Any suggestions for a short European trip ?

[HanoviaRiding]

Hi,

It appears that our respective better halves have authorised a further trip away this year, probably to stop us all talking about last months trip all the time !

Therefore I would be obliged if anyone has some suggestions for a 3 night trip to Europe, with the hotel being around a two hour ride or so from Calais. At the moment we're thinking about the Ardennes area of Belgium as several sites list what look to be cracking roads in that area.

Does anyone have any other suggestions, or hotel suggestions in that area ?

Many thanks all.

 

[kennyc]

near to Bastogne is the Hotel Pommerloch, very good rooms and reasonably priced, close to the Battle of the Bulge sites, and also to some very nice roads and sights such as Vianden.

 

[Rasher]

We stayed in Bastogne for a 3 nighter back in May.

Gave us 2 days to run around the great roads of North Luxembourg, we also took some nice scenic roads on the way in and blasted back on the Motorway on the last day.

You could also reach the Vosges or Black Forest in a day, but this is a bit further.

 

[dave hendy]

We stayed here in 2012: http://hotel-de-la-sure.lu/index.php?cont=0&lgn=3

Was also impressed with Vianden!

 

[Simon W]

If you click on this link and scroll down, there are preplanned two-, three- and four-day trips to Belgium, Luxembourg and the Flanders/Somme - all good riding, all thoroughly tested, with Google Map links showing where they go and GPX files to download with all the routes.

http://www.ride.co.uk/Tour2014/

 

[Wapping]

The hotel is to be a two hour ride from Calais, for a three day trip.

That suggests two nights in the hotel. Is that correct?

Your post suggests that there are several of you on your jaunt and that it's not your first venture across the water. Why not have a go at doing it yourselves? A map is all you need. You'll learn more and enjoy it more if you try, I promise.

If you really want to cheat, have a look at anything in the Open invites trip section, Past Wanders, Wapping's Wanders. Failing that, you could adapt this, no problem:

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showth...-Cote-d-Or-Morvan-Burgundy&highlight=Four+day

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showth...e-Ardennes-and-Nurburgring&highlight=Four+day shorten it by a day, easy.


PS London is within two hours of Calais.

 

[HanoviaRiding]

Hi all,

Many thanks for all the advice, will look into them all when time permits in the next week or so.

The group I'm planning for normally go to The Nurburgring and then either across to France or down to the B500 once a year. We've had our trip this year but for some reason the collective better halves authorised a further absence.... Are we bothered what the reason is ? Nah, not really !

We prefer to base ourselves at one hotel for a few days and ride from there, before moving on and as this trip is only for 3 days we'd like to get there and unload within 2 or 3 hours of Calais, giving us the first afternoon to play with...

However, would rather keep going than go back to London... He he !

 

[Rasher]

as this trip is only for 3 days we'd like to get there and unload within 2 or 3 hours of Calais, giving us the first afternoon to play with...

Crap roads ?

I would rather ride a bit further to get to great roads, I do not think there is much within 2 hours of Calais, 3 hours probably gets you to the edge of some good Eifel / Ardennes roads, but why do you have to check into a Hotel before you can enjoy a good road?

This year we spent a few hours on main roads to clear the boring bits of France, just after lunch we were on fantastic roads for the rest of the Journey to the Hotel, which was then well placed with good roads in all directions.

 

[er-minio]

Ditto.
I would venture further south.

 

[Wapping]

The old 'All the roads in northern France are shite' twaddle. It's about as sweeping as saying that all the roads in the Alps are awesome; no they are not. You just need to work a little harder to find them, that's all.

You want something easy and you want somebody to plot it all out for you and your mates. I'll meet you halfway... But first, tell me how important the two to three hours from Calais is.

For example, you could ride, straight down the motorway from Calais to St Quentin and be there in under two hours, sitting in your reasonably priced hotel at 10:00 AM, having got off the Chunnel at 08:00 AM local time, looking forward to a reasonably priced meal in the square that evening. Or you could take longer to do it, or arrive France later and still arrive at around 17:00, ready to go out that evening. Either way, you'll be in St Quentin for you first night of your two night stay.

