Bike trip to France piccies

[Daimo]

Just got back from a road trip down to the south of France using the Green route. Epic time, 2000+ miles covered. Nelli held up fine, even despite running WELL into the red temperature zone quite frequently. The bike ran superb, but the only niggle on the 2nd to last day was my damn coil stick is on its way out again. Still, she done bloody well. A selection of piccies, with a link to all of them at the bottom. Got some videos to sort out too :D

I had a lie in thursday, and was planning an early night. That idea failed after 2 hours of trying to get to sleep. I got up at 11pm and tanked up on coffees ready to meet the boys at 1.40am. Get down to folkstone for the 3.30am train.


Annecy again for the first night. Mega rains down the south had meant very high water levels compared to last year. Weather wasn't looking kind for the next few days :(

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After breaky next morning.

http://images114.fotki.com/v1605/photos/2/48802/8847755/P1010945-vi.jpg


Up into the mountains for the second night. We found a superb place for 20 euros in Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

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Next day, ohmygod... I've ridden the Bandit in snow, but it progressivly got worse. Up the Val D'isere

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Obligitory Snow Angle :lol:

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Weather was simply stupid. At a lot of times we were in 1st, riding over snow, with 20m visibility. We met some blokes on RG1200's the night before in the hotel. They set of before us, we saw them coming back down the mountain ;) We pushed on through and made it to Briancon :cool: Proper scarey stuff though going through the tunnel at the top as it was all ice!!

Next day, things had changed, rock on baby :D

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Highest road in Europe :D Chatted to some hardcore cyclists, sod that!!!!!

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This went on for miles, and yes we had MEGA fun ;)

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Got down to about 10km north of Nice, and minced in the pool. Got absolutly hammered on Rose wine :lol:

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Then we headed via motorways (just too bloody hot to quick for us cold Brits) to a little town called La Ciotat on the south coast. This was basecamp for a few days.

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The boys went to the beach to perve at boobs and get burnt (and they did ha ha ha). I wasn't into all that beach stuff so went for a bimble up to Paul Ricard racetrack. Buggers wouldn't let me in so had a drink and went for a blast round some roads by myself. Epic fun.

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After a few days, we started North again, stopping at a proper dodgy F1 hotel after we couldn't find anywhere to stay (hot, bothered, wanted to get out of the sun). My phone came out my pocket whilst riding, split into all its major components. After a bit of fettling, its sorted :D. We ended up in Gap. We stopped up the road for some breakie and watched the cliffjumpers.

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Back up some more excellent roads.

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We got to Gex the next night after following the Green route back up to Lake Geneva.

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THE flag, the only one that survived after we all lost ours on day 1 in the morning :lol:

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Got up the next day and it was mostly straight back roads (with the odd bends) and made it to St Dizier. It was then an early start up the motorways to Calais so the boys could get back for the footy (meh won't comment :lol: )

Oooo lots of cleaning to do...

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All the rest of the pics are at.


http://public.fotki.com/DaimoB/general_me_-_pastti/france-bike-trip-2010/


I've got some videos to sort out too. Due to my bikes front end, the pictures always not directly in front, always up and to the right, but they will do. Will post those tomorrow.

Bike ran good, got both knees down a plenty (although im still faster not trying to get em down). My bike uses by far the most fuel, its quicker than the K4 GSR600, slower than an 08 R6 (both not by much either way), and gets left standing low down by the Tuono :lol: But who's do you think got all the attention by lots of weirdos :lol:

[DarrenSV650S]

Awesome pics. Looks like a great trip. Fook that snow crap though! Don't fancy that up in the Alps.

Looking forward to the vids

[Specialone]

Good pics and write up, looks a cool trip :)

[BanannaMan]

Very nice indeed!
Excellent pics and write up!

Stunning scenery!

[Daimo]

First video is online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwJYqAmybLg

[Daimo]

And vid 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaY09QdrnVc

[Daimo]

3rd video also online :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMyF-q5HO7E

[DarrenSV650S]

Good vids but I'd be careful what you put on youtube mate

[Shonky]

Loving the snow pics mate, looks pretty dicey!

[Bluefish]

Lovely pics, good vids too nobody get done for speeding? :D Where or what was the place called that you stayed in for 20 euros?, as we are heading down that way for our summer hols.

[Daimo]

Nope, we always slow down to town speed limits, but had fun on the back roads. tbh most speeds were quite low due to tight roads, mainly 1st-3rd.

The place in Bourg Saint Maurice was here. Called the Autantic Hotel just outside town.

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[Tim in Belgium]

Looks like a great trip, and a tad chilly up the top of the Col D'Iseran! Hitting the beach for a few days looks a nice way to break it up too.

[Lozzo]

Good vids but I'd be careful what you put on youtube mate

Why? They were filmed in Foreign so I don't see a problem. That's the whole point of riding abroad, you can ride like a tw4t and the local fuzz can only fine you but can't ban you with any effect once you're back in UK.

Everyone's a winner.

[Daimo]

Exactly ;)

Not only that but the speed limits are higher, and as long as your respectful of the local towns and ensure to slow down, the old Gendant generally don't mind.

