GPX - A Draft Plan - and trip report - Northern Vosges, Southern Vosges and Black Forest

[Sneldog]

Moved to trip reports, where it should find a good home and, not least, encourage others to give it a go and do their own thing. Bods can see the whole process in one thread.

Richard

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Hi All,

I am starting this thread to get the benefit of everyones wisdom and ensure my biker mates and I have an excellent trip in June. There are 7 riders and we like to stay in towns where there is a bit of a buzz and a decent restaurant or two.

My draft plan is taking shape as follows:

Day 1 - Motorway from Calais to Cambrai then a nice ride through the Ardennes to overnight in Sedan or thereabouts.
Day 2 - Sedan to the Northern Vosges, currently aiming for Bitche.
Day 3 - Bitche to Wasselonne or Obernai via a looping tour around the Northern Vosges.
Day 4 - Meander through the central Vosges area down to Colmar.
Day 5 - An excellent Black Forest loop that I did last year and back to the same digs in Colmar.
Day 6 - Southern Vosges loop with Route des Crêtes and back again to Colmar
Day 7 - Colmar to Epernay
Day 8 - Epernay to Calais and onwards to home.

I have some things I am undecided on:

1. Day 2 - Are we taking an interesting route or can it be improved? Where to stay? Bitche seems nice but perhaps a bit dull.
2. Day 3 - Wasselonne or Obernai or maybe somewhere else that is nice in that neck of the woods?
3. Where to stay in Colmar?
4. Should we get nearer Calais than Epernay on day 7?

Any help, advice or input appreciated. No hotels booked yet so accommodation recommendations would be great. Same for restaurants/bars - I can research but a personal recommendation is more valuable - we always try and find the best we can that serves regional food.

I will share my draft routes below.

 

[Sneldog]

Day 2 Route:

 

[grantmac]

I think there were a couple of recent threads on exactly this area. One by Ectopic and then recut to form a new one. Not sure how to link them on here..but here goes....

Post in thread 'Has anyone stayed in or around the Northern Vosges area? Bitche area?'

Dec 14, 2024

Agree. Germany is still the cheapest but we have also noticed since Covid prices have gone up quite a bit. Our old haunt in the Eiffel pre covid was €42 per night including breakfast. But now it’s € 68 which is still pretty good….

• grantmac

Thread 'GPX - Grant’s Black Forest tour (six days)'

Dec 13, 2024

Here are the links to the tours we did a few years ago. The GPX and hotels etc are all here.
Black Forest tour 2021 & 2020 - scroll down or the details on this page for both tours.

Links to hotels etc.

Planned tour for 2025 is as follows:

Day 1 - Hotel is Le Tulipier. Nice place, good food and a swimming pool indoors!



Day 2 - Hotel is Hotel au Boeuf Rouge. New to us but a nice Table Distiguee rating on grub!



Day 3 - Hotel is Hotel La Rochette, looks a nice place in the hills also with a good food rating.
NOTE - MRA doesn't...

• grantmac
• Replies: 1
• Forum: Germany

• 

 

[grantmac]

in addition Logis for France is my go to for Hotels.
Use the map function to find something in the area you are wanting to stay.
I try to look for the blue rating and above for food as I enjoy quality French cuisine. Not too interested in the bar life or raving in the city so my ideas are quiet hotels with restaurants with good food and a glass or 2 of wine. I prefer somewhere a bit quieter but if you have a big group requirements may vary. Happy to help out where I can.

Just found this place for you just outside of Colmar which seem OK but there are so many to chose from....

 

[Mad Hatter]

The hills just to the west of colmar running up to Saint Die are excellent biking roads. The grand ballon being the most famous one. Well worth a look and better in my opinion than the Black Forest

 

[grantmac]

Also for day 1 overnight can recommend this place. A bit further south than Sedan. Nice and quiet, indoor pool which we found great after a hot days riding and good food. Believe a few other Tossers have stayed here before. Only thing again its a quiet place a bit out of the way but has a bar and good food.
Sedan is also nice with a bit more nightlife and bars to visit.

Hotel Le Tulipier.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

If you get ‘off the beaten track’ in the Black Forest, then some of the smaller roads are excellent, better than the more popular publicised routes

 

[wessie]

As Grant says, lots of recommendations on here for the places you express an interest in. I have just responded to your Obernai thread

Sedan thread with my recommendation in post 11. We stopped here as the last stop in June. The hotel parking in the courtyard is big enough for 7 bikes.

Epernay - nice town. Kyriad hotel is basic but okay. You'll need to walk into town for evening food. About 20 mins. Champagne de Castellane is worth a visit, just across the road from the hotel.

Wissembourg nicer than Bitche. Only visited in daytime but logged for a future stay. 3 hotels near the rail station, Hotel Europe, Hotel Alsace and Hotel Weiss look viable.

A hotel in a pretty village just across the border in Germany was recommended in the recent thread mentioned by Grant.

Also nearby but just across the Rhine in Buhlertal is the lovely family run hotel Adler- I used it as base to do loops across the Rhine into Nord Vosges as well as the Black forest. Pleasant village with a few choices to eat and drink, although the hotel food was excellent. We ate in the nearby Greek place on the night the hotel restaurant was shut.

Won't comment on routes as that is personal to your group re. types of road to use, distances in a day etc.

 

[grantmac]

Wissembourg nicer than Bitche

found this place in Wissembourg and will book for my jaunt in 2025.

 

[Mad Hatter]

The route you’ve laid out due south from Europoort is really dull in my experience. My suggestion would be to head east to cologne asap on the autoroute and then go south from there on non autoroute ‘A’ roads to get down to Alsace.

