Je pars pour la France

[Toshack10]

Lucky me, I am off to do another France trip. My wife has done a couple of regularity car rallies with her bestie and the bestie is doing another (the Rallye des Princesses) navigating for a friend of hers. It starts Sunday in Place Vendome and heads to St Tropez

It turns out the husband and twin 24 years olds made a plan to fly over from Canada to meet her at the finish. I was asked along to provide adult supervision and "experience of riding in France/navigating out of Paris". It's a tough gig, but someone has to do it, though quite funny as I'll be the one riding on my "wrong" side of the road

The dad has arranged the stops, Beaune, Annecy, Grenoble, Avignon and then St tropez (for them) and he's also been pouring over ViaMichelin maps. So the route is out of my hands (currently...) although I have said Ventoux and heading toward Castellane out of Avignon are a must - the latter bit being helpful for me as I will not go to St Tropez but need to head north east and St Tropez really isn't

They are renting from an outfit with no website, who are delivering the bikes to Paris - tomorrow, allegedly... Renting a GS for a 24 year old strikes me as sometihng of an achievement.

So sometime in the morning I head to the Tunnel and pick my way to Paris, likely some motorway and some of the backroads from Abbeville and meet up with les garcons

a bientot

 

[EVskiy]

Lucky me, I am off to do another France trip. My wife has done a couple of regularity car rallies with her bestie and the bestie is doing another (the Rallye des Princesses) navigating for a friend of hers. It starts Sunday in Place Vendome and heads to St Tropez

It turns out the husband and twin 24 years olds made a plan to fly over from Canada to meet her at the finish. I was asked along to provide adult supervision and "experience of riding in France/navigating out of Paris". It's a tough gig, but someone has to do it, though quite funny as I'll be the one riding on my "wrong" side of the road

The dad has arranged the stops, Beaune, Annecy, Grenoble, Avignon and then St tropez (for them) and he's also been pouring over ViaMichelin maps. So the route is out of my hands (currently...) although I have said Ventoux and heading toward Castellane out of Avignon are a must - the latter bit being helpful for me as I will not go to St Tropez but need to head north east and St Tropez really isn't

They are renting from an outfit with no website, who are delivering the bikes to Paris - tomorrow, allegedly... Renting a GS for a 24 year old strikes me as sometihng of an achievement.

So sometime in the morning I head to the Tunnel and pick my way to Paris, likely some motorway and some of the backroads from Abbeville and meet up with les garcons

a bientot

I shall be on my way to the tunnel in the small hours of tomorrow morning too.

Have a good trip James, and I’ll be in touch again when you return.

 

[Toshack10]

Ride safe, @EVskij - hope it warms up a bit (was unpleasantly surprised this morning)

 

[EVskiy]

Ride safe, @EVskij - hope it warms up a bit (was unpleasantly surprised this morning)

Aye.
Could be a tad warmer than it will be, hey ho ride home might be a bit moist though.

 

[Toshack10]

Brilliant start ti the day - couldn't find the bike key and searched all over for it

I'd left it in the lock of a pannier

On the bike

Parked outside the house

I mean, what could go wrong?

 

[MikeS]

Brilliant start ti the day - couldn't find the bike key and searched all over for it

I'd left it in the lock of a pannier

On the bike

Parked outside the house

I mean, what could go wrong?

I would take that as an insult, no one wanted your bike even when left outside with the key in it. Have a great trip.

 

[Toshack10]

So my phone starts pinging messages at me as I come through Ashford
At the tunnel I get a chance to read them - all from my wife.

The first one was…
The Sky box is dead, you’ll have to call them.

 

[Toshack10]

Autoroute to Abbeville where I stopped for fuel and a very nice Galette opposite the church

I then asked Beeline to plot me to Marines and it was a fabulous couple of hours to Marines. I then put my destination into google maps for the last section, and I chose to detour to my “normal” (done 3 times) route into the centre of Paris which is coming in from La Defense, around the arc de triomphe and down to the Louvre

No jokes here about a (wank)panzer invading Paris. That’d be rude

 

[EVskiy]

No jokes here about a (wank)panzer invading Paris. That’d be rude

has you a couple of pounds of buffer and one eye open to protect yer Wankpanzer in said Paris?

 

[Toshack10]

Not fun getting east out of central Paris as you have to wiggle to pretty much Bastille and head out from there

After much faffage with headsets and the like we left late and the gpx file I got was labelled “Beaune, fast”. Not auspicious

Motorway and dead straight N roads to Provins to look at the old keep and have a bite. The autoroute would then be a 3 hour run to Beaune, Beeline’s “fun” route near 5 and we managed to split the difference: a long wiggle to about 80k NW of Dijon where we hit the autoroute. The countryside is stunning but the route was very village to village so lots of 30mph sections, But it’s not my show so…

Now in Beaune having done 350km - all good apart from one dead airbag that activated when a youth dropped is Guzzi and fell over. It’s an Alpinestars one so is dead pending a factory resurrection, apparently. Ker-ching

 

[Toshack10]

Beaune to Annecy was fabulous - not sure what route planner my mate uses but it does seem to do twisty for the sake of it so we had a couple of farm track type things and vague detours through industrial estates because “corners”. However, unlike last year, dry so an enjoyable run through the Jura, across the Rhone and into Annecy. Flies, lots of little mozzie type things.

