
  • Watch + Charging cable
  • Bike, 2 x 35l Panniers, Lights, Spare inner tube
  • D-lock, Cable for lock, 2 keys (one each)
  • Cycle helmet
  • Debit card, Credit card, small amount of Euros. (Contactless worked fine)
  • Basic washkit
  • Change of clothes for Paris
  • Waterproof coat and trousers
  • 2 x 0.75l Waterbottles
  • Book
  • Inhaler

Mary

  • One person tent
  • Sleeping bag
  • Inflatable bedroll
  • Cup, Bowl and KFS
  • Phone + Charging cable
  • Watch + Charging cable
  • Bike, 2 x 35l Panniers, Lights, Spare inner tube
  • D-lock, Cable for lock, 2 keys (one each)
  • Cycle helmet
  • Sunglasses
  • 2 x 0.75l Waterbottles

Shared

  • Lightweight gas stove + 2 x 100 bottles + lighter
  • 2 x Pans (One with a lid)
  • Handheld GPS + Batteries (not used)
  • EU Plug (with 2 USB sockets)
  • USB Battery pack (didn't work very well)
  • USB Solar charger + Shoe Lace (for attaching to bike)
  • 2 x USB cables for charging lights
  • Multi-tool, small pump, 2 x tyre levers, puncture repair kit
  • Tape, chain link tool
  • Sun Lotion
  • Small first aid kit inc vaseline and paracetamol
  • Guide book
  • Single bin liner. (Used as a seat, baguette protector and for rubbish)

Food

  • Kendal mint cake
  • 10 x Protein cereal bars
  • Cup-a-soups (We took too many, only needed 3)
  • 4 x Super noddles (We mixed the flavours)
  • 4 x dehydrated means (Only used 2)
  • Several packets of golden syrup porridge (we used 6)
  • 2 x packets of sweets
  • 6 x Coffee Bags (used 5)
  • Yorkshire tea bags (used 3)
  • Fruit tea bags (used 3)
  • Squash concentrate

Things we wished we had

  • A small spanner for the bikes. (Didn't need it but could have done!)
  • A second EU Plug (with USB sockets)
  • A phone holder for the bikes

Logistics

A special thanks to Rebecca for handling the booking of the Paris campsite, and the 5 trains + Ferry needed to get us home once it was discovered that you can no longer put bikes on the Eurostar!