Bikepacking from London to Paris on Brompton C-Lines 🚴‍♂️🇫🇷 | Folding Bikes, Big Adventure

Jon and Dan take on an iconic journey from London to Paris — but with a twist. Armed with their Brompton C-Line folding bikes, they bikepack across two countries, tackling everything from muddy trails to bustling city streets.

Huge thanks to Evans Cycles for making this adventure possible.

Watch as we test the limits of what a folding bike can handle, explore scenic routes, wild camp along the way, and roll under the Eiffel Tower in true adventure style.

#Brompton #Bikepacking #LondonToParis #MicroAdventure #FoldingBike #EvansCycles #BromptonAdventure

[Music] We’ve arrived in London and our plan is to uh head to Paris. Apparently, it’s lovely and quiet this time of year. So, we’ll head down there and see what’s going on. We got 5 days to do it. Let’s go. It feels like we’re out in the sticks now, but we’re still inside the M25. Caused a bit of a traffic jam out there. We’ve made it, John. The milestone of the M25. Um, yeah, just a just a tunnel really. Not exactly what we hoped for coming out the other side of London. It’s basically just been head down on an A- road just getting passed by lries and cars for like an hour, hour and a half. We’re running into a bit of trouble here. Uh still got 25k to go and John is uh suffering pretty bad. Gravel time, baby. You wouldn’t think a Brmpton and gravel would get on as well as they do. Day one almost complete. John, I think we’re going to have to go back. Why? Well, I’m not sure how we’re going to get these over that. Come back for me. Yeah. Just left me for [Music] dead. We did it, John. Day one is done. We’ve arrived at St. Ives campsite. It’s got a duck pond. It’s got a bench. What more do you want? [Music] It’s now like 8:30 today. We’re off to New Haven to catch a ferry. [Music] We’re uh 10k in. We’ve left the gravel behind and we found our first [Music] hill. As is tradition on these rides, I’m just uh taking the Brmpton for a little walk. So, we’re about quarter of the way through day two. We’ve just stopped at the Deer Park Cafe, had a coffee, had some food, and yeah, crack on to uh lunchtime, I reckon. We’re about to hit the biggest climb of the day, but it looks like it might be off road, which could be an error. [Applause] [Music] Oh, Christ. Bit more mud up there. H. [Applause] Turns out that the cycling route is probably more popular with horses than it is with bikes. So, it’s uh been quite a struggle for the last mile. [Music] Bit of last minute gravel action for day [Music] two. Harder than expected, but we’re here. Gonna jump on the ferry tonight, get over to France, and yeah, nice big day tomorrow as well. Should be boarding in around 30 minutes. Yeah, the end of a very long day. Hopefully find a seat or a shower or something when we get on there and uh yeah, see how it goes. So, we just boarded up the ferry. first people on and we’ll try and find ourselves a nice place to uh get our heads down for the night, I suppose. [Music] Exquisite night’s sleep. Oh, one of the worst nights sleep of my life, I’d say. We’ve made it to France. 6:30 a.m. The sun is rising. It’s looking good. And we’re straight into the center of Diet to find some pastries. [Music] You look like you’ve been sleeping on the floor of a ferry. I’m so tired. But we’ve done like 11 miles already, so going’s really good. Just very tired now. [Music] The fog’s clearing. The sun’s coming out. Turning out to be a nice [Music] day. We’ve just had a lovely crepe. I’ve sampled the local skate park. It’s been a lovely day of flat tarmac. Can’t complain. [Music] So, we didn’t make it anywhere near as far as we thought we would today. probably due to the really early start. The plan is still to then head with a slightly bigger day tomorrow. Um yeah, we’ve ended up on a bit of a strange pitch, but it’s fine. We’ve got our tents and we’re all good. Good morning. Morning. How we doing? All right, just setting off 8:00ish. Quart 8. Back on the road. We’re on [Music] it. Just don’t do them like that in [Music] prep. Wowers. That was close. Seems to be slightly more undulating today, which is nice for variety. Not so good for the legs. Oh, your legs a bit tired. [Music] This is Tenz’s. I’ got a coffee and I’ve got half a pizza [Music] slice. Oh, this is very odd. The sign’s the wrong way up, but the sheep seem to be the right way up. I’m walking again. Guess it’s nice to walk on a different side of the road. Now it’s raining. Just down the biggest hill of the day, though. [Music] What’s up, John? I’m done. It’s been a headwind all day to be fair. Is there any option of camping anywhere closer than we planned? Um, don’t [Music] know. John’s not feeling too clever. So, I think the plan now is to try and find somewhere just to kind of get down for the night here and then kind of make a plan for what we’re going to do tomorrow cuz it’s looking likeund well 100 plus k day is probably out of the question. So, um next plan is to find a campsite around here and then go from there really. [Music] Dan definitely could have gone further. he could have carried on today to where we were planning to get to. So, it’s my fitness levels, I guess, is uh has affected the plans. Um so, we still don’t really know what we’re going to do tomorrow yet, but I think we’re probably going to get a train for a little distance and then um ride the rest into Paris. So, yeah, feel a bit bad, but it is what it is. So, um, we’ll ride again [Music] tomorrow. So, yesterday didn’t quite go as we planned. The initial plan was to do 125k. We only managed to cover 65k, which means we’ve got 120ish left to get to Paris. Unfortunately, our schedule is not going to allow for that. So, we’ve had to get a little bit creative, but luckily we’re on folding bikes, so we’ve got a few options. We’ve looked into trains, but unfortunately for us, there’s quite a big event happening in Paris this weekend. A lot of people trying to get in there. Yeah. Not sure what that’s all about, but we’ve managed to kind of come up with a solution using popular app called Uber. So, our man is going to be picking us up in an hour or so. He’s going to take us a little bit further down the line so then we can do the last leg into Paris on the bikes and get it done. So the bikes have successfully made it into the the Uber which is good. Little bit of a squeeze but it worked. You certainly wouldn’t have got two fulls size bikes in here. So one of the [Music] advantages originally we would have crossed this bridge on our original route. Um, so the cycle path is just on the other side of the road. We head that way, follow the river all along and head into the [Applause] [Music] city. We haven’t seen gravel since Sussex, John. Incredible scenes. [Music] [Music] We’ve had our first glimpses of the Eiffel Tower as we’ve descended down this hill. We’ve got about what 6k to go, something like that. So, yeah, almost there. Quite a lot busier now. Feels a bit more like we’re in the city, but not very far to go through a big park. And then we should pop out the other side near the Eiffel Tower hopefully. [Music] Thought you said it was going to be quiet. Yeah, I think I might have got my um dates a little bit wrong. Turns out there’s quite a big sporting event going on this weekend. It’s certainly looking that way. But we’ve ridden from London. We’ve made it to Paris for now. Huh? Oh, lovely. [Music] [Applause]