A lap of France

muppix · May 8, 2011

My first big trip abroad on the bike was back in September 2001, when 15 eager novices headed to the South of France for a fortnight in a villa near the Gorge du Verdon. I've been meaning to go back there ever since, and the recent combination of spring bank holidays and some posh wedding provided the perfect opportunity...

Binky was loaded up on Thursday night after work and pointed towards the tunnel, destination just east of Paris.

I arrive at my friend's place in the wee hours of Friday morning, and we had many drinks. Friday itself came far too early, and it was some minutes before I dared open the shutters on what turned into a fine day.

Resurrected by French coffee, we set about loading up Remi's Tuono R.

We collected many insects on the way down to Brive, that yellow stuff everybody seems to grow now makes a nasty mess!

I'm a big fan of derelict architecture, and couldn't resist a quick stop at this rather grand old house.

muppix · May 8, 2011

Brive with me

We stopped at sports shop somewhere in French Suburbia for Remi to pick up the flip-flops he'd forgotten to pack. Little did he know he wouldn't be needing them - we were subsequently rained on every day.

Little by little France became interesting again as plains gave way to foothills, complete with pretty villages.

Following a long overdue visit to our friend John near Tolouse, we turned east and made for the Camargue region, running on fumes by the time we stopped for a fill-up at La Grande Motte.

Around about now is when the Aprilia's incontinence set in. Closer inspection revealed a loose jubilee clip behind the filler bottle. Gotta love those Italians.

We made it to the Lac du St Croix late in the evening and set up camp. Whilst full of tourist kayaks by day, the lake is very tranquil at night and a perfect place to unwind with a bottle of Rose and some after-tripe.

muppix · May 8, 2011

Happy Campers

We treated ourselves to a lay-in the next day, glad to be off the bikes for a bit.

[Group-1]-STA_0229_STB_0230-2-images.jpg

I'd opted for a bit of a paddle about the last time I was here, and remember the water being a lot clearer than it is in this pic. The sides of the Gorge do Verdon continue vertically downwards many meters below the waterline, would love to take a dive here one day.

Being quite early in the season there wasn't much to do in the evenings around the lake, so we consoled ourselves with a meal in a proper restaurant before getting rained on yet again shortly afterwards.

muppix · May 8, 2011

On the road again

We were just getting used to the easy life when it was time to up sticks and head north again. Sadly many of the more interesting tracks were out of reach of the Tuono - but then that's my excuse to come back here yet again.

I've been visiting France for 10 years now and am still amazed at the sheer variety of geography that's just waiting for you around every corner. This part of the Alpes Maritimes must have seen some serious glacial activity once upon a time.

More off-road paths to explore ... next time.

Why do people build little villages on the side of hills? You'd have thought fetching water would be a right pain in the backside.

Makes for some interesting roads though!

muppix · May 8, 2011

Finish on a high

While planning this trip I'd fantasized about riding the LGKS, but it was just too early in the year and There Would Be Snow. Instead I collected a bunch of routes from this rather neat website and strung them together wherever they took us in the right direction, which paid off in a big way!

The stretch of the D76 between Die and Saint Jean En Royans is the most spectacular road I've ridden to date; with rock arches, tight corners, dodgy tarmac and about 600 meters of bugger-all on the other side of a comical little barrier.

I only wish I'd stopped to take more photos, but you know what it's like when you can't get your helmet off because of that cheesy big grin!

muppix · May 8, 2011

Let's finish on a video ...

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_trqZjUua9s?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_trqZjUua9s?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>

Thanks for looking!

Mr K · May 8, 2011

Love the vid

:beerjug:

AshR1 · May 8, 2011

Superb! I'm jealous.

Care to give us the route plan?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

brummie · May 8, 2011

Nice ride report.

Loved the video, What camera was you using?

Mav · May 8, 2011

Some cracking photos in there - thanks for posting :thumb2

Mark H · May 8, 2011

Great video and photos :thumb2

was there last year, what road was the 1st bit 1 min to 5 min?

peepingtom · May 8, 2011

great stuff thanks for posting ,love the music on video too esp first track . nice one

JohnnyBoxer · May 8, 2011

Very most excellent :clap

Mister B · May 8, 2011

Easyrider5258 said:
Great video and photos was there last year, what road was the 1st bit 1 min to 5 min?

Excellant production,.What Bike camera ststem were you using and which editing software.....Thanks

John Armstrong · May 8, 2011

An extra road for my trip to the area in September :thumb2

Deleted account 210609001 · May 8, 2011

Nice report, photos and video. (I had to watch it with the sound turned down, though.

)

2 wheel humvee · May 8, 2011

Excellent pics/vid/report another "must visit soon" destination to add to the growing list, thanks for sharing.

muppix · May 8, 2011

AshR1 said:
Care to give us the route plan?

No problem, have a look at the attached ZIP. I can't be arsed to tidy out all the private addresses and don't have a complete set of routes anyway, plus my Zumo has developed a habit of archiving all the tracks in one single GPX file which is massive and can't be opened by anything. So I've just left in the routes that I robbed from alpenrouten.de, which I highly recommend by the way.

Anyhow. The first and most impressive road in the vid is probably the D76 north of Die, shown as TnR 2 in my file. It's well worth riding the whole of that route as the twisty stuff above Die is awesome, even if I didn't film it. :blast

Also shown are the Gorges de Daluis (second bit of road in the vid, beginning with the Tete de Femme) and of course the Gorge du Verdon.

muppix · May 8, 2011

brummie said:
Nice ride report.

Loved the video, What camera was you using?

Thanks!

I've got a GoPro Helmet Hero HD, which I think is just about the best thing out there for this type of work. Yes, it's £300, but in terms of value for money I don't think anything else comes close. You get a casing that's waterproof to 30 metres (which is the price of the casing alone for a cheap bridge camera) and the quality of the video is simply stunning, even if you're filming into the sun. My only complaint would be that it's a little slow to react to changes in light (case in point: tunnels) and that the interface isn't very intuitive. But I've used it while snowboarding and racing in enduros, the memories from which alone are worth the price.

muppix · May 8, 2011

Easyrider5258 said:
Great video and photos was there last year, what road was the 1st bit 1 min to 5 min?

Thanks! I think that was the D76 north of Die, check out the ZIP already uploaded.

A lap of France

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