OR

You could ride directly to Givet, the gateway to the Ardennes, which is 175 miles direct, in three hours.... Or all day if you didn't go direct, or half a day...

OR

You could ride to St Menehould, 220 miles direct... A little bit over three hours, or all day... You get the picture?

Either way, you are within two to three hours of Calais by going direct or a possible all day if you went indirectly.... Largely dictated by when you get off the damned Chunnel or ferry, how many wee stops you had to take and the quantity of flower pressing you've engaged in.... And you are now in your hotel... Phew, that's day one over.

Day two.... Now it's down to you.... You have all day to decide what to do.... You'd have to be particularly bereft of imagination if you and your mates couldn't find somewhere to ride to from any of these three locations. Givet, go play in the Belgian Ardennes. St Menehould, ride around to Verdun or across to Pont a Mousson. You could take all day or two hours.... Work something out between you all; if you can't it's small wonder your wives have chucked you out.

Survived day two? Great, mate.... Let's press on....

Day three... You now have to go home... The great thing is that the direct times and distances from your hotel back to Calais haven't changed one jot since day one... You can now get back to Calais in two to three hours or all day.... Depending on which way you go....

I have done all three, taking bods on Wanders, taking all day down some pretty reasonable roads. OK, there was no climb of 2000 meters or breathtaking views of glaciers.... But there were forests, some 150 mile an hour or faster stretches of 10 miles or more of very open country (not straight, any cnut can go fast in a straight line) some very surprising tightening radius bends (sufficient to shove several bods completely onto the wrong side of the road and one into a hedge) some single track roads that had bods on GS's wondering where we might be going; I was on a 1600 GT or an HP4 and was less worried than them... And some hairpins that were harder than some I have found in the Dolomites, just because you really don't expect them.... They are all there, on those 'crap' Northern French roads... Just go and find them.

Report back when you've given it a bit more thought and made some effort.

 

[er-minio]

The old 'All the roads in northern France are shite' twaddle. It's about as sweeping as saying that all the roads in the Alps are awesome; no they are not. You just need to work a little harder to find them, that's all.

Hm, depends what you want to do.
Been around in northen France, amazing coastside drives, scenery, etc.

But, if you wanna *drive* the bike, better go a bit more south/east.
Find me anything marked in green (more than 1 consecutive kilometers) on the Michelin maps on the north

And it's not 'All the roads in northern France are shite'. All the roads in northen France and northen that that are shite.

 

[Wapping]

It's a common misconception that all and any roads bordered in green on a Michelin map are 'Great, mate' roads to ride a motorcycle down. They are not.

What they are are 'scenic', which can mean anything from picturesque village after village after village... Right thro' to an awesome set of bends, fabled in biker legend.

It's a similar misconception that any road not bordered in green for kilometre after kilometre has to be shite or avoided. In that case, not many bods will be turning up to ride the excellent roads in the Côte d'Or triangle between Chatillon and Dijon. Good.

 

[er-minio]

In that case, not many bods will be turning up to ride the excellent roads in the Côte d'Or triangle between Chatillon and Dijon. Good.

haha, but that's exactly as much south I intended in my previous post.

I travelled a lot of times between UK and Italy, obviously going through France. Last time was March this year, when drove the GS back to London with a mate (also on this forum).
In planning the first trip, ages ago, I used most of the stuff, maps, gpx tracks you posted here over the years – thanks a lot by the way
What i meant is there is hardly much interesting stuff north of Troyes, if you want to spend some time driving (I'm excluding purely touristic routes in this case). So in the case of a three nights out jaunt, I would move towards the black forest or further towards the south in France.
I'd rather put some miles on the first/last day, than hang out too close to Calais.

PS,
true, I rode along some not so interesting routes marked in green on the Michelin maps. All of them, north of France.
I normally look at the location, populated areas around, twistiness, then green markings.

 

[Neil W]

Eifel mountains, Prum, Schweich , Trier, Wittlich area

 

[Rasher]

The old 'All the roads in northern France are shite' twaddle. It's about as sweeping as saying that all the roads in the Alps are awesome; no they are not. You just need to work a little harder to find them, that's all..

