I’m bashing my manner by means of thick foliage atop a long-disused railway embankment someplace outdoors Sevenoaks, utilizing my bicycle as a battering ram towards the brambles and nettles. My information has disappeared forward into the wilderness. Beside and past us are fields and views, however I can’t see them. I’m being requested to think about, although, what this route may very well be, given the prospect. I’m following a person who has hoped for 20 years to reroute the English portion of what he believes may very well be a “yellow brick highway” for biking, linking London and Paris.
The present route, the Avenue Verte (AV) was inaugurated forward of the London 2012 Olympics, forging a symbolic and bodily connection between the 2 capital cities. Nevertheless, whereas the French portion was lavished with new, easily surfaced greenways, an absence of funding and political will meant on the English facet a make-do-and-mend spirit has, till now, prevailed. Now that it’s Paris’s flip to carry the Olympic flame, ideas have returned to this unfinished route.
Those that cycle the AV wax lyrical concerning the French facet, so a good friend and I cycled the 150 miles from Dieppe to Paris 10 days forward of the 2024 Video games. Easily surfaced former railway tracks, interspersed with quiet nation lanes, some gravel crossings of fields and some manageable hills, led us by means of fairly French villages and a gently rolling rural panorama dotted with chateaux.
Cafes and eating places have sprung up alongside the route, similar to Café Vélo Jaune in Dampierre-en-Bray. Others thrive in former railway stations on the trail – the galettes at Les Tables De La Gare in Neufchâtel-en-Bray have been wonderful. Certainly, about 170 tourism-related service suppliers are labelled “Accueil vélo” (cyclists welcome) alongside the route.
The ultimate 28 miles meanders a broad S-shaped route into Paris on traffic-free wooded paths and separate bike lanes, following the Seine and the Canal Saint-Denis. It’s a becoming finish to an excellent three days, although 4 days would give riders extra time to benefit from the sights, such because the grand sculptures within the Vexin Français regional nature park, barely off the path.
The English facet is one other story. Beginning on the London Eye, the present route trudges by means of miles of city sprawl, even crossing Gatwick airport, with a number of nice off-road interludes, such because the lately upgraded Wandle path by Morden Corridor Park, earlier than attacking the North Downs and Excessive Weald. There are some pretty tough forest paths alongside the way in which in addition to some pleasant off-road rail trails.
A lot of the English route was created when the Nationwide Cycle Community was based for the millennium by my information, John Grimshaw. However in contrast to in France, the UK authorities, native councils and vacationer our bodies did not unite in upgrading it. It has fallen on biking charity Sustrans to keep up and progressively improve the route with its typical pluck and enthusiastic volunteers. Many customers keep away from biking the English facet or cobble collectively their very own path to the ferry at Newhaven.
John now delivers greenways along with his small charity Greenways and Cycleroutes. A greater Avenue Verte may, he says, be delivered at a price of about £25m. (The upgrading of junction 10 of the M25, a number of miles west, attributable to full in summer season 2025, is budgeted at £317m.)
John’s proposed route would as a substitute begin (or finish) at Tower Bridge, following the traffic-free Thames Path and newly constructed protected cycle lanes out of town, mirroring its French counterpart. Dartford, the place we started our journey, is present process a spruce-up, enticing stone paving showcasing 1,000 years of structure, from the 11th-century Holy Trinity Church to the Tudor Wat Tyler pub.
We cycle by means of a park alive with flowers and comply with the river Darent, in lush foliage, for miles. Whereas the primary a part of the proposed route, from London to Dartford, is all however prepared, this phase to Sevenoaks wants resurfacing, rights-of-way upgrading on footpaths and bridleways to allow biking, plus 5 new bridges over the Darent. For this comparatively modest intervention, the route hyperlinks six prepare stations to Sevenoaks (and extra past) by way of the olde-world fairly villages of Farningham, Eynsford, Shoreham and Otford, in addition to a number of castles (Lullington and Eynsford amongst them), areas of excellent pure magnificence – or AONBs (the Greensand Ridge and the Excessive Weald) and refreshments stops galore. It could be a neighborhood useful resource for on a regular basis strolling and biking journeys, in addition to a vacationer attraction. Demand is there: between the villages of Horton Kirby and South Darenth, the local people has already clubbed collectively to floor a strolling path that was once a lavatory in winter.
This closely wooded space, with rolling hills that we skirt quite than scale, is a becoming showcase for England’s magnificence and has me smiling all the way in which. We comply with the riverbank far beneath the towering A2 and M25 bridges, having barely seen a automobile. At Farningham we emerge from the wilderness beside the riverfront tables of the good-looking Lion Resort, reverse an 18th-century cattle display – a bridge-like construction of flint and brick designed to corral cows fording the Darent. The river was thought of one of many best trout streams in England, an indication reads, and Charles Dickens reportedly fished right here.
We press on previous the Nationwide Belief’s Emmetts Backyard café, with its broad views atop the Greensand Ridge, stopping on the Tulip Tree café in Chiddingstone, which the homeowners declare has the oldest working store within the nation, relationship again to 1453. We rely 30 bikes beneath the previous coach arch and alongside an historic walkway to the transformed coach home.
Go to Britain says about 57,000 inbound vacationer visits embrace biking in some kind, bringing in £63m yearly, which I feel is an underestimation (the Trans Pennine Path within the Peak District yields a 3rd of that alone, although many are native guests). Respected sources in truth estimate cycle tourism worth at much more – £389m a yr.
Refurbished railways, quiet roads and bridleways would lead by means of the Eden Valley, a brief detour from Hever Fortress. We veer east as a substitute, previous Tonbridge Fortress and on to Tunbridge Wells, fulfilling the native council’s long-term lively journey plans to hyperlink communities with routes appropriate for on a regular basis journeys (an space with among the many lowest ranges of on a regular basis biking in England). It could then be a case of reclaiming misplaced railways for a flatter route throughout the Excessive Weald AONB to choose up the top of the present route at Heathfield, by way of the charming Cuckoo Path, a easy off-road path shadowing the A22, to Lewes after which the Egrets Means alongside the Ouse, to finish the path to Newhaven.
With renewed curiosity across the 2024 Video games, Sustrans is gathering stakeholders round potential route enhancements, however elevating the cash is a problem – in contrast to for motorways and trunk roads, there’s no long-term funding for lively journey initiatives – and Sustrans says nothing will occur on the bottom within the subsequent 5 years. Energetic Journey England’s Chris Boardman cycled half of the Avenue Verte forward of the 2024 Olympics, praising its transport worth to native communities in addition to its worth as an journey route. If the federal government bought behind it, the returns may very well be big: for a tenth of the price of a single motorway junction improve, we may have one thing of actual worth to the nation, and to native communities.
Laura Laker’s journey was offered by Normandy Tourism, DFDS ferries and LeShuttle. She stayed at Hôtel Mercure La Présidence in Dunkirk, Hôtel de Normandie in Gournay-en-Bray and Campanile Conflans-Sainte-Honorine
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