Well that’s what Wayne and my brother Mark have just done. The sensible ones ie me, Denise (my brother’s wife) and Charlotte (my niece) did it in a few hours courtesy of Eurostar!
Monday 26th May 04.30
So from the beginning Wayne and Mark drove down from Lincolnshire with their bikes to Charlottes house in London where they left the car and started on their journey…
The first leg on paper was straight forward, to get to Newhaven to catch the ferry early the next morning to Dieppe - unfortunately it was torrential rain the whole 75 miles and took them the entire day arriving at the Travel Lodge in Newhaven around 9pm.
A rest on top of the North Downs in a brief respite from the rain
Tuesday 27th May 10.00
Leaving Newhaven harbour on the ferry to Dieppe, still raining…
A view of a typical french chateaux on the Avenue Verte - the Avenue being a long distance cycle route from Dieppe to Paris which follows a disused railway line for part of its route. On the first leg in France they covered 34 miles after leaving Dieppe.
Wednesday 28th May
Our second day in France passed through picturesque rural villages including St Germerde-fly which was dominated by this large Benedictine Abbey - 50 miles were covered on this day.
Thursday 28th May - final leg to Paris covering a further 50 miles and our first view of the River Seine.
Finally our first view of the Eifel Tower..
So approximately 200 miles later and the journey end at the Eifel Tower, then after a quick photo stop it was back on the bikes heading to the Gare Du Nord station to put the bikes on the Eurostar to be picked up two days later back at Kings Cross in London. Which coincided with our arrival on the Eurostar for a couple of days in Paris..
The next two days involved a lot of eating and drinking of your typical french fayre….
and interspersed with a little sightseeing…
The Sacre Coeur
The Louvre
A very rare photo of the two of us on the banks of the River Seine
Had to end on a Patisserie Shop, they were everywhere…..
If you are inspired to do the same we recommend getting a copy of Avenue Verte, London to Paris by Bike an invaluable guide.
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