My point is two days riding cross country to get to the really good bits and having to "work hard" to find any decent roads is not a good option on a four day trip, you would arrive at the really good stuff just in time to go home again. A day (or half day) on the motorway will get you closer to better roads.

Sure the Alps does have some poor roads, but you could also string together 3,000 miles with over 90% of the roads being better than the best 10% you could manage on a 3,000 mile loop in the North. It is also pretty difficult to ride around in the Alps and not find many great roads, you do not have to work hard at all once there, just set off in any direction and you will find great roads and scenery - but a tiny bit of planning will ensure you avoid the few bad roads (which means keep off motorways, out of towns and avoid lakeside resort areas in the summer biking season - the ski resorts will all be ghost towns and are normally half way up great mountains with good quality tarmac winding up to them)

The same applies (to a lesser extent) to the Vosges, Black Forest, Ardennes and Eifel regions, once there the great roads are plentiful and most the roads are good - and all are potential locations for a 4-5 day trip - and I would spend the first morning in France on Motorways to get to the ASAP.

Certainly from my (not extensive) experience of riding on rural roads in more Northern areas of France I would say I have come across some nice roads - and they are all deserted compared to roads in the south of England and if I lived closer to the Tunnel I would probably hop across a lot more for long weekends.

 

[Wapping]

I take you point, though it is perfectly possible to have two to three good days out in northern France, the roads are just 'different'.

The problem is that the OP wants to ride for two to three hours, get to his hotel, unpack and then go out hooning in the afternoon. If we assume that he's prepared to motorway for two to three hours, that will get him no further than Troyes.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oe=U...&sa=X&ei=yMevU461EIXVOd60gegK&ved=0CC4Q-A8wAA

If he is prepared to push on a bit further, then I'd suggest he heads for Avallon. He could then spend all the next day riding in the Morvan, which is definitely far from shabby. If he is prepared to forego his afternoon ride on day one, he could ride the start of the journey to Avallon on the motorway, say to St Pol or St Quentin and then cut across country, to arrive in Avallon in the mid-to-late afternoon, for sure.

That idea would kill two birds with one stone as he'd still get his afternoon ride down 'better' roads and would be better placed for the next day. The map linked to above is useful perhaps, as it shows about the furthest motorway distance he'll get in three and a half hours from Calais. If he (or anyone else) prescribes an ark of the same distance from Calais, the outer edge will be the limit of where he'll get to using motorways / fast roads and be arriving at his two night stop hotel in any hope of going out in the afternoon. This of course assumes that he's not trundling off the Chunnel or ferry at noon....

Now he's got the map / distance in mind, let's play 'Swing the arc'...

Verdun works. You can go near enough all the way on the motorway and be there for lunch.... Or go across country all the way and be there for early tea.

St Menehould, the same.

Sedan is a goer. It's not as far in miles but you lose the motorway at Cambrai or just north of Rheims, so I have shortened it.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oe=U...&sa=X&ei=yMevU461EIXVOd60gegK&ved=0CC4Q-A8wAA

Dinant too.....

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?clie...&sa=X&ei=4M6vU_zjNIWOOMungJgF&ved=0CB8Q-A8wAA

If he is prepared to ride for the bulk of the day, some on motorway and some down some decent N and D roads, he could get to Clervaux or Vianden, no problem. If he is prepared to get his skates on, he could do the same all the way to Dijon, for sure.

If he is prepared to ride all day down a motorway, he could get to Marseille, without a doubt...

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?clie...&sa=X&ei=4M6vU_zjNIWOOMungJgF&ved=0CB8Q-A8wAA

All these suggestions do little other than prove that all and any options are open to the bod and his mates, depending on what THEY really want to do. After all, they know where the B500 and the 'ring are, how they got there and when. Everything else will be a stroll in the park. They'll work it out, I'm sure.

 

[Rasher]

Morvan is on my radar for the next time I / We can find the time and money to naff off.

Troyes is a fantastic city well worth a night in if people are passing by enroute somewhere else.