 

[wessie]

found this place in Wissembourg and will book for my jaunt in 2025.

yes, been taking notes

I like the look of the Tupiler. I have been trying to find a replacement in the Argonne Forest after the Dutch couple at the wonderful Hotel d'Abbaye in Beaulieu en Argonne retired just after we stayed there in 2019. As Covid landed just after, they were not able to sell it as a going concern, so it might be a private house now.

 

[Wapping]

The Tulipier is OK (I’ve not been for a few years) but, if bods want to get out to a bar, then they’ll be disappointed. Every jaunt involving others is usually a compromise of some sort, unless you know everyone really well.

 

[wessie]

The Tulipier is OK (I’ve not been for a few years) but, if bods want to get out to a bar, then they’ll be disappointed. Every jaunt involving others is usually a compromise of some sort, unless you know everyone really well.

yes, if staying more than one night I tend towards towns and cities to give people choices as some of my old codgers don't want to ride every day and the only new person joining my group this decade has been one chap acquiring a wife. A friend of a friend joined us not so long ago for one UK weekend but he has been blackballed as it transpired he was a fan of the Aaron Bell method of greeting women.
The Argonne area is convenient as a first or last night so we used the Abbaye Hotel three times over a decade on trips further south so a new option is good now that one is no more.

 

[grantmac]

Le Tulipier is good as it has a nice indoor pool but I find the rooms a bit spartan. Stayed there back in 2023 and it was fine but as Wappers says its in the middle of nowhere so you have to make do with the in house bar and restaurant both of which were fine for our riding group back then.

There is a place a bit beyond Verdun which I have now used 3 times in the past year. Its really in the middle of nowhere but the rooms are cozy, albeit small but the restaurant is top notch.
Its about 25km south of Verdun on the D1916 (Voie Sacree). I love it for its simplicity and peace and quiet.

Le Relais de la Voie Sacrée

Hôtel - Restaurant

lerelaisdelavoiesacree.fr

Also a Logis highly rates ´´Table Distiguee´´ rating for food.

Its all relative really....

 

[JonnyBravo]

The food is a big deal in France - and so it should be.
I stayed in Bitches for the first time this year and the hotel (as many people here have stayed at) is very basic, I thought the food and restaurant service was really quite remarkable for the place though. It was also full of locals.
Like staying at a premier inn and getting real chef made 5️ food at the brewers fayre next door

 

[Wapping]

Verdun, for all its importance to the French psyche, is remarkably lacking in hotels.

The hotel I do like (I have stayed there lots) which is not a million miles away, is in St Menehould.

Hôtel, restaurant, brasserie à Sainte-Menehould dans la Marne (51) : Le Cheval Rouge

Hôtel, restaurant, brasserie à Sainte-Menehould entre Châlons en Champagne dans la Marne (51) et Verdun dans la Meuse (55), le Cheval Rouge vous accueille toute l’année dans son établissement.

www.lechevalrouge.com

Certainly good enough for a one or two night stay.

 

[Sneldog]

Many thanks for all the replies and help on this. Am now pretty close to sorted on this trip and the riding routes are completed.

Plan is firming up as follows:

Day 0 - travel to the south coast and rendezvous
Day 1 - Tunnel then motorway from Calais to Cambrai then a nice ride through the Ardennes to overnight in Sedan, staying at Chateau Fort Hotel.
Day 2 - Sedan to the Northern Vosges on a nice cross country route with a Logis hotel near Haguenau for the night.
Day 3 - A loop around the Northern Vosges then dropping down through the central Vosges to Colmar. Staying 4 nights in the originally named, Colmar Hotel!
Day 4 - Southern Vosges loop, west of Colmar.
Day 5 - An excellent Black Forest circuit that I did last year and back to the same digs in Colmar.
Day 6 - Southern Vosges loop 2 with Route des Crêtes and back again to Colmar
Day 7 - Colmar to Epernay
Day 8 - Epernay to Calais then Blighty
Day 9 - Home to Yorkshire

I am still mulling over the idea of getting nearer Calais than Epernay and also need to sort a hotel for that night.

All advice has been great though and certainly helped with the route planning and overnight locations.

 

[Mad Hatter]

That looks a great trip

 

[wessie]

I am still mulling over the idea of getting nearer Calais than Epernay and also need to sort a hotel for that night.

Hotel Florence in St Quentin is one I have used, once in both directions of a trip to/from Avignon. Close to the centre. 120km further north than Epernay. Also used the Ibis Budget near the train station and big war memorial when we had a very large group and could not get in elsewhere. Plenty of bars nearby as it is in a self contained suburb.

St Omer is also popular. The Ibis Budget has secure parking and a short walk to the main square. Fine for an overnight.

 

[grantmac]

looks good Sneldog!
If you're looking for a place to stay closer to Calais have a look at this place. Again I have used it many times before and have recommended it to others on here who are also pretty happy with it.

LA COUR DE REMI - HOTEL RESTAURANT DANS LE PAS-DE-CALAIS

Bienvenue à La cour de Rémi, Hôtel restaurant dans le Pas-de-Calais qui vous propose une expérience poétique dans un cadre rural, accueillant et gourmand.

lacourderemi.com

Small hotel set in the old stables of a much larger Chateau which belongs to the owners. Absolutely massive rooms and great food. A bit of history as well as the Chateau used to be HQ for the 1915 newly formed tank regiment during WWI

I go there at least a few times a year with biker mates or Missus.

thier website doesnt rteally do it justice.
Here are a few pics of it