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Because I'm doing this : https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/twintowers540miles (which has around £400 of offline funds that need to be added - thank you to those who pledged/paid), my thoughts are now turning to the logistics. I'll be on the ferry from Newhaven, along with the support team who will be in a small van and we land at Dieppe. I'll be cycling into Paris, obviously but the guys don't want to be driving around Paris so they're going to park a few miles out and get the train in. I'll be getting the train back out of Paris with them. Nobody involved has ever been to France before. This causes some difficulties.
Can anybody recommend a station and train somewhere between Dieppe and Paris where they can park the van, get the train into Paris, as close as possible to the Eiffel Tower and then we can all get the train back to the van but as I'll be with them, the train has to allow a full sized bike, unboxed/bagged?
While I'm here, anybody else feel like entering the prize draw? Somebody's £1 is going to win some brand new Hope wheels or a day's tuition with Tony (Jedi) Doyle at UK Bike Skills or a huge TV...... loads of prizes
To be honest, early August in Paris should be relatively quite traffic-wise and really isn't as daunting as people expect. The parisians are actually more tolerant of things like crossing three lanes of traffic to exit a slip road you hadn't seen because they all have to do it at some point in time.
However if you really are set on not driving into Paris then RER A or B are probably a good bet. Pick a station along one of them and get the RER into Paris. Otherwise, have a think about what route you'll be taking and let me know and I'll see if I can have more specific input.
Yeah, I've driven into Paris (accidentally, thanks to the navigational skills of my ex-MIL) before, it's not that bad. It's the same as any other big city, so not exactly amazing, but not terrible. With a decent satnav route to follow to the nearest car-park to the Eiffel Tower, I reckon they'd be fine.
Thank you for the helpful replies.
My route is looking like;
Dieppe, D1314 to Forges-les-Eaux, D915 to D158 at Gisors, D174 at Montagny-en-Vexin, D43 at Commeny, D14 at Themericourt then whatever roads get me to Argenteuil and then into Paris.
Another option is a fairly cheap hotel in Paris where the can all decamp to as I'm approaching and they can spend the day and evening seeing the sights while I undoubtedly sleep for 12 hours solid.
Any recommendations for a hotel in or near Paris that includes parking?
Street view anywhere you plan to park. There are some incredibly rough parts to northern Paris.
Most Ibis/etap/Novotel have secure onsite parking.
We stayed just outside Paris, on our multi-day Avenue Verte trip.
It's close to a RER station, has a secure underground car park and there's a good selection of restaurants nearby. (The 'All you can eat Chinese buffet' went down well, after a long day in the saddle)
Thanks for the very helpful replies. A plan is being formulated. Andy, thanks very much for the donation. Please could you drop me a line with your contact details. I need to organise some draw tickets for you. I still need to pay the cash in so if you've donated cash, it will be registered on the Justgiving page in the next week or so. I think I'm up to around £1200 which is brilliant! Thanks to everybody
I live in Argenteuil. There is covered parking at the station there, but I wouldn't leave anything valuable (or even anything not particularly valuable 🙁 ) in the car. Trains every 10 mins (15 mins at off-peak) to Paris Saint Lazare. Direct trains take about 10 mins to get there. Stopping trains take about 20 mins and stop 4 or 5 times between Argenteuil and Paris. From there metro or bus to Trocadero, opposite the Eiffel tower. Gisors is also direct to Paris but less trains and a lot longer train ride.
There isn't anywhere particularly nice to stay in Argenteuil - don't have any real hotel recommendations in Paris, I'm afraid. Be wary of traffic at rush hour coming in to Argenteuil if you do pass that way (the A15 gets busy, and the A86 is always busy), but in august, unless there's a pile up or something I really don't see that being a huge issue for you.