Fancy cycling to Paris for a weekend escape? Oui.
A new route ready for the 2012 Olympics is being built that will link London to Paris. The plan is to utilise existing cycle paths and link them together wherever necessary with new routes. The starting point in London is at the iconic St. Paul’s Cathedral and it ends at Notre Dam Cathedral, an 800 year old famous Parisian landmark.
As you can see in the above route map off the official website the route would go through Surrey and West and East Sussex. The crossing is at Newhaven and then in France it continues through Seine Maritime and into Paris along the route of the former Dieppe-Paris railway.
There will also be a second route called the Tour de la Manche which will go through East Sussex and Kent and cross the English Channel at Calais. It would then head west along the French coast line to rejoin the first route.
It is hoped that the majority of the route will avoid roads. The path will include cycle parking and rest stops with presumably facilities for bike repairs.
If you’re hoping to cycle the route then prepare for a saw bum, as it is around 218 miles long and will take an average cyclist around 3 days. There is some terrific scenery along the way however and it will save you around £200 for the train ticket. Of course if you are the impatient, adventurous, cycling obsessed sort then numerous routes have been posted on the internet. Just make sure you have a good comfortable saddle and nice pair of cycling shorts.
The route which has been called symbolic is projected to cost around £30 million for the UK side alone with funding from the project coming from the European Union grants and the National Lottery fund.
For more information on the route checkout the Franco-British Cycle Plan website.
At least you didn’t call it “some old church in Paris”. We here in the US got a kick out of your different levels of reverence for the start and finish.
LOL “some old church in Paris” that would be cruel!
The French part of the cycle path is pointless, cycling on their roads is such fun compared to the UK, mostly because there is no hedgerow so its easier for cars to see you; there are less cars on the road per area because the population is so spread out; the roads are in better condition and mostly because in general THE FRENCH LOVE CYCLISTS.
I urge any of you to check it out, its such fun you won’t regret it.
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Cheers!
I have just signed up for the 24hr London2Paris cycle organised by my company. Not sure what I was thinking reall! 240 miles in 24hours and the most I have ever cycled is 20 miles in a day!
Still going to go through with it and hopefully come out the other side with a story to tell albeit with a sore rear end!