Champagne Trip

[Foto John]

Re: Re: Even Napoleon Bonapart......

Err....John.....when was Napoleon at Hastings ? If my GCE history serves me correctly that would have been William the Conqueror . Napoleon however probably ended up getting well pissed after the battle of waterloo (which he lost) about 800 years later

Nice pics John. Maybe you could send me your GPS route - I wouldn't mind getting down that way sometime.

Oops, never did history at school............though the tour guide was mentioning Napoleon and Hastings in the same breath. Although the Battle of Hastings I know was in 1066 and Napoleon was around the early 19th C .

Will download the GPS sometime and send it to you, or even post it up here later .

 

[Foto John]

Day three..................

And no more history lessons !
The day didn't start very well..............Inge was doing a bit of shopping in L'Eclerc super market and whilst she was doing that I thought I would fill the bike up with petrol, mostly to give us more time on the road.
To cut a long story short, I ended up dropping the bike fully fuelled and freighted just after paying for the petrol from a drive through kiosk (I was actually being polite and rode forward with change in my mouth and gloves resting on the tankbag, so I didn't cause a traffic jam behind) !
Still, the damage could have been a lot worse I suppose!

 

[Foto John]

That was the place.........

this was the damage !

 

[Foto John]

The worst being.............

the scratches on the tank .

 

[Foto John]

Good job..............

the rest of the day was great :sunshine !
The scenery was stunning as well as some beautiful buildings etc.

 

[Foto John]

Inge and her Intruder !

 

[Foto John]

Just to the right a bit .

 

[Foto John]

Picturesque and quaint villages............

with all different styles of churches.

 

[Foto John]

An all stone church!

 

[Grizz]

Real sh@t luck on the drop John,
However.... good place to put a UKGSER sticker.....
I have dropped my bike a few times... soft grass, hamfistedness, slippery surface etc, bloody iritating, and embarrasing.
may see you guys over the pond some time soon... toward end August.
Cheers,
Rian

 

[Foto John]

may see you guys over the pond some time soon... toward end August.
Cheers,
Rian

We look forward to meeting you Rian, just send me a pm before you come over and we'll arrange a get together.

 

[Foto John]

Some more beautiful scenery...

And quaint villages everywhere.

 

[Foto John]

A quaint village and vineyards along the river Marne.

 

[Foto John]

Another pic closer.

 

[Foto John]

And a complete close-up of the village. Unfortunately had to substantually reduce the picture quality to post it though .

 

[Foto John]

My GSA.....

From where I took the previous pics.

 

[Foto John]

My bike outside a church...

One of my favourate pics!

 

[richie]

Well John, nice report, are they the last pair of Verns bags on yer bike????

 

[Taff]

John. Pity about the drop, but looking at the pics, I think you got off lightly. Seeing your photos of the Champagne cellars reminded me of a trip we did years ago and a lesson I will pass on, in case anyone else reading this makes the same mistake I made. The tour guide did her bit and pointed out some fantastic painting that was hanging in this massive underground room (but you could have been in the same boat with that Napoleonic time travelling keg). Keen on photography, I stayed behind for about 10 seconds after the tour moved on to get a good picture, only to find that I was completely lost. The sound does not travel underground, and there are so many tunnels leading off tunnels, it was virtually a matter of picking at random any 1 of 5 tunnels. I remember the guide telling us that there were around 13 miles of underground cellars, so going walkabout and hoping for the best was not an option, and by now, as every tunnel looks exactly the same, I couldnt even find my way back to the painting. Luckily after about 30 mins I heard a foreign group and tagged on to them. Moral of the story? If you are in a Champagne cellar, tempting as it is, make bloody sure you don't get separated.

 

[Foto John]

Well John, nice report, are they the last pair of Verns bags on yer bike????

Thanks Richie, there's still more to come , they're actually Jesse Odyssey panniers, purchased from Kiwi Bob in Germany.
I chose them over Verns as they're made with quick-release catches and they open at a better angle, amongst other decisions.
See here for the panniers, they're expensive, but I.M.H.O. worth the money as they're extremely well made !