madness
09-05-09, 08:23 PM
As some of you may already know, Ibby and I spent a week and a bit in France over Easter. So I thought I'd post a bit of a report on our trip. Sorry it’s taken this long but I’ve had decorating to do!
The route we took is shown here:-
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=105661407944565074974.0004686752b31d749eb60&z=6
Day 1 - After a boring trip down the motorway to Dover, we caught the 12.30 ferry to Calais. Unfortunately we had to share it with about 10 coach loads of p*ssed up student hockey teams - bl**dy students!
From Calais basically followed the coast road south to Boulogne where I managed to lose Ibby for 20 minutes (thank god for mobile phones!) Trouble was my sat nav was not taking me where I expected to be going. Anyway after about 6 hours, 90 miles and numerous detours we arrived at the campsite just outside Abbeville.
Day 2 - Next day we continued to follow the coast road via Dieppe to Fecamp where we left the coast and headed toward Le Harve. We headed over the big bridge over the Seine and into Honfleur for lunch. Honfleur was really picturesque and touristy, full of bikers on the sunny Sunday afternoon.
From here we headed south via Lisieux and Argentan to Alencon, trying to keep to the twistier roads. The weather was great and the Municipal campsite in Alencon was very nice. We were still having problems with the sat nav taking us on a weird route. (More on this topic later.)
Day 3 – From Alencon, we continued southwards on the best looking twisty roads that we could find on the map, towards Le Mans. Negotiating Le Mans was easier than expected and riding down the famous Mulsanne Straight was cool. Continuing south we crossed the Loire a little west of Tours and headed to the lovely town of Richelieu, where we parked up for a look around and the obligatory coffee. Now this is where I had my little mishap! Basically, we had to drop off a kerb to get off where we had parked. I was concerned that Ibby might have a problem as she can only touch the ground with tip-toes. She had no problem and rode off. I however, went too slow, had too much lock on the steering, and didn’t get my foot down quick enough as I lost balance. Result being, bike on its side in front of a load of locals sat outside a café! I quickly picked the bike up and rode off in embarrassment. Everything seemed ok until I came to change gear! I’d snapped the gear change peg off. Ibby came back to see where I was and pointed out that my number plate was missing. So, back we went to the scene of the mishap to find the plate. It was nowhere to be seen and the locals where pretty unhelpful when we asked if they had seen anyone pick it up. I had no Fixer-peg, so I had to do my best with the remaining part of the lever, which wasn’t that bad, I’d sort something out at some later stage. So on reaching our overnight stop at Chatellerault , I scrounged some cardboard from a supermarche and set to with a Biro to make myself a new number plate.
Day 4 – Heading south-east towards Limoges, luckily the road wasn’t too twisty and I kept gear changes to a minimum. From Limoges we headed east, now on twisties towards Clermont-Ferrand. After a lunchtime Patisserie/Coffee stop we continued as it began to rain. And rain it did! All afternoon for the 100 miles to Clermont Ferrand. There was no way we were camping tonight so we found the first reasonable looking hotel and booked in. Warm, dry, with a bath, worth every Euro that night! Even managed to get everything dry overnight.
Day 5 – Luckily the next day was dry and as we left Clermont we stopped off at a ‘Monsieur Bricolage@ to pick up ‘my’ fixer peg. We headed east and then south over high ground (lots of snow around) towards Le Puy before following the River Ardeche down to Aubenas and our campsite at Salavas. I was very pleased with my repair as it made the twisty bits a lot more pleasant. I could concentrate on the corners rather than changing gear!
Day 6 – We decided to head from the Ardeche to Gap and not down to Cannes as we were not having as leisurely days as we had hoped for. So after following the Ardeche Gorge to Pont St Esprit, we took the road via Nyons to Serres, and what a road! I can honestly say it’s the best road I’ve ever ridden. Very twisty, but not as to slow you down much, good surface, little traffic, scenery (not that I had much time to take my eyes off the road!) It was intense! We both happy to have a coffee stop in Serres. Then on to Gap via a very nice lakeside lunch stop. Gap was horrendously busy and we couldn’t get out fast enough! We continued north on the Route Napoleon to camp at Corps. Though the scenery was fantastic and the bends were good, I found the road surface on the Route Napoleon a bit bad in places (usually the corners) and so thought it was overrated. Perhaps the southern section that we missed out is better?
Day 7 – We continued northwards to Grenoble and then onto Chambery before heading along some very nice roads Bourg en Bresse to camp at a very nice municipal site. I’ve got to admit that keeping up with Ibby was hard work some of the time, but always enjoyable.
