I'm Back..................

Originally Posted by Scoobs

Now you know Spidey makes sense.

Yes please

[Quiff Wichard]

Liissaaa.. generally you missed.....






















ME !

[Lissa]

Ok Peeps, as promised (or threatened ) here follows an account of our recent holiday, with a few pics just to make it interesting. If this isn't in the right place I'm sure some kind Mod will move it for me

Having ruled out Germany this year because of a certain football tournament taking place, we decided on a return to the French alps. We travelled Dover to Dunkirk with Norfolk Line as they have an offer on for all bikes this year.

We arrived at Dunkirk at 1pm French time, then went via Gent, Mauberge, Charleville Mezieres and on to Dun sur Meuse where we hoped to make our first night's stop. We'd found a B&B on the internet run by a British couple. Must have been fate, as when Carol answered the door she was wearing an SV owners T shirt! Seems she has the best SV...............a blue curvy Her other half, Ian, rides a V Max.................but we can't have everything I suppose. He was also, until recently, the president of MAG. I can't praise them enough for their welcome, their beautiful house, or their sheer niceness. And only 40 euro's per couple, breakfast included, is a bargain!

http://www.bikersbedsfrance.co.uk/

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The following morning we travelled on down to Verdun, which was the scene for the longest battle of WW1, starting on Feb 21st 1916, and finally ending on Dec 18th, 1916. Apparently, you can still find live shells and ammunition in the surrounding fields today!

After Verdun we went to have a look at Langres, a medieval walled city.



Then via Gray..............which was NOT grey


And finally on to Besancon, which was our seconds night's stopping place. It was while we were there that we had some bad news. We received a text from one of the guys we were supposed to be meeting in Chamonix the following day to say that he'd had an off, broken two ribs, and wouldn't be meeting us after all. Hearing that he was only 40 miles from where we were, we said we'd be there in the morning to see if we could do anything to help. We arrived in Morteau at 10 the next day, and after an hour of trying without success to find his hotel, we finally found the local Police Station and I assaulted some poor Gendarme with my terrible French It was while we were there that we got a shamefaced text from out friend.....................he'd only had us looking in the wrong town for him He was actually in Partarlier, 25 miles away! We managed to find him ok in the end, but him and his son weren't going to be travelling any further and had already arranged to fly back to the Uk and have the bikes recovered back, so after making him laugh several times (very cruel to a guy with broken ribs ) we continued on.

With neither of us seeing the point of going to Chamonix any more, we headed down through the Haut Jura towards Chamberey, but decided to stop in Aix les Bains as a terrific lightning storm was letting rip. 5 mins after we booked into our hotel room we had the only rain of the entire holiday................torrential rain for 10 mins, followed by BIG hail for 10 mins, then 10 more mins of rain.


The following morning we headed into the Alps, via Chamberey, St Jean de Maurienne, and then up and over the Col du Galibier (well, it was there and it would have been rude not to )



[IMG]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j5/Lissasv650/France06038.jpg[/IMG







From the Col we headed via Briancon, Embrum and Digne les Bains to Castellane, which is at the head of the Gorge du Verdon, the second largest natural canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon.




Castellane was so beautiful we decided to stay a couple of extra days there, and with the Gorge to explore there was no chance of getting bored. It was while we were riding the roads around the gorge that I discovered an interesting fact.............you finally go THROUGH a fear of heights and out the other side! I think it was around the 50th time I'd looked over the edge of a several thousand foot drop only inches from the wheels of the bike The French, you see, have a refreshing attitude to road safety. If you're dumb enough to ride too fast or too recklessly and go over the edge.................tough! Where they bother to put a barrier at all, it's a two foot high stone wall.................yeah, that's REALLY gonna stop you going over the edge

The Gorge IS beautiful though, and the roads round it!!!!!!!










After our couple of fairly lazy days we hit the road again and headed up to another spectacular area, the Gorge de L'Ardeche. More scary roads I was beyond fear by then, but the sheep was terrified!



We stayed in the beautiful little town of Vallon Pont D'Arc.



The following day we headed up via Aubanas, Le Puy en Velay, Ambert, Thiers and Vichy to Varennes sur Allier, then the following day through Moulin, Nevers, Auxerre, Troyes, Rheims and on to Saint Quentin for the saturday night. I learned an important lesson................being in a LARGE French town when they do well in the World Cup is NOT a good thing. I never regretted more.........at 2am............. not buying that blowpipe and steel darts in Vallon

The following day it was an easy scoot back to Dunkirk..................and back to reality!

All in all we had a fabulous time, and only had two cars cut us up all holiday..............both within 5 mins off getting out of the ferry terminal at Dover. Oh, to be back in England!

[Stu]

Fantastic makes me wish I was going on holiday.
Anyway, Hope AR06 will be even better

Superb pics

[Quiff Wichard]

brilliant--

a well related trip to-

good story teller.!!

Wow, that first gorge looks stunning. Some fantastic photos there Lissa.

[Spiderman]

Very jealous, looks absolutely beautiful where you guys went.

Must keep that link to the B&B tho and get me and the g/f over there sometime.

That sheep is hilarious btw :loll:

woah

Wish I could go on holiday to a place with lovely mountains and valleys,plus endless sunshine.