Motorways were mostly kept at 80-90, with the odd blat like the vid above. You can ride fast, theres just a time and a place, and even byt the vids you can see that when we leave/approach towns, we ensure to slow down.

Better roads, better drivers, better policing, better weather (generally), and then I come back to find VAT is up and fuel prices are going up, again..... Nice....

Where was that 30+ degree weather and hot Frenchies gone again :(

[Daimo]

Had a few peopel asking for a guide so i've done one, best to refer using google.maps.

Firstly, use google maps, we did and referred to it on my mobile phone and it was fine. Find Annecy which is about 50 clicks south of Geneva. Big lake, STUNNING place, been there twice now. Well worth a visit! A mini Venice.

From Annecy, down the left hand side of the lake down the D1508 to Ugine. (we stayed at a campsite, I can provide details, about 25 euros).
Then Northish up the D1212 to Flument.
Then back south down the D218b down to Beaufort.
Then the D925 which turns into the D902 which takes you to Bourg-Saint-Maurice where we stayed. Not many miles due to the weather, but we crashed in a lovely bike friendly hotel. Extra 10 euros to park the bike in the garage, but has a swimming pool, a hosepipe etc.

Then we carried on up the D902 which is the road that takes you through the Val D’isere.
Stay on this road through the national park and head west towards Saint-Micheal-de-Maurienne and Saint-Martin-d’Arc. Don’t use the autoroute, the road runs practically underneath the autoroute, and its free!
Then head south, staying on the D902 to the Col du Lautaret. We went straight on south (well South-east) though down the D1091 to Braincon where we stayed the next night. We used an Ibis at about 30 euros each. Clean, but very expensive for drinks (about 4 euros for a half pint!! All Ibis are like this though, tip, head to McDonalds, stock up on 1664’s, its half the price for double the beer lol).

We then carried on the D902 all the way down, its quite a way, but well worth it. The D902 then changes into the D900 around Gleizolles. We beared West and carried on following it down for a short way. This brings you to a town called Jausiers. Good place for a pitstop, drink etc (if you can find the open shop). Then we turned back on ourselves for about 1 mile, and headed east down the D64. This is the highest road in Europe. It was the highest road, then the Spanish built one a few metres higher, so the French then built a road up to the peak of the mountain to retain the title. Sad gits the pair of the countries lol. The D64 is a tight road, but quite smooth and this is where we had our closest “playing” as much of it was 1st and 2nd gear.

The D64 then turns into the D2205. Tight mountain hairpins turn into wide fast flowing roads following the river down the mountains to the coast. We simply followed this road, but theres so many options around this area. We stuck to whats called the “Green Route” and you can pickup a map from any local town. You can basically follow it from Lake Geneva all the way down to Nice, then come back up a different way. Well worth the couple of euros to purchase it (just a fold out paper map). We stayed on the D2205 all the way south to Bonson. We stayed in a hotel around here which was quite price at about 40 euros each, but it had a restaurant, pool etc, and it was starting to get very very hot.

From here, we headed to Nice, and hada boring day of motorways down to a coastal town. We headed past Toulon down to a little town called Cassis. Then we used the D559 towards Marseille. Then realised we were going the wrong way, so back down the D559, back through Cassis, out the other side and into a town called La Ciotat. This was basecamp for a couple of days, and we used a campsite on the east side of La Ciotat which cost us about 20 euros each for 2 nights!!

This is when the boys went to the beach, so I went for a ride. Just north of La Ciotat and the autoroute, is the racetrack Paul Ricard. I used the D3 which turns into the D2 up to the track (west to east), and stuck on the D2 past the track to Meounes-les-Montrieux. Then south to the D202, back west to rejoin the D2 back toward Paul Ricard. Then used the same road back down to the coast. Note, the racetrack isn’t open to the public except on certain days, but it has got a nice little café you can get a drink and that in. Few old bikes and bits to nose at.

On the way home, we jumped on the A50 Autoroute, then right onto the A52 at Aubagne, then right again onto the A520 which turns into the D560 (through Saint-Zacharie). Somehow making it up to Gap. There were a few straight roads, but we wanted to get some distance done. From Grenoble we got across back up the D902 towards Lake Geneva, then round the lake, past Geneva to Gex to a campsite where we had to book 2 nights as the mofo wouldn’t let us book one night. Still worked out cheaper than using the only other hotel in town (even though google lists quite a few, there isn’t any, just a dodgy one who had an OAP in a broken wheelchair, with flat tyres :lol: ).

Out of Gex we used the N5 north, and took various roads to get us up to St Dizier. A long slog, lots of straight roads, but better than Autoroutes and some stunning little towns.

If anyone wants anymore info, let me know, but once your around Geneva, seriously look for the green route map, or google it. It pretty much gets you to the south coast, then you can come back up another route. We just wanted some sun for a few days (correction, they did, I wanted the roads, hence the videos).

The two sunny videos I’ve put up, one was the D2/D3 down south, the other was the D559. The other one is just acceleration on the last stint to Calais after I was waiting for the boys to come through the tolls.

Hope it helps, anyone want any more information, drop me a message.