Day 8 – Next day we headed north to Dijon keeping to the less busy roads. They were getting progressively less twisty as we headed north, so we had to scour the map to find ones that didn’t look too boring. Needless to say we found more great roads, but in places the surface left a little to be desired. The only trouble we encountered on these roads was a lack of petrol stations when you needed them. This led to finger crossing and breath holding as we reached 175 miles on the current tank with a few miles to the next town. Luckily we made it and blasted up some fast straight roads to camp a Vitry le Francois. The campsite was weird. In the middle of nowhere, stuck in time, no-one else on it, strange farmer and his family. Reminded me of the film ‘The Deliverance’ for some reason.
Day 9 – Anyway, we got away safely and continued to blast northwest on straighter and straighter roads. Towns were quickly reached and left as the day passed in a bit of a blur! The most memorable things being the daily patisserie stop and passing military cemeteries as we approached Arras. We camped north of Arras leaving less than 50 miles to do to Calais the next morning.
Day 10 – As we only had 50 miles to do in the morning we had a very leisurely start and after wine shopping at the Hypermarche at St Omer (8 Bottles) we found that we were running late so, on we continued. We had to divert off route to get fuel which nearly ended in tears as an ‘imbecile’ in a 4 x 4 pull out on me, luckily there was nothing coming in the opposite direction and I managed to swerve around him. Unfortunately we were running really late by this time, otherwise my French vocabulary would have been put to good use! We really had to nail it the last 20 miles into Calais and were pretty much the last vehicles to be loaded before the ferry sailed –Phew! The rest of the day was the tedious motorway trip back home which seemed to take forever.
Now, apologies if I’ve bored you to death, but if you’ve made it this far I’d like to mention a couple of important tips.
1) Always carry a Fixer-Peg!
2) Understand how your GPS works! If you plan the route on a PC at home and download to your sat-nav , it is not the route that is downloaded, just the way points! You sat-nav with then work out a route though these points. This will probably not be the same as where you expect to go unless you use a lot of waypoints.
3) Load the location of Formula 1 hotels into your sat-nav for the towns where you are stopping, they can be pigs to find!
4) Be flexible with your route/itinerary. We aimed to do about 200 miles a day which might not sound a lot but throw some twisties in there and a few stops for patisseries/coffee/whatever and the days can turn out to be longer than you expect.
5) Don’t wait ‘til the fuel light comes on to refill.
6) If you like cakes (who doesn’t?) take someone who can home in on a Patisserie from half a mile. (I found Ibby very good at this!)
But most of all – Enjoy yourself and don’t take anything too seriously!
Madness
Forgot to say thanks to DMC for useful pre-trip advice and information.
The route we took is shown here:-
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=105661407944565074974.0004686752b31d749eb60&z=6
Day 1 - After a boring trip down the motorway to Dover, we caught the 12.30 ferry to Calais. Unfortunately we had to share it with about 10 coach loads of p*ssed up student hockey teams - bl**dy students!
From Calais basically followed the coast road south to Boulogne where I managed to lose Ibby for 20 minutes (thank god for mobile phones!) Trouble was my sat nav was not taking me where I expected to be going. Anyway after about 6 hours, 90 miles and numerous detours we arrived at the campsite just outside Abbeville.
Day 2 - Next day we continued to follow the coast road via Dieppe to Fecamp where we left the coast and headed toward Le Harve. We headed over the big bridge over the Seine and into Honfleur for lunch. Honfleur was really picturesque and touristy, full of bikers on the sunny Sunday afternoon.
From here we headed south via Lisieux and Argentan to Alencon, trying to keep to the twistier roads. The weather was great and the Municipal campsite in Alencon was very nice. We were still having problems with the sat nav taking us on a weird route. (More on this topic later.)
Day 3 – From Alencon, we continued southwards on the best looking twisty roads that we could find on the map, towards Le Mans. Negotiating Le Mans was easier than expected and riding down the famous Mulsanne Straight was cool. Continuing south we crossed the Loire a little west of Tours and headed to the lovely town of Richelieu, where we parked up for a look around and the obligatory coffee. Now this is where I had my little mishap! Basically, we had to drop off a kerb to get off where we had parked. I was concerned that Ibby might have a problem as she can only touch the ground with tip-toes. She had no problem and rode off. I however, went too slow, had too much lock on the steering, and didn’t get my foot down quick enough as I lost balance. Result being, bike on its side in front of a load of locals sat outside a café! I quickly picked the bike up and rode off in embarrassment. Everything seemed ok until I came to change gear! I’d snapped the gear change peg off. Ibby came back to see where I was and pointed out that my number plate was missing. So, back we went to the scene of the mishap to find the plate. It was nowhere to be seen and the locals where pretty unhelpful when we asked if they had seen anyone pick it up. I had no Fixer-peg, so I had to do my best with the remaining part of the lever, which wasn’t that bad, I’d sort something out at some later stage. So on reaching our overnight stop at Chatellerault , I scrounged some cardboard from a supermarche and set to with a Biro to make myself a new number plate.
