The route
In preparation for day one, I tested two routes out of London – National Cycle routes 20 and 21. I chose route 20 as it was less muddy. Then two weeks before leaving, the four of us did the London to Newhaven route as a practice ride. This helped as it gave a good idea of our group speed, tested everyone’s abilities and confirmed the route to Newhaven was ok.
I used ridewithgps.com and Google maps to finesse the route. I wrote an app to plot the elevation of each day side by side so I knew how days two and three would compare with day one which we had tested:
Data from the trip
GPX files
These files contain the data from the actual ride:
London to Newhaven GPX file
Dieppe to Gisors GPX file
Gisors to Paris GPX file
You can view these activities on a map on RideWithGPS:
London to Newhaven route map and elevation
Dieppe to Gisors route map and elevation
Gisors to Paris route map and elevation
Itinerary
The plan for the trip was as follows. The actual times were pretty close to the plan. NB if you are using this to help your own trip, make sure you use the (actual) GPX/RideWithGPS files above rather than the (planned) RidewithGPS routes below.
Friday 3 April
London to Newhaven
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7213637
09:00 (UK) Meet Trafalgar Square
14:00 (UK) Pub lunch
19:36 (UK) Sunset
20:00 (UK) Arrive Newhaven, find some dinner
21:00 (UK) Enter Ferry terminal
23:00 (UK) Ferry (£20 pp with DFDS Seaways) departs Newhaven
Saturday 4 April
Dieppe to Gisors
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7143979
04:00 (FR) Ferry arrives in Dieppe (4 hour crossing)
07:20 (FR) Sunrise
09:30 (FR) Big breakfast somewhere en route.
15:00 (FR) Arrive Gisors – buy food for next day, then check into Hotel Moderne – €35pp
15:30 (FR) Siesta
19:00 (FR) Dinner somewhere in Gisors
20:25 (FR) Sunset
Sunday 5 April
Gisors to Paris
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7214269
07:21 (FR) Sunrise
08:00 (FR) Breakfast in hotel – €8 pp
09:00 (FR) Checkout
12:00 (FR) Start looking for lunch options!
19:00 (FR) Arrive Eiffel Tower
20:00 (FR) Arrive at hotel Claude Bernard Saint-Germain – £67pp
20:27 (FR) Sunset
21:00 (FR) Dinner
Monday 6 April
Home by Eurostar
07:19 (FR) Sunrise
08:00 (FR) Breakfast at hotel (included)
09:00 (FR) Check out of hotel
09:40 (FR) Arrive Gare du Nord
11:10 (FR) Eurostar departs Gare du Nord (£57.50 pp)
12:30 (UK) Arrive St Pancras