Cycling UK Forum

Thank you, that's very helpful route information.

I had not found the website you suggested, it's very good, thanks for that too.

Apologies if this has been asked (many times..) before.

Planning to take ferry to Dieppe and follow the western arm of the Avenue Verte, with a diversion to Giverny, to Paris.

We will be travelling light on Bromptons - we need to do a lot of UK train travel and return by Eurostar so big-wheel bikes are just too inconvenient for us.

The Avenue website is very helpful but quite a few sections of daily routes say the surface is inconnu/unknown.

Are we going to be happy or unhappy Brompton riders on the Avenue Verte?

Thanks in advance for advice.

Thanks for all the helpful comments - many of which I missed because I was actually away...

We followed the minor roads route from Roscoff to Morlaix, very quiet, very scenic.
The section of cinder-packed rail route from Morlaix to Carhaix was indeed sticky after a storm - and the fallen trees added interest.
The canal towpath was mostly much better than I'd hoped - far better than the average UK canal towpath.
Surfaces varied between hard-pack cinder, nice tarmac, and rather gritty but hard surfaced (think forest access road) from Redon to Nantes.
We used medium sized Ortleib seat packs and Brompton C-bags for luggage and stayed in pre-booked hotels so clothes and human washing was easy.
I drew up GPS routes mainly to be able to find the next hotel - the route is well signed and it's hard to get lost following a canal. I downloaded the gps files from the Velodysee website - they are not totally accurate as some linking paths have been tweaked but they are a good foundation for route drawing.
We carried the Bromptons onto the ferry at Plymouth and they spent the night in our cabin.
We had no issues traveling with the folded bikes on the French TGV and local trains when we went further south visiting relatives and on the return journey to Paris.
I hadn't read the Eurostar conditions carefully enough so we didn't take our Brompton bags for the bikes - I scrounged some large tough bin bags from a hotel and they were big enough to cover most of the bike but left the saddle sticking out. The Eurostar staff weren't especially impressed by my efforts even though the 'dirty' bits of the bikes were covered, and I was instructed to bring proper bags in future. Strange that buggies/prams/folding wheelchairs don't have to be put in bags.

Very enjoyable trip that would have been a lot more tedious to organise if we had used full sized bikes and then needed to book spaces for them on multiple train journeys.

Roscoff to Nantes is a very lovely route through pleasant scenery and lovely towns. It was very quiet on the route in mid-June, we hardly saw a soul. Recommended on any type of bike!

Thanks for the comments. Nobody has dissuaded us from trying the route on Bromptons.

Planning a trip to France in June. We will be hopping about the country by a combination of modes of transport so our 700c tourers are not feasible, but using our Bromptons would make all transport problems vanish in a trice.

We are thinking about gentle touring - maximum ~70km per day.

Please can anyone provide info about the quality of the surfaces of EV1 from Roscoff to Nantes?

Are the green ways and canal path OK for Bromptons?

My French guidebook mentions that some surfaces are tarmac, but that others are stony. How stony - rideable by Brompton stony, or rideable by gravel bike/tourer/MTB stony? My wife is not a hardy cyclist and turns pale and walks on rocky tracks like those along the Great Glen way.

Thanks for any insights.

Thank you for your advice. We will stick to the Sustrans route.

Does anybody know...

I'm riding the Oban to Inverness Sustrans route next month.

The Sustrans route number 78 follows B roads to Connel and thence onwards to Fort William.

But...there is a very minor road that goes past Glencruitten golf course and follows the course of the railway, and joins the A85 just outside Connel. The OS mapping shows the road but gives the impression that it stops at a point called The Summit.

I used google streetview to whiz along the minor road and it looks rideable, although potholed and muddy in places and would have the benefit of being fairly flat, and pretty much traffic free.

Has anybody got experience of using this minor road please?

I do need to be Camusnagaul in time to catch the last ferry to Fort William, so if the minor road/track is slow going, then I need to know.

If I'm better to stick to the standard Sustrans B-roads route for speed and ease of use please advise!