London to Paris 2011 - which route??

rodgers73

Hello,

I'm signing up to the 2011 ride and the website is asking me which route I'd like to take. There are five to choose from but I'm only interested in taking those that go via Dover-Calais. These are -

Blackheath - Dover - Calais - Abbeville - Beauvais - Paris

South Croydon - Dover - Calais - Arras - Compiegne - Paris

Blackheath - Dover- Calais - Amiens - Paris

Has anyone done this ride via any of these routes? I've no idea which one to take so any comments are welcome.

Thanks

Tom

Pretre

I assume this is for charity?

I did the Blackheath, Abbeville,etc. route a couple of years ago (for Macmiillan) & it was great:
First day wasn't anywhere near as hard as I expected (said it was about 185km IIRC - didn't say about 50km is the Channel!) - good hotel in Calais. Actual ride 136km
Second day 133km- Out of Calais then over the plains - past the battlefield at Crecy, lots of stunning chateau.
Third day 105.5km - Lots of small hills winding throught the Somme
Fourth day 87km - beautiful ride out to Auvers for lunch (Auvers has the musuem of Impressionist art - it's where Van Gogh died). Unavoidably horrible ride through Paris to the Champs Elysees & Eifel Tower. photo's, drinks (lots, until 5am the next day!), home on Eurostar.

I'm sure the other routes are just as good - pick one where you can get to the start the easiest as they start off damn early (about 6am IIRC)

BTW - I would strongly suggest that you ignore the inevitable "you're a moron - you could have done it for £1.28 all in with a couple of mates, the charities are ripping people off, etc., etc." miserable,spiteful, mean, old git comments that you're going to get on here..

rodgers73

Good stuff - thanks!

Any other input welcome.

incurab1e

i did Rugby to Paris - we went through blackheath, dover, Calais and Amiens.

There is a section of A2 just out of London that is full on 4 lane Highway (more like a motorway) pretty scary and probably avoidable.

Calais to Amien (crossy sur selle, just south) in a day - we got a little lost, the french road signs are not that good!! Make sure you take good maps of city centres, thats where we got lost most.

That route was good - quite hilly and adjacent to a lot of wind farms, which obviouly means its a bit windy.

(calais - St. Omer - Fruges - Doullens - Amiens)

Having spoken to other people though, its all much of a muchness - just try not to get lost!!

Oh, and figure out early on what a motorway looks like - We didn't!! "NE PAS VELO" was shouted at us quite a lot :-)

Velonutter

We did Westminster - Dover, then Calais Amiens, Amiens - Paris.

Beautiful route, lovely roads and country side.

There's really no way around the traffic into Paris, but in a strange way it has its charm and amusement when riding together.

I have heard excellent things about London - Portsmouth, St. Malo/Caen - Alencon etc.

The roads are even more beautiful in Brittany and Normandy so I'm planning 3 days riding in France but shorter days, probably 70-90 miles a day.

Check my sig for more details.

father_jack

Heathrow-Charles de Gaulle

Sorry

rodgers73

Its for charity - Action Medical Research. I'm a bit worried though, as I'd be obliged to raise £1300 for the charity or pay that much myself, which seems a lot.

father_jack

Smells like a scam operation tbh :shock: so you don't raise that much but still what you expected to raise? :roll:

father_jack

Smells like a scam operation tbh :shock: so you don't raise that much but still what you expected to raise? :roll:

Velonutter

No, it's not a scam, people from our club have just done a similar ride and they had to raise £1200, that's the problem.

That's why we organised our ride this year and I have gone on to develop more rides next year.

father_jack

lol what they gonna do send the "boys" round? :roll:

Velonutter

Father Jack wrote:

lol what they gonna do send the "boys" round? :roll:

Unfortunately you could not participate if you didn't provide proof before riding, and I think you had to provide personal assurances prior to the event, so sending the boys round on default isn't too far away from the truth.

rodgers73

Yes, they want to have at least half the cash up front (as this actually covers the costs of you taking part - accommodation etc) and the rest afterwards within a certain time.

This is a real shame as I'm not sure I'll be able to raise the funds. There are 3 or 4 of us from my work wanting to do it. Hopefully the firm will get behind us and help raise funds, but if not I'm seriously questioning it!

Broaders

I am tempted to do one of the rides as well but am put off by the sponsorship minimums too.

Leesykoi

I participated in the same privately arranged route that 'Slow N Old' participated in.

It was an awesome thing to do and a lot of the more experienced guys thought it was a breeze but i had to dig deep to finish and was very proud to finish in Paris. When i rode the L2P i had literally only been riding road bikes for 9mths and wish in hindsight that i had waited till i was more experienced but nevertheless it is a great thing to do and it has spurred on my love for cycling and i've met some great people doing it.

I recommend if you can to get a gang of you together and organise a private L2P and then you can donate 100% of your sponsorship to charity and not have to subsidise your trip through sponsorship. I paid all my own expenses for L2P 2010 and managed to raise £1.7k for Macmillans Cancer Support.

Best of luck....

Phate

Broaders wrote:

I am tempted to do one of the rides as well but am put off by the sponsorship minimums too.

Google 'Adventure Cafe London to paris', they charge you £579 for the trip (Including hotels, baggage transport, eurostar back to london etc) and then you can organise your own charity fundraising etc! They also arrange three trips a year (april, july and september).

themightyw

Leesykoi wrote:

It is a great thing to do and it has spurred on my love for cycling and i've met some great people doing it.

Leesy, old fruit, I'm not sure the receptionists at the Campanile hotel can really be counted as 'friends' - they're kind of paid to have to talk to you.

:twisted:

fungus_the_muffin_man

themightyw wrote:

Leesykoi wrote:

It is a great thing to do and it has spurred on my love for cycling and i've met some great people doing it.

Leesy, old fruit, I'm not sure the receptionists at the Campanile hotel can really be counted as 'friends' - they're kind of paid to have to talk to you.

:twisted:

Thats nothing I paid all the guys on the ride to talk to you

fungus_the_muffin_man

there's a great sense of acheivement in doing the organising yourself.

I you want you can pm me and i'll pass on the details of what we did or just click on the london 2 paris bit in my sig. We've left a large portion of the forum where we organised it open to be read for others to read.

By the way it may be 3 long days in the saddle, but day 2 and 3 were just awesome.