Today we had a goat track and the planned route had a closed Col (snow, apparently) and the alternative we found was also closed for roadworks. So it felt like lots of doubling back on ourselves and heading north, to go to Grenoble which is south of Annecy. Prisoners of geography… or rather topography

Now I need to butter up my tour leader (knew thr butter would come in handy) to route over Ventoux on the way to Avignon tomorrow… I may buy him a beer.

And the reason I don’t have my vario top box on is that you can’t fit a uke in it…

 

[Toshack10]

Grenoble to Avignon yesterday was fabulous - I’d not been to the Vercors region before (the hills between a Grenoble and Valence) and it’s stunning, and empty. Some stunning roads and one minute you’re in an alpine environment and the next, Provence with olive trees and lavender. Highly recommend if you’re that way. It’s not the high alps but is empty.

I pitched for a trip up Ventoux, where we met their mum (rally…) on our way down. The godsons loved that, before heading into Avignon.

And today across the Luberon region to Verdon, where I bid them farewell (mid-argument over their route) and headed to Castellane, while they turned south to St Tropez. Hopefully they made it without patricide!

The “adult supervision “ mentioned in the first post was partly warranted, one son and the dad are so alike they irritate the crap out of eachother. I didn’t connect the Sena for two days and when i finally did I partly regretted it… All of them dropped their bikes, thrice, twice in ten minutes and once. The 1300GS may need a new clutch, the Ducati a new mirror… The Guzzi chugged along really well and dad was more Harley than Ducati on that Mutistrada.

And having sat behind them for 2 days while they sat in position 3, constantly (at car speed) I was asked to lead so I did but doing an “adqual” type talk through. They enjoyed the second two days a bit more, gained a load of confidence and “made progress” - the godsons live in Dallas, which doesn’t have curves. I was in their shoes last year and just riding, gaining confidence and having someone show me lines, reading the road as far ahead as possible, limit points etc made a huge difference to me so I sort of paid it forward



Chambery tomorrow and then into Switzerland for a bicycle ride… I know the GS has many detractors, and even I think it’s a bit like the RangeRover of the bike world, but I really quite like it.

 

[Toshack10]

I left Castellane this morning and headed up to Digne.
Stopped for coffee and thought I’d put the route to Gap in google, just to make sure. I didn’t choose a particular route, nor any settings, and for some reason Google must know I’m on a motorbike. The obvious “main” route is straight up the D900, and it’s a nice enough road that I’ve driven before. But it sent me up to Barles and through Auzet to Seyne. Left at Selonnet is obvious as it’s a more direct route to Gap, and is stunning.

Definitely not faster, definitely less than ideal for a car as much of it is single track and very twisty. Huge fun but not my usual Google… is that a new thing?

Route Napoleon from Gap to Grenoble and as the rain arrived I sat on the autoroute to Chambery

 

[Arsey]

I left Castellane this morning and headed up to Digne.
Stopped for coffee and thought I’d put the route to Gap in google, just to make sure. I didn’t choose a particular route, nor any settings, and for some reason Google must know I’m on a motorbike. The obvious “main” route is straight up the D900, and it’s a nice enough road that I’ve driven before. But it sent me up to Barles and through Auzet to Seyne. Left at Selonnet is obvious as it’s a more direct route to Gap, and is stunning.

Definitely not faster, definitely less than ideal for a car as much of it is single track and very twisty. Huge fun but not my usual Google… is that a new thing?

Route Napoleon from Gap to Grenoble and as the rain arrived I sat on the autoroute to Chambery
View attachment 412102View attachment 412103View attachment 412104

I always branch off the N85 Route Napoleon to route through Barles as I love the Clue de Barles gorge

 

[Toshack10]

I don’t blame you, I’d happily go again, maybe not in the car unless I’m up very early

 

[Toshack10]

A very uneventful ride out of Chambery this morning to Albertville, where things got a little more interesting (and with less “valley traffic”). Up the D925 to Quiege, then left over the Col de Forclaz. Right up the Gorges de l’Arly to Megeve and on toward Chamonix. At Passy I took the D13 through Chedde to La Fontaine, and then over the Col de Vaudagne into Les Houches. A Gallette and a wander around Chamonix and on to Martigny and Nendaz.

This was taken above Martigny, with the Rhône valley on the left (and quite a long way from Avignon on Wednesday morning) and the Val be Bagnes (Verbier…) on the right.


And a gratuitous GS shot in Megeve





Bike stays parked in Nendaz for a couple of weeks. Leaving me time to plan the trip home

 

[Toshack10]

Had a ride around Lake Geneva today, which I have not done before.
On my bicycle. It’s 175km.
Now knackered

 

[EVskiy]

Had a ride around Lake Geneva today, which I have not done before.
On my bicycle. It’s 175km.
Now knackered

you’ve cycled over a 100 miles in one day???

 

[glenn2926]

you’ve cycled over a 100 miles in one day???

A few years ago I and two other firemen cycled to Sarajevo to raise money for the Firemen there to buy a water tanker as all the mains had been bombed during the war. Our route was 2100 miles. We did it in three weeks. 100 miles a day for three weeks.

 

[Toshack10]

109, to be precise
Hamstrings are not happy