Paris to London cycle path

A CYCLE path 350km long is to be marked out linking London and Paris – with help from a ferry in-between.

The scheme – called the Avenue Verte or Green Way is being planned in partnership between the London and Paris mayor’s offices, the counties of Surrey and East and West Sussex and the departments of Val-d'Oise, Yvelines, the Oise, the Eure and Seine-Maritime.

“We want to symbolically link the Tower of London to the Eiffel Tower through beautiful countryside, by an alternative to the car,” said the president of Seine-Maritime, Didier Mairie.

The route – meant to be ready by 2012 - is more or less a straight line, similar to an old London-Paris railway line that was opened in the 1860s which was an inspiration for the cycle track idea.

It will travel through Newhaven where the cyclists will get the ferry for Dieppe. It will either use a mixture of new purpose-built tracks, for example following old railway lines, or it will use cycle lanes along ordinary roads. Some parts of the route already have cycle lanes, which will be linked into the scheme.