Charity Bike ride - Birmingham to Paris - route suggestions!

chris_bass

Hi

I am planning on doing a chairty bike ride from Birmingham to Paris, probably split over 4 days.

Does anyone know a route? i have tried googling routes but with no joy, people mention the route a lot but dont go into any detail.

Any help would be much appreciated, or good sites that might have routes or be able to help would also be excellent.

Thanks

Chris

EnglishChris

There was a recent thread about a central London to Paris route here: http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12776207 where someone had a pdf document with details route information.

It wouldn't cover the whole trip but might help? You could try posting on that thread or PM me with your email address and I'll send you the pdf document that he sent me (he seemed happy to send it to anyone who requested it so I'm sure he won't mind me passing it on).

chris_bass

ithink i have the part to the channel tunnel sorted, stopping off in stevenage on the way down is a nice halfway point, about 95 miles either side.

then might look at that route for Calais to Paris!

I currently do 40 miles a day commute, will i need to do anything else to prepare for the step up in mileage or do you think i'll be ok if i take it easy and spread the miles over the day?

jc4lab

Maybe have a look at the Newhaven to Dieppe then follllow the Seine Route also

nicktheluddite

have you considered Portsmouth to St Malo ferry? You can go overnight so it's one less B&B/campsite to sortout and you avoid circuiting round (or crossing) London. Then roughly follow the Seine up to Paris. Or do you have a support car booked on Channel Tunnel? I guess all the organised *London-to-Paris' charity rides go across at Dover/Calais but then you have loads of cycling across boring Northern France. We rode from Le Havre to Chartes (and then on to Switzerland) a couple of summers ago and it was all glorious.

I'd avoid cities/large towns at all costs - navigating through then is much slower than cycling over deserted French coutryside.

95 miles a day 4 days in a row is a fair step up from 40 miles a day 5 days in a row. However if you are riding in a group that makes it easier. Maybe try riding 95 miles one Saturday and the same on Sunday then doing your normal commute for the whole week?

EnglishChris

nicktheluddite wrote:

have you considered Portsmouth to St Malo ferry? You can go overnight so it's one less B&B/campsite to sortout and you avoid circuiting round (or crossing) London. Then roughly follow the Seine up to Paris. Or do you have a support car booked on Channel Tunnel? I guess all the organised *London-to-Paris' charity rides go across at Dover/Calais but then you have loads of cycling across boring Northern France. We rode from Le Havre to Chartes (and then on to Switzerland) a couple of summers ago and it was all glorious.

Slightly off the main topic here but what was your route across to Switzerland? I'm heading from London over to St Gallen in the east of Switzerland in Aug / Sept, but I'm then planning to head back across Switzerland via a mountain bike route to Lac Leman. I was trying to avoid heading one way and back again across Switzerland on a similar route so thought I would go Dover - Calais and then down northern France along the Belgium border and into Germany.

I am a bit worried that it will be a bit dull though! How different was the route that you did to what I would be doing further north?

nicktheluddite

Chris - Le Havre to Chartres then headed east (via Troyes) to the Vosges. Along the Route des Cretes in the Vosges which was glorious. Down into Mulhouse to Basel. Then got a train from Basel to Aarau because we had to get there in time for a family party. 2 weeks of relaxing cycle-camping touring. I've never cycled in Northern France, just seen it from the train and got the impression it might be a bit dull. PM me if you want to know more so we don't hijack this thread.

mz__jo

Don't write off all the north as dull; some of it is quite lovely (the bay of the Somme for example and the region around Compiègne).
There is a randonnée from Levallois to Harfleur so cyclable roads are quite possible from Le Havre all the way to Paris. However, ferry considerations aside, my choice would probably be Dieppe as a landing point.

Mayhemwmb

Hi,

I'd like to share my experience - we cycled Newcastle to Llanelli at the beginning of May, was a great trip however we started with Via Michelin opting for their route guidance using the 'via cycle' option. DO NOT USE THIS!!

We found ourselves cycling along the side of busy A roads, we arrived at York for our first overnight stop and binned their route. We bought a cheap road map and devised a route using small lanes - over a predicted 80 miles we added less than 10% each day.

We saw some beautiful countryside - The day I thought was going to be the worst transpired to be the most scenic.

We had the backup of google maps app on a blackberry which helped when we had a slight navigational issue.

Enjoy

mz__jo

Try looking at this link if it can help

http://www.af3v.org/-Carte-des-grands-itineraires-.html

Cheers Jo

DF33

Thats a good link but no detailed info for the route Dieppe - Paris.

bails1310

Hi Chris, wondered if you had an update on the ride / route?

Planning the same charity ride from Sutton Coldfield in July / Aug and the main headache is the route. Toyed with buying a Garmin but probably wont use that much after.

Any think you can advise would be awsome.

Cheers,
Neil.