Avenue Verte Blog

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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captain offensive
Posts: 141
Joined: 22 Oct 2014, 8:36am

Avenue Verte Blog

Post by captain offensive »

Hi all,

I'm new around these parts (as least as a member - have been reading and taking advice from here for about a year now).

Although having been a bike user pretty all my life and having done some periods with regular commuting my bike or taking occasional day trips over the last year I have started riding on a much more regular basis.

Back at the end of July I decided to take on my first tour and decided to do the Avenue Verte London to Paris route as a solo trip over five days. At the time I made some hand scrawled notes in a diary and am now finally starting to get to type them up.

So if anyone is interested in the ramblings of an overweight 40 year old (41 by the time I finished - I had my birthday somewhere around Dieppe!) I have been putting some pages together.

I've typed up days 1 and 2 so far (London to Newhaven) and will post again here as I add in days 3, 4 and 5.

Day One - London to East Grinstead: http://r1chmay.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/avenueverte-1/
Day Two - East Grinstead to Newhaven: http://r1chmay.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/avenueverte-2/

Hope you might enjoy it or may even find bits of it useful! Cheers

Rich

...Now what to do next year?
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jamesgilbert
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by jamesgilbert »

Nice write-up and photos, thanks for posting. I followed a bit of the eastern variant of the Avenue Verte at the weekend between Senlis and Chantilly and very much enjoyed it.
captain offensive
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by captain offensive »

Thanks James :-)
lisap
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by lisap »

A lovely read Rich, looking forward to the remaining chapters.
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honesty
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by honesty »

Enjoyable read. Avenue Verte is a route I'd really like to ride some day but you hear such bad things about the conditions of the path in England that I'm put off a bit trying it on my audax bike.
Richard Fairhurst
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

Most of the Avenue Verte in England is fine on a road bike - there's just a few sections you have to watch for, and by definition if you have an audax bike you're probably comfortable on the short lengths of main road that these sections bypass.

Whether or not you actually want to do the bits through suburban London and past Gatwick, of course, is another matter!
cycle.travel - maps, journey-planner, route guides and city guides
captain offensive
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by captain offensive »

Thanks for the kind words. Day three is almost ready! :-)

I can't really speak for audax bikes but actually the English side was mostly OK with only a few short stretches of unmade path: The first section by Eridge station could be avoided easily by taking the main road that the track runs parallel with - it wouldn't be much fun as its a sharp uphill with a short section of dual carriageway but is only about a half mile. The second section leads up the hill to Heathfield and that is a section where I stayed on the road which was perfectly fine - you are on a climb with traffic but it doesn't really add any distance and I'm sure is much easier going and I didn't face too much traffic. The final section is the stretch from the bottom of the cuckoo trail between Polegate and Berwick. This section can get quite muddy after heavy rain - not helped by frequent horse use (there is a stables halfway along this section) but actually there are only a couple of short pieces on this mile long stretch that actually get bad. I cycle this particular section throughout the year when riding between Lewes and Hastings so know it pretty well now - over the winter I am going to look for some alternative routes - there are a couple of fairly simple options but each add a mile or more.

It is interesting that you highlighted issues on the English side though. My reading of the Sustrans guide book led me to think that conditions would be much worse in places on the French side (not to ruin the suspense but I took the western route and most of the off road sections were after the split - I might try the eastern route in another year or two but don't know about the track on that side).

Actually the sections around Eridge and Polegate were worse than all bar one section in France. The guidebook hinted at a couple of problem areas but (maybe helped by dry conditions) these actually seemed to be well made paths or farm tracks and were all surprisingly pleasant (I say surprisingly on account of the description in the guide book). However one part which the book didn't seem so concerned with was actually the worst section of the route; around Longuesse area. I actually missed some of this as the track diverts around one village which I went into in a search for a shop but I picked the off road section back up coming out of the village. The section is more farm track than path but is very very uneven and I had to go pretty slow - if I'd know I would have diverted and stayed on the road - but generally the surfaces were fine - I was on a ridgeback tourer but their basic model

Cheers

Rich
captain offensive
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by captain offensive »

Hi again all - many thanks to those of you who have taken time to read my story so.

I've now put up Day 3 - Heading south from Dieppe at 4am. You can find it here: http://r1chmay.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/avenueverte-3/

Cheers

Rich
captain offensive
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by captain offensive »

A bit of a delay in typing this up bit I've finally written up Day Four of my summer ride along the Avenue Verte

http://r1chmay.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/avenueverte-4/

Cheers
captain offensive
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by captain offensive »

Hi all. For anyone interested I've finally written up the fifth (and final) day of my ride on the Avenue Verte last year.

https://r1chmay.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/avenueverte-5/

Cheers, Rich
milkonesugar
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Re: Avenue Verte Blog

Post by milkonesugar »

Well written blog, Rich; enjoyed reading it. Congratulations on your first tour!
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