First bike trip to France (and Switzerland)

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Lee Frost

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End of next week I'm off on the GSA with Mrs F and my eldest stepson (on his MT07) for 6 nights riding through France to Switzerland and back. Been up to my neck with work etc so no time to do much research. Mrs F has booked the hotels and the plan is as follows:

Day 1 - Morning crossing to Calais, ride to Reims
Day 2 - Reims to Dijon
Day 3 - Dijon to Innertkirchen in Switzerland
Day 4 - Day riding in Switzerland - 5 passes loop weather permitting as it sounds fab
Day 5 - Innertkirchen to Colmar via Panoramastrasse
Day 6 - Colmar to Verdun
Day 7 - Verdun back to Calais

The routes for days 4 and 5 are sorted, but I wondered if anyone has recommendations for things to see/roads to ride/detours to make between...

Calais and Reims
Reims and Dijon
Dijon and Innertkirchen
Colmar to Verdun
Verdun to Calais

Want to avoid motorways where we can and haven't bought Vignettes for Switzerland as we don't plan to ride the motorways there - though I did wonder of it's worth buying 2 vignettes just in case and selling them after the trip if we don't use them.

Cheers chaps.
 
I'm not going to suggest anything. Go with the flow and let serendipity do the planning, who knows what adventures will come your way.

Don't buy a vignette, chances are you'll never get nicked even if you do venture on the Swiss autoroute and if its not irremovably attached then its the same offence as not having one.

Watch out for priorite a droite - the thing most likely to spoil your trip.

Have a good one - the weather's looking excellent.:thumb2
 
Calais to Reims, depending on time available:

Motorway to leave at the St Pol exit.

St Pol, Doullens, Albert, Peronne, Ham, Chauny, Soissons, Fismay, Reims.

-----

Reims - Dijon

Reims, Epernay, Sezanne, Anglure, Troyes, Bar sur Seine, Chatillon sur Seine, Recy sur Ource, Is sur Tille, Dijon

----

Best bet? A half decent map!

Enjoy your holiday.
 
A complete version (stopping in different places) is downloadable from www.ride.co.uk/europe2

Or should be, but the webhost still hasn't repaired all the broken links. If it doesn't download, email the office (details on the page) and the routes can be sent

The Google Map links work so you can preview the route
 
Personally I would not have spent 3 days each way and cut it down to 2 days each way and had 3 days in the Alps instead of 1.

Your day 3 does not have a huge amount of good riding if going fairly directly, so maybe consider a it of wiggling about to pick up a few extra decent bits of road.

As a first bike trip abroad it will be pretty fantastic, the days will be very easy so plenty of time to stop for food, drink, pictures, flower pressing (A favourite of Wappings') and poking around anything that takes your fancy.

Enjoy!!
 
By pass Dijon, go a little further to Bourg-en-Bresse. Then the following day you can have a great ride via Bourg st Maurice and the St Bernard passes in to Switzerland.
 
You will find the first part down past Reims boring as hell so get that over asap then it starts to get better.
 
By pass Dijon, go a little further to Bourg-en-Bresse. Then the following day you can have a great ride via Bourg st Maurice and the St Bernard passes in to Switzerland.

Great idea, the Bernards are really good, well worth it if the weather is looking good, you can also take a bit of a shortcut over the Col San Carlo between the two of them, nothing particularly special, but bypasses some congestion and clutter.
 
Have a great trip Lee!

Watch your speed on the valley roads in Switzerland, but never had any problems up on the passes :D

If you're going to Verdun the Douaumont Ossuary is worth a visit, gives you a proper sense of the losses incurred by both sides!
 
Thanks chaps, some good advice there. Much appreciated :thumb2
 
I even enjoyed the motorway to Reims on my first trip. It gave me time to get used to riding on the right in a relaxing way
 
have a look at Ride magazine Switzerland tour we did it earlier in May, very good. Surprise was the Riems circuit on the way back
 
Thanks again. Used to riding on the right, but just not it France! Will check out the Ride mag tour. :beerjug:
 
have a look at Ride magazine Switzerland tour we did it earlier in May, very good. Surprise was the Riems circuit on the way back

It has been there for over 50 years :thumb2

Nice little break from the Motorway (and only about a 15 minute diversion) could do with a café or grub wagon, and maybe some races :D
 
End of next week I'm off on the GSA with Mrs F and my eldest stepson (on his MT07) for 6 nights riding through France to Switzerland and back. Been up to my neck with work etc so no time to do much research. Mrs F has booked the hotels and the plan is as follows:

Day 1 - Morning crossing to Calais, ride to Reims
Day 2 - Reims to Dijon
Day 3 - Dijon to Innertkirchen in Switzerland
Day 4 - Day riding in Switzerland - 5 passes loop weather permitting as it sounds fab
Day 5 - Innertkirchen to Colmar via Panoramastrasse
Day 6 - Colmar to Verdun
Day 7 - Verdun back to Calais

The routes for days 4 and 5 are sorted, but I wondered if anyone has recommendations for things to see/roads to ride/detours to make between...

Calais and Reims
Reims and Dijon
Dijon and Innertkirchen
Colmar to Verdun
Verdun to Calais

Want to avoid motorways where we can and haven't bought Vignettes for Switzerland as we don't plan to ride the motorways there - though I did wonder of it's worth buying 2 vignettes just in case and selling them after the trip if we don't use them.

Cheers chaps.

If you love great food, wine and shopping (for Mrs F:)) then spend at least a night or two in the centre of Beaune.
 
If you fancy a detour on the way home I can recommend riding up through Luxembourg, great well maintained roads and some lovely scenery. Luxembourg city is not that big but maybe a lunch stop there.

The other good thing is the roads are really quiet in Lux, probably because most people think its a made up place :D
 
If you fancy a detour on the way home I can recommend riding up through Luxembourg, great well maintained roads and some lovely scenery. Luxembourg city is not that big but maybe a lunch stop there.

The other good thing is the roads are really quiet in Lux, probably because most people think its a made up place :D

I can recommend riding through Luxembourg, I was there in May and back again in September - but I avoid any place with "City" in the name :D

Pretty much any other Luxembourg Town would be a fine choice for Lunch, Vianden is particularly nice.
 
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