4 day trip, camping

[adventuredon]

Ok, so got the green light to do a 4 day camping trip. Yes, google is my friend, but looking to mince your ideas into an easy circular type route.

Please feel free to join me if you are at a loose end....I will be doing the eurotunnel to Calais.

Please suggest a route / town to aim for - riding 200 miles a day(I will be camping so need the extra time to set up, chill out and eat pate!). So I guess the turn around point must be within 500 miles ish of Calais. I do not want to race to destination, only to turn around and race back. I want to ride a reasonable amount of d and n roads. Not interested in hauling ass too much on mortwray. Will do Iif must, but the trip is about the countryside...I thought of St Quentin - Metz - Koblenz - Tournai - Calais. Ideas? good trip or bad? roads in between recommended? I am happy to do my own route planning, however, I rate efficiency so if you have some, send them on!

 

[columbus]

It's not on your suggested route but if you end up heading Normandy way I can recommend here http://www.camping-lahallerais.com/en. It on the edge of the river Rance and about 20 mins walk along the river bank into the town of Dinan.

 

[Wapping]

You have four days.

I would suggest riding from Calais for one day, anchoring yourself down for two days in one place and then riding back to Calais in one day. The clear advantage being that you'll only put down and take up your tent once.

You could do very much worse than repeating the first May Wander 2014 we have just completed.

http://www.campingbourgogne.fr/burgundy-morvan-area/

http://www.frenchcampsites.co/camps...e/st-leger-de-fougeret-camping-fougeraie.html

The Morvan and its Côte d'Or neighbour has an excellent cross-section of roads, from fast open sweepers to small one car wide minor roads through forests, over dams and around lakes. Lots of attractive villages and a number of reasonable sized towns, too. The interesting thing from a biking (or car) point of view is that the two areas, whilst close together, are totally different geographically.


You can ride to the area easily in one day. It's a bit over 300 miles with just the first bit on the motorway. On my own I would do it non-motorway all the way but it's just as OK to bash out a bit of motorway to say either St Pol, Cambrai, St Quentin or Soissons without any shame. If the weather is really crap, lashing with rain, you could motorway all the way to Troyes or even further to Auxerre.

 

[adventuredon]

Good call Richard. I think your idea is going to be the basis for this one
Cheers

 

[Wapping]

OK, no problem.

If you would like the routes we took, drop me an email. They are centred on Avallon, which is at the top of the Morvan, but anywhere in the area would do.

I broke our two full days in the area into two. (1) Across to the Côte d'Or (2) Into the Morvan itself. The second day took us down some very small roads but nothing off-road. I was on my 1600 but would do it on a FireBlade, too. You can though miss out the smaller C roads quite easily, sticking to the (excellent) D roads if the weather is bad. Take the Michelin 1:200000 scale map of the area. http://travel.michelin.co.uk/map-519---burgundy-scale-1200-000-1134-p.asp it's first class.

I would take a picnic lunch on each day, including the ride up and down from Calais. That being said, there are plenty of bars and cafés about.




You could near enough repeat any of the Bank Holiday / Easter Wanders, so the Belgian Ardennes, Bouillon, Luxembourg, Vianden and / or across to Normandy would all work. They are all based on one day to get there, two days there, one day to get back... And all have escape routes to zoom back home if you have a problem or the weather really is pants.

 

[Mick-B]

Early next month Normandy will be a total circus - D-Day Landings 70th anniversary, believe President Obama will be visiting so everything coastal west of Arromanches-les-Bains and into the Cotentin Peninsular is likely to be in lock-down... after the week of 6th June it should start to quieten a bit, but obviously there's going to be more visitors than usual. Nice but basic Camping Municipal at Arromanches, reasonable shower block (clean, hot water & free!) and a short stroll to the town centre, the beach / Mulberry Harbour and D-Day Museum. A reasonable day's ride from Eurotunnel and a good base with plenty to see and do in the near area.

 

[adventuredon]

Booked a municipal campsite on the banks of the Mosel river, in Metz for the now 5 day trip. Planning routes at the mo. One is to ride the b500, but the route is a long one at just over 300 miles. Should be okay with the light and as I wont need to pack or set up camp, Ill have the extra time available. Likewise for crappy weather i can now move rides or days as fit. Other routes will prob head towards Die, epinal, mulhouse, colmar me thinks. I ll post what I do. Cheers all

 

[Rasher]

If your in reach of both the Black Forest and Vosges you should be OK, be unlucky for it to be raining on the B500 and the Col Du Ballon on the same day.

I would plan routes in both those areas, and maybe a few in the other direction from your campsite just in case.

B500 is over-rated, but needs to be ticked of most people list, the first 25-30 miles south of Baden Baden is the best bit, do this and then try out some of the back roads in the area

 

[Nutty]

B500 is over-rated, but needs to be ticked of most people list, the first 25-30 miles south of Baden Baden is the best bit, do this and then try out some of the back roads in the area

Agreed. We did the B500 last week, after a few recommendations, but found some much better roads once we turned off, and headed north.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Don't do the 500 on a weekend, it's like Blackpool on a bank holiday

 

[dave hendy]

The B500 is now a road to say you have done, totally spoilt with the low speed limits and heavy policing of the last few years! The Vosges is much better