My recent French trip 'Le Carnage'

[Binky]

Originally Posted by specialone

Nope my legs are fine its my lungs and heart that cant keep up

Its going to be rectified soon though, im determined to use the mtb more in the winter as i wont be riding the motor variety.

Are you coming along to Drew's MTB thing? Also could you swing me a text please as i have lost all my numbers... I have the same number though.

So anyway, final installment...
We decided to try and make Annecy again on leaving Barcellonette but this time headed for the south east corner of the lake, we stopped at another cracking campsite right by the lake...









Had a cracking pizza over the road from the campsite, although thinner crusts than id buy back home, they taste amazing

Dan had some vodka sorbet thingy which was basically a big feck off glass full of vodka with a dollop of ice cream in the middle, jesus it was strong.

Next morning, packed up again, this time destination was the campsite we stayed at on the 2nd night just south of Dijon, in Seurre.

We had a nightmare getting out of the town, lots of speed humps, traffic, low speed limits etc, satnavs not picking up most of the small roads, we ended up in a carpark to some flats at one point

Dan was nearly taken out by a maniac riding a bike and sidecar combo, the road forked off to the right but we was going straight on, this guy in the left hand lane decided to turn right at the last minute and just decided Dan was in his way, no word of a lie, the sidecar missed his panniers by no more than 3 inches, he then turns to Dan and was pi55ing himself laughing nucking futter !!

By this time we are proper hungry, i mean scabby baby could be on the menu and we'd have two portions please
Finding our way through the maze of roads at an area similar to spaghetti was interesting, we eventually get on the right road but pass a macdees on our right but we cant turn in as the entrance is off another road so we spin it round but god it took 10 mins as it took us back into the hell of an area we'd just left, so back on the right road and Dans in the wrong lane to go into macdees and narrowly avoids the concrete dividing the fork in the road, i have to go across the gravel as he turned last minute and i was too close to him to react

Pulled into macdees and there is a total building site in front of us, luckily its open or we wouldve caused carnage.
Unlike the UK, the health and safety are sloppy to say the least, guy on a platform using an angle grinder with sparks above the entrance, Wouldnt get away with that back home i thought, they'd be signs, fences and god knows what.

Stood in the queue waiting to be served, young woman comes out with electronic order thingy to help out the people on the tills, she comes to us and starts speaking French, didnt cop a single word tbh so use my favourite phrase i'd been using 'Vous parlez Anglais?', she replies 'yes i do' which was very good English i must add
Two large tasty meals ordered and they filled the gap lovely while we utilsed the free wifi and uploaded some pics to FB.

So, with a few miles ahead we cracked on but tried to take a more direct route to save some time, but we ended up finding some cracking roads, up and down, fast and wide twisty roads, had a good blast on these and ended up and the campsite a bit earlier than expected, so like any rough ass hardened bikers we put the tents up and did some washing lol.

Later my pants werent quite dry to started my bike up and tried to dry them off on the heated grips and using the hot exhaust gases...



Some old geezer comes over from his caravan and said in the poshiest English voice, ' I say, we're trying to listen to the radio !!' ok i say, ill turn it off !!,they arent the quietest cans tbh
Dan starts his bike up later and revs the crap out of his to p1ss this bloke off

So, next morning, its Friday, day before we get the ferry, we're over 400 miles from Calais and have a 10am ferry so with most of the good roads behind us we decide to take the toll road and head for a town called Arras and head for a F1 hotel as this is only 70 miles from Calais so easily doable Saturday morning.

We do over 325 miles and we are bolloxed tbh when we arrive at the hotel about 4.30pm

We'd never stayed in these places before but i'd highly recommend them, cheap, basic and clean and can buy brekkie and coffee etc for not much money.
Check in and both get showers and changed etc then we venture out to find a supermarket, we both went out in shorts, trainers and hoodies, i'd never rode my sprint before 'naked' so felt nervous.
We found a supermarket about 10 mins away so we bought a loads of meats, 2x 2 foot long french stick which had to folded in half to fit in Dans topbox lol, we got a few beers as well of course

So duly full now, we chill in the room, about 7.30 the bloody fire alarm goes, FFS we need to sleep soon, the bloody hotel better not burn down...



Seems it was a false alarm so we can rest easy, Dan falls asleep about 8.30 and snores big time, i continue to watch the Ateam movie in french until about 10.30 and go to sleep myself, it felt so nice to have a bed to sleep in instead of a blow up camp mat .

Up at 6.30 next morning, grab some brekkie and we're on the road by 7.20am, get to Calais about 9.10 in plenty of time to get a coffee before getting on the ferry.

So thats it really, hope you enjoyed my little write and pics.

Couple of things to mention, we spent a lot less than expected, i come home with £350 out of my £1000 budget which was welcome

Also, Seafrance the ferry company, are the best to go with apparently if you're on a bike as they strap the bikes down for you while you are on them and very effecient, i would defo use them again.


Phil

Wow - looks like you had a great trip.

Enjoyed that mate. It seems bloody ages ago now! I need to go back on them roads!

Originally Posted by danf1234

Enjoyed that mate. It seems bloody ages ago now! I need to go back on them roads!

Hard to fathom we've been home over a week

Originally Posted by specialone

Hard to fathom we've been home over a week

I know, I can't quite get my head round that!

[cbay]

Looks like your both had a great time! But I don't see any fancy T-shirts.

So Dan you have obv bought a new bike?

Originally Posted by cbay

Looks like your both had a great time! But I don't see any fancy T-shirts.

So Dan you have obv bought a new bike?

Dont worry Craig, we wore them

Le Carnage 2 is in motion

I have got mine on now!

Not a lot of carnage going on their guys We went down to the Tarn George this year c'est brill