Back from another trip to Europe on my own this year so there wasn’t anyone to tell me that enuff hrs on the bike
Left York on the 1st of august after attending a mates wedding headed down to Portsmouth to catch the 23.00 ferry to le harve rode into a rain storm just south of Sheffield that lasted all the way to Silverstone soaked to the skin before i left England
i caught my ferry not a bad crossing only 60quid for a reclining chair just rolled out sleeping mat and had a good nites sleep ferry was canny empty
Rolled off ferry into France at 8 in the morning nice early start route knew i was heading south via Le Mans, tours, Limoges and then onto millau
Had a route planned to millau using French D roads mainly didn’t book places to stay just planed on turning up at a campsite when i was tired or found a nice spot
French D roads are excellent well surfaced and empty miles and miles of roads u barely see another vehicle let alone a copper only prob is petrol especially on a Sunday French still believe on shutting on Sundays and on other days for a couple of hrs at dinner time garmin did come in handy at finding nearest fuel station also a pre paid credit card helped even worked in the rural automatic stations http://www.caxtonfx.com/
Had a stop in Le Mans nice old town then headed to the track to take in the Le Mans 24hr museum
Loads of classic cars well worth a visit if u are in the area
From there it was south to tours another nice looking French town
Found a nice campsite in a small town called St Savin 5 euro a nite can’t be bad
Beer was 4 euro a pop at the local bar (fecking 8 ti late was shut on a Sunday for cans)
Next morning the sun was out headed to a place I’ve wanted to visit since i read about it A town called Oradour-sur-Glane
Which was the site of a massacre on the 10th of June 1944 by German SS troops 642 people killed mainly women and children who then destroyed the town
Town was wiped out locals left decided to rebuild away from the destroyed town leaving what was left as a memorial to those killed
Looking in the doorways of the buildings what strikes u is that all that’s left is the rusting metal of what was once beds, sewing machines pots and pans very moving place
had a bit of a easy day and didn’t travel that much further that afternoon pitched tent in a town called St Germain les belles another good campsite with a lake and bar and local kids taking the piss out of my inability to speak French
next morning woke up to a fecking rooster doing its nutt at dawn bloody rural France thank god for ear plugs anyway sun was shining not a cloud in the sky another 200mile plus of French D roads awaited on my way to millau via the Dordogne the d16 out of St Germain les belles is stunning
this is gonna take pages of typing and u have prob stopped reading by now anyway so ill use photos mainly
millau bridge and gorge de tarn
Avignon
Pass to the north east of Avignon towards Provence
Provence
French Grand Canyon gorge de Verdun
la Bonette highest road in Europe 2862m thunder storm was going on below
Little St Bernard and Grand St Bernard passes near mount blanc
Last couple of days near Interlaken susten grimsel passes
Grand total mileages was 3263 over the course of 13 days 251 mile a day average
bike was flawless few people said i was daft taking a the tuono should stick to a jap bike but apart from the clocks fogging up after a down pour in Interlaken that made them useless for the last 3 days could see petrol millage and the right hand indicator that came on by magic for 100 miles on the a1 from Peterborough must have been the damp amount of cars telling me indicator was on couldn’t do nowt about it went off at ferrybridge needs a service and a clean now
was comfortable enuff and had enuff room for my stuff and the 750 mile day on Tuesday was not too bad motorway millage is 140 from a tank instead of 100 in the twisty’s
all in all a good trip
Have plans in my head for next year
want to visit the Normandy beaches waterloo Verdun the Somme and a motogp aboard
Left York on the 1st of august after attending a mates wedding headed down to Portsmouth to catch the 23.00 ferry to le harve rode into a rain storm just south of Sheffield that lasted all the way to Silverstone soaked to the skin before i left England
i caught my ferry not a bad crossing only 60quid for a reclining chair just rolled out sleeping mat and had a good nites sleep ferry was canny empty
Rolled off ferry into France at 8 in the morning nice early start route knew i was heading south via Le Mans, tours, Limoges and then onto millau
Had a route planned to millau using French D roads mainly didn’t book places to stay just planed on turning up at a campsite when i was tired or found a nice spot
French D roads are excellent well surfaced and empty miles and miles of roads u barely see another vehicle let alone a copper only prob is petrol especially on a Sunday French still believe on shutting on Sundays and on other days for a couple of hrs at dinner time garmin did come in handy at finding nearest fuel station also a pre paid credit card helped even worked in the rural automatic stations http://www.caxtonfx.com/
Had a stop in Le Mans nice old town then headed to the track to take in the Le Mans 24hr museum
Loads of classic cars well worth a visit if u are in the area
From there it was south to tours another nice looking French town
Found a nice campsite in a small town called St Savin 5 euro a nite can’t be bad
Beer was 4 euro a pop at the local bar (fecking 8 ti late was shut on a Sunday for cans)
Next morning the sun was out headed to a place I’ve wanted to visit since i read about it A town called Oradour-sur-Glane
Which was the site of a massacre on the 10th of June 1944 by German SS troops 642 people killed mainly women and children who then destroyed the town
Town was wiped out locals left decided to rebuild away from the destroyed town leaving what was left as a memorial to those killed
Looking in the doorways of the buildings what strikes u is that all that’s left is the rusting metal of what was once beds, sewing machines pots and pans very moving place
had a bit of a easy day and didn’t travel that much further that afternoon pitched tent in a town called St Germain les belles another good campsite with a lake and bar and local kids taking the piss out of my inability to speak French
next morning woke up to a fecking rooster doing its nutt at dawn bloody rural France thank god for ear plugs anyway sun was shining not a cloud in the sky another 200mile plus of French D roads awaited on my way to millau via the Dordogne the d16 out of St Germain les belles is stunning
this is gonna take pages of typing and u have prob stopped reading by now anyway so ill use photos mainly
millau bridge and gorge de tarn
Avignon
Pass to the north east of Avignon towards Provence
Provence
French Grand Canyon gorge de Verdun
la Bonette highest road in Europe 2862m thunder storm was going on below
Little St Bernard and Grand St Bernard passes near mount blanc
Last couple of days near Interlaken susten grimsel passes
Grand total mileages was 3263 over the course of 13 days 251 mile a day average
bike was flawless few people said i was daft taking a the tuono should stick to a jap bike but apart from the clocks fogging up after a down pour in Interlaken that made them useless for the last 3 days could see petrol millage and the right hand indicator that came on by magic for 100 miles on the a1 from Peterborough must have been the damp amount of cars telling me indicator was on couldn’t do nowt about it went off at ferrybridge needs a service and a clean now
was comfortable enuff and had enuff room for my stuff and the 750 mile day on Tuesday was not too bad motorway millage is 140 from a tank instead of 100 in the twisty’s
all in all a good trip
Have plans in my head for next year
want to visit the Normandy beaches waterloo Verdun the Somme and a motogp aboard
