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Avenue Verte

To celebrate the 2012 Olympics in London, cycling organisations in Britain and France developed a new cycle route between the London Eye and Notre Dame in Paris. They chose a route which crossed the Channel between Newhaven and Dieppe. Although this gives a longer and less frequent crossing, the 387km cycled is just over 100km shorter than the classic route. The route was designed to make maximum use of Sustrans off-road cycle tracks in England and voies vertes (rural cycle routes) in France, which resulted in long stretches along disused railway track beds in both countries. Most of the route is complete, although in England part of the route following the Cuckoo Trail in Kent (Stage 3) has proved difficult to realise due to land ownership problems, while in France the Forges-les-Eaux–Gisors sector (Stages 5–6) became unavailable when a previously closed railway was reopened and the route now follows local roads over chalk downland to by-pass this problem.

When inaugurated, the route out of London (Stage 1) followed city streets to reach the Wandle Trail. Since then a cycle super-highway (CS7) has been built between central London and Merton and the route described follows this to join the Wandle Trail rather than the more complicated waymarked route. Quiet roads are then used to leave London and climb over the North Downs into the Sussex Weald. After passing Gatwick airport, Stage 2 follows a disused railway east along the mid-Wealden ridge then turns south again (Stage 3) along another disused railway. Minor roads are taken through a gap in the South Downs to the port of Newhaven.