Ferry + France

ok said:

Hi,

Anyone ever travelled down from London and got the Ferry over to
France for a long weekend and cycled around?

Be interested in hearing about it.

many moons ago, so many in fact they were still called Townsend
Thoresen. Went to Cherbourg, down the coast to St Vast la Huge and
across to Carteret then back up. Hilly in the middle but nice. Dieppe
to Le Havre is also very nice, also very hilly. Caen to Le Havre is
flatter and tres chic. Never dared go near any of the Northern ports by
bike.

(ok) said:

Hi,

Anyone ever travelled down from London and got the Ferry over to
France for a long weekend and cycled around?

Be interested in hearing about it.

As a teenager:

London - Portsmouth - St Malo - 6 days - St Malo - Portsmouth - London

Paid as a foot passenger, rode onto the ferry with the cars. First
off at destination. The French are very respectful towards cyclists.

ok said:

Hi,

Anyone ever travelled down from London and got the Ferry over to
France for a long weekend and cycled around?

Be interested in hearing about it.

OK

Used to do Portsmouth Caen Out & Dieppe Newhaven back quite often.
Touring with tent on bike. Last one on the ferry, first one off and
you only pay foot passenger rates. I gradually learnt how little I
could take with me and to always expect the campsite to be up a hill.
The worst thing was getting used to the insane British drivers on the
ride home. I stopped because I got the racing bug and dont tour anymore.

Stan Cox

P.s. I have done the Duo Normand Time trial in France and thats great
as well. http://www.duonormand.com/english/index2.htm

Tilly said:

(ok) said:

Hi,

Anyone ever travelled down from London and got the Ferry over to
France for a long weekend and cycled around?

Be interested in hearing about it.

As a teenager:

London - Portsmouth - St Malo - 6 days - St Malo - Portsmouth - London

Paid as a foot passenger, rode onto the ferry with the cars. First
off at destination. The French are very respectful towards cyclists.

Strange how the French cyclist fatality rate is double that in the UK,
isn't it? See:

http://cyclehelmets.org/
--
Michael MacClancy

A few years ago did Dover-Calais then cycled up to Dunkirk, and into Belgium. Only problem with the ferry were the ramps getting on/off the boat, very steep and slippy, otherwise locked bikes, tied them to the rails provided with rope (also provided) and was one of the first off

As for cycling over there, great fun, eneded up trying my French out on a couple of groups we met, failed misserably, but the universal language of beer was perfectly understood :-)

Bryan

ok said:

Anyone ever travelled down from London and got the Ferry over to
France for a long weekend and cycled around?

Be interested in hearing about it.

Did it twice in my teens -- ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre and cycled
into Normandy. No problems. Ferry companies are very accommodating.

ok said:

Hi,

Anyone ever travelled down from London and got the Ferry over to
France for a long weekend and cycled around?

Be interested in hearing about it.

Not for a weekend but longer trips yes.

1982: Woking - Portsmouth - St Malo - Bordeaux and back
1983: Train to Folkestone - Boulogne - Ardennes - Calais - Dover, train
home
1985: Woking - Newhaven - Dieppe - Rouen - Le Puy - Nice - Dijon - Calais -
Dover & train home. A coupld of train stages in the middle of this tour
though...

Plus trips to Belgium, The Netherlands & Denmark in similar stylee.

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Flies are the work of Stan, and should be killed by all means available.

MartinM said:

ok said:

Hi,

Anyone ever travelled down from London and got the Ferry over to
France for a long weekend and cycled around?

Be interested in hearing about it.

many moons ago, so many in fact they were still called Townsend
Thoresen. Went to Cherbourg, down the coast to St Vast la Huge and
across to Carteret then back up. Hilly in the middle but nice. Dieppe
to Le Havre is also very nice, also very hilly. Caen to Le Havre is
flatter and tres chic. Never dared go near any of the Northern ports by
bike.

My claim to fame is that I drove/piloted the "Herald of Free Enterprise"
when I was about 7 years old. No, not on that day.