Day 4 – Heading south-east towards Limoges, luckily the road wasn’t too twisty and I kept gear changes to a minimum. From Limoges we headed east, now on twisties towards Clermont-Ferrand. After a lunchtime Patisserie/Coffee stop we continued as it began to rain. And rain it did! All afternoon for the 100 miles to Clermont Ferrand. There was no way we were camping tonight so we found the first reasonable looking hotel and booked in. Warm, dry, with a bath, worth every Euro that night! Even managed to get everything dry overnight.
Day 5 – Luckily the next day was dry and as we left Clermont we stopped off at a ‘Monsieur Bricolage@ to pick up ‘my’ fixer peg. We headed east and then south over high ground (lots of snow around) towards Le Puy before following the River Ardeche down to Aubenas and our campsite at Salavas. I was very pleased with my repair as it made the twisty bits a lot more pleasant. I could concentrate on the corners rather than changing gear!
Day 6 – We decided to head from the Ardeche to Gap and not down to Cannes as we were not having as leisurely days as we had hoped for. So after following the Ardeche Gorge to Pont St Esprit, we took the road via Nyons to Serres, and what a road! I can honestly say it’s the best road I’ve ever ridden. Very twisty, but not as to slow you down much, good surface, little traffic, scenery (not that I had much time to take my eyes off the road!) It was intense! We both happy to have a coffee stop in Serres. Then on to Gap via a very nice lakeside lunch stop. Gap was horrendously busy and we couldn’t get out fast enough! We continued north on the Route Napoleon to camp at Corps. Though the scenery was fantastic and the bends were good, I found the road surface on the Route Napoleon a bit bad in places (usually the corners) and so thought it was overrated. Perhaps the southern section that we missed out is better?
Day 7 – We continued northwards to Grenoble and then onto Chambery before heading along some very nice roads Bourg en Bresse to camp at a very nice municipal site. I’ve got to admit that keeping up with Ibby was hard work some of the time, but always enjoyable.
Day 8 – Next day we headed north to Dijon keeping to the less busy roads. They were getting progressively less twisty as we headed north, so we had to scour the map to find ones that didn’t look too boring. Needless to say we found more great roads, but in places the surface left a little to be desired. The only trouble we encountered on these roads was a lack of petrol stations when you needed them. This led to finger crossing and breath holding as we reached 175 miles on the current tank with a few miles to the next town. Luckily we made it and blasted up some fast straight roads to camp a Vitry le Francois. The campsite was weird. In the middle of nowhere, stuck in time, no-one else on it, strange farmer and his family. Reminded me of the film ‘The Deliverance’ for some reason.
Day 9 – Anyway, we got away safely and continued to blast northwest on straighter and straighter roads. Towns were quickly reached and left as the day passed in a bit of a blur! The most memorable things being the daily patisserie stop and passing military cemeteries as we approached Arras. We camped north of Arras leaving less than 50 miles to do to Calais the next morning.
Day 10 – As we only had 50 miles to do in the morning we had a very leisurely start and after wine shopping at the Hypermarche at St Omer (8 Bottles) we found that we were running late so, on we continued. We had to divert off route to get fuel which nearly ended in tears as an ‘imbecile’ in a 4 x 4 pull out on me, luckily there was nothing coming in the opposite direction and I managed to swerve around him. Unfortunately we were running really late by this time, otherwise my French vocabulary would have been put to good use! We really had to nail it the last 20 miles into Calais and were pretty much the last vehicles to be loaded before the ferry sailed –Phew! The rest of the day was the tedious motorway trip back home which seemed to take forever.
Now, apologies if I’ve bored you to death, but if you’ve made it this far I’d like to mention a couple of important tips.
1) Always carry a Fixer-Peg!
2) Understand how your GPS works! If you plan the route on a PC at home and download to your sat-nav , it is not the route that is downloaded, just the way points! You sat-nav with then work out a route though these points. This will probably not be the same as where you expect to go unless you use a lot of waypoints.
3) Load the location of Formula 1 hotels into your sat-nav for the towns where you are stopping, they can be pigs to find!
4) Be flexible with your route/itinerary. We aimed to do about 200 miles a day which might not sound a lot but throw some twisties in there and a few stops for patisseries/coffee/whatever and the days can turn out to be longer than you expect.
5) Don’t wait ‘til the fuel light comes on to refill.
6) If you like cakes (who doesn’t?) take someone who can home in on a Patisserie from half a mile. (I found Ibby very good at this!)
But most of all – Enjoy yourself and don’t take anything too seriously!
Madness
Forgot to say thanks to DMC for useful pre-trip advice and information.