Bryan said:

A few years ago did Dover-Calais then cycled up to Dunkirk, and into
Belgium. Only problem with the ferry were the ramps getting on/off the
boat, very steep and slippy, otherwise locked bikes, tied them to the
rails provided with rope (also provided) and was one of the first off

As for cycling over there, great fun, eneded up trying my French out on
a couple of groups we met, failed misserably, but the universal language
of beer was perfectly understood :-)

Bryan

When I went to Ireland, my brother and I were first off in Dublin. On
return they told us to wait until last. We sat in that choking fumes for
ages then just filtered through all those bloody cars that had just got
out before us. [censored].

ok said:

Hi,

Anyone ever travelled down from London and got the Ferry over to
France for a long weekend and cycled around?

Be interested in hearing about it.

OK

Yes many times: from Dover to Calais (dull); Newhaven to Dieppe (one of my
favourite routes); Portsmouth Caen (longer route, with overnight crossing).

Hoverspeed have stopped their fast ferry
service from Newhaven to Dieppe, but
Transmanche run three boats a day all
year round <http://www.transmancheferries.com/>

Newhaen Dieppe is one of the nicest routes. I often rode out from London
to Dieppe got a ferry accross to Dieppe then rode inland to camp at
Neufchatel-en-bray. Lovely ride out along the D1 from Dieppe. Dieppe
itself is a lovely port.

I more often take the Portsmouth Caen route
<http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/> I take the overnight ferry, with the
cheapest accommodation option and sleep on the floor. The ferry arrives at
Oustriham early in the morning and it's a 12 k ride into Caen along the
cycle track.

Never any trouble with the bicycle on a ferry, just ride up the ramp and
onto the deck. It can be slippery and sometimes they tell you to get off
and push for safety. But mind your head if you're tall. Sometimes they
charge a few quid for the bike. I usually get the train to Portsmouth.
It's a bit of a [censored] ride there. Much nicer the other side.

Bin

Tilly said:

As a teenager:

London - Portsmouth - St Malo - 6 days - St Malo - Portsmouth - London

Paid as a foot passenger, rode onto the ferry with the cars. First
off at destination. The French are very respectful towards cyclists.

They now have a separate cycle charge for that route, but still a pretty
good rate (And you can take a cycle trailer for the same price!). I then
rode on to Pluduno but not touring. If you could make time for the
journey, Brittany is a beautiful area to cycle.

Jon

"Michael MacClancy" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 06:56:00 +0100, Tilly wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The French are very respectful towards cyclists.

Quoted message said:

Strange how the French cyclist fatality rate is double that
in the UK, isn't it? See:

Quoted message said:

http://cyclehelmets.org/

French pedal cyclist fatalities fell from 317 in 1996 (the year of the data
represented in the graph you linked) to 201 in 2003. Source:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/care/statistics/series/vehgroup/t_vehgroup_fr_en.htm

I don't know what source was used for the total distance cycled - no
official ststistic is available - but Fubicy (Fédération Française des
Usagers de la Bicyclette) estimates 6 billion kilometres per year. I don't
know how that estimate was arrived at.

The most recent figure I've found for the UK is 4.4 billion km in 2002:

http://www.hfcyclists.org.uk/Parkin.pdf

In 2002 there were 130 cyclist fatalities in the UK:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/documents/page/dft_transstats_031300.pdf

Comparing data for 2002 then, the fatality rate is 37.2 per bn km for
France, and 29.5 per bn km for the UK.

One interesting study I found (from 1990-91) gives the single largest cause
of death to French cyclist as being struck from behind by a motor vehicle -
a staggering 30.2%:

http://www.securite-routiere.org/vehicules/accmortelsvelo.htm

French road accident fatalities (all road users) are roughly double those
of the uk:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/care/statistics/most_recent/detailed_breakdown/index_en.htm

So French cyclists are doing comparatively well with only a 26% increased
risk of death per km cycled.

As an aside, I was struck by the age bias in cyclist and pedestrian
fatalities in all European countries. 59% of cyclists and 61% of
pedestrians killed are aged 51+, compared with 29% of motorists:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/care/statistics/most_recent/road_user_type/index_en.htm

All that said, I agree with Tilly that the typical French driver *is* far
more respectful to cyclists than the typical British motorist. It's a shame
that this doesn't result in fewer casualties.

James Thomson

"James Thomson" wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Comparing data for 2002 then, the fatality rate is 37.2 per bn km for
France, and 29.5 per bn km for the UK.

French road accident fatalities (all road users) are roughly double those
of the uk:

Smeed's Law relates accident rate to traffic density. I seem to recall that
France has about twice the U.K.'s Kms. of road, but a comparable number of
vehicles, so Smeed's Law would predict a higher accident rate.
Smeed's Law is discussed by Robert Davis in "Death on the Streets" as a
special case of risk compensation.
Mike Sales

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 08:37:58 +0100, Michael MacClancy
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Paid as a foot passenger, rode onto the ferry with the cars. First
off at destination. The French are very respectful towards cyclists.

Quoted message said:

Strange how the French cyclist fatality rate is double that in the UK,
isn't it? See: http://cyclehelmets.org/

I think that is due to road types. In France you get a lot of rural N
roads, and in the UK rural A roads are the most dangerous for
cyclists, because they have the highest rate of the most serious
(albeit rarest) type of collision, being hit from behind at speed.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Thanks. Pity they have stopped the fast ferry to Dieppe. What about
Boulogne? There is still a fast ferry route. I've been briefly before
but only as a foot passenger to walk around the town.
Nice cycle round for a day around there??

elyob said:

My claim to fame is that I drove/piloted the "Herald of Free

Enterprise"

Quoted message said:

when I was about 7 years old. No, not on that day.

I went to Calais the day after it sank; some passengers were already
making jokes about it. A colleague knew some others who were on it as
£1 Sun reader offers; they were off work for months after it.

James Thomson wrote:
[snip]

Quoted message said:

All that said, I agree with Tilly that the typical French driver *is* far
more respectful to cyclists than the typical British motorist. It's a shame
that this doesn't result in fewer casualties.

This is merely an observation, but that respect exactly matches my
experience last week, cycling in the Var district of Provence for over a
week. In all that time I had no bad experience with any motorist. This
would be unimaginable to me riding on similar roads in the UK.

Particularly at weekends, I saw considerable numbers of French cyclists,
some in groups, some alone, mostly on good road bikes and wearing full
cycling kit, many riders of quite mature years, out for practice rides
on ordinary country roads, suggesting to me that there's probably a lot
more cyclists in France (or at least in that area; I accept France is
quite big) that do much greater distances than the UK's "occasional"
cyclists. Therefore, it is going to be difficult to make any sensible
comparison of accident rates in France and the UK without somehow making
allowance for both the type of riding and the distances ridden, so I'm
not convinced the figures quoted before really show what has been claimed.

I also found a race (150km and 95km) under way through one village
(Carcés) on 17th April; again, the motorists were being sensible, showed
no impatience and obeyed the marshals when they were signalled to halt
so that junctions were clear for the quite large number of competitors.
The villagers were out in force to watch the race, several shouting
"Allez, allez, allez!" in general encouragement to the riders as they
passed. I've never wandered into anything like that in the UK.

--
Joe * If I cannot be free I'll be cheap

ok said:

Thanks. Pity they have stopped the fast ferry to Dieppe.

I had to do a double check there, but yes it is true, it used to
operate summers only. Apparently the French ferry company Transmanche
were in negotiations with hoverspeed to take it over but the boat has
now gone elsewhere. Shame, good thing I did not do my proposed tour
this weekend, was planning to come back on it, 5 hrs on the
conventional ferry is beyond comtemplation.

ok wrote:

What about

Quoted message said:

Boulogne?

I think there is some good riding around there; I have been over on the
old SeaCat and there was a party of 30 odd bikes all going for a day
out.
Not sure if the speedferries route takes foot passengers/bikes though
(this may sound bizarre but it is not unknown). Will ask next week, am
going on it for the weekend, only £50 return for 4 of us plus a car
;-)