La Belle France...

[Magnet]

... A tale of some bimbling, with a few walks thrown in too.

Myself and Harry the Cat set off from Sheffield last Wednesday, en route to Champagny-en-Vanoise in the French Alps. Me on a standard 800GS and HtC on the adventure version.

This is going to be mostly pics, so not much rambling in between:

Rode to Hull, got on ferry, blah...

Got off ferry at Zeebrugge, rode through Belgium, blah...

Hot!!!

Stopped for lunch at Dinant:








Rode on to Dun-sur-Meuse - HOT!!
Arrived at Two Wheel Moorings, to a warm welcome from Ian and Carol. Only stayed one night, but can highly recommend it. Both are keen bikers, accommodation basic but clean, secure garage parking. Excellent if you want to visit Verdun and 1st World War sites. Rear terrace overlooking the Meuse:



War memorial from bedroom window:



Went out for dinner. Mostly ate pizza and ice-cream.

Next day, rode to Bescancon. Very HOT!!!
Had intended a route through the Vosges, but looked too far, so took the D roads straight south from Dun. Hardly any traffic and passed through loads of interesting villages.
Stayed at the Hotel de Paris, very nice, right in the middle of town with secure courtyard parking. Had breakfast next morning in the square. Pigeons wanted some too...






Where were we up to, Mmm, think it's Saturday.
A bit cooler today. Put the liner in my jacket in case it rained. We rode through the Jura, It got warm, so I took my liner out again. On through Annecy and Albertville. Somewhere around here it suddenly went dark and someone turned the shower on full blast. That's what it felt like anyway as the water went straight through my jacket and we ploughed through standing water to arrive at Champagny.
No pics today. CBA.

Sunday a day of rest, of course.

Monday - nice stroll up the hill into the beautiful Champagny valley:





Tuesday - bit more of a serious walk. Took the cable car and then went up to Pointe de la Velliare, looking down on where we'd been the day before:






Wednesday - swapped back into riding boots for a circuit round Bourg St. Maurice, Col de L'Iseran, Bonneval-sur-Arc, St. Jean de Maurienne, Col de la Madelaine and back home, via 'Tesco's' (SuperU - where I got some very strange looks. It was only when I got home that it realised that my face was rather grimy from riding with my visor open and I looked like an apprentice chimney sweep)





Pierre the donkey enjoyed the ride too...



Great riding round onto the Col de la Madelaine, for a final stop:





A great day - time to put my walking boots on and use those legs again tomorrow. Please tune in for further instalments...

 

[(RIP) andrewgsadv]

Hello Magnet and HTC, some grand weather you are having there. Brings back happy memories of our 2011 trip covering most of the pass roads you mention. Good to get off and have a walk about too, must get back there soon. Looking forward to your next instalment,thanks for posting.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Excellent - looks like retirement is all good

 

[Micky]

Good one Fran and Tony ... still prefer the look of the standard F800GS over the lardy Adventure version

Quality photographs that say it all ... keep it coming

I'll have to make do with Wales next week, for a couple of nights, for now

 

[bazman]

Lovely !! In France at the moment but not on bike ��
Keep the photos coming ��

 

[JerseyNeil]

Great stuff. Great pics however you mention Italian food and have a photo of some Danish pastries.... Did you eat anything French? Maybe you ate the pigeons

Enjoy your trip looks and sounds brill.

Neil

 

[harry the cat]

Good one Fran and Tony ... still prefer the look of the standard F800GS over the lardy Adventure version :

Everyone's entitled to an opinion. No matter how wrong......

 

[harry the cat]

Great stuff. Great pics however you mention Italian food and have a photo of some Danish pastries.... Did you eat anything French?

Does reblochon and fromage de chèvre on the pizzas count?

 

[Magnet]

Does reblochon and fromage de chèvre on the pizzas count?

Oh, and I forgot to mention the Chinese we had in Bescancon

No report today. Too much Leffe and vin rouge, I'm afraid.

 

[Micky]

No report today. Too much Leffe and vin rouge, I'm afraid.

Retirement at its best ... enjoy

 

[JerseyNeil]

Go on order cocq au vin......... You will love it. I'm not asking you to eat snails or frogs legs just stop eating other countries food in a country that is known to knock out a decent dinner or two

Enjoy your trip. I'm only jealous.

I will be there for a couple of days next month. But won't be eating pizza or a Chinese. I might have a pigeon though

Neil

 

[Magnet]

Okay, back on track.

Andrew, yes the weather has been good to us, but has turned a bit changeable, as you will see.

As for French food - plenty of cheese, baguettes etc being eaten. HtC had an 'Escalope Savoyard' last night (Turkey steak in cheese sauce). With chips. The only difficulty I have with French food is getting a steak cooked to my liking (or at all for that matter). From the state they usually come in it seems that they drape them over a radiator for a few minutes and call it 'bien cuit'

Back to business - Jeudi:

Some views from the terrace before we set off:







Walked up from the village, round through the forest, down through some small hamlets and into the town of Bozel for lunch by the lake.

Le Chatelard:


Courchevel:


Vanoise Glacier:


Bozel:


Lac de Bozel:



Planned this as a little stroll, but ended up doing about 800 metres of climb (that's about 2500 feet in old money). This terrain can be quite deceiving when you look at it on a map, even if you know the area. The last bit from Bozel back up to Champagny was particularly cruel. It's quite a short distance but there's 300 metres to climb, just when you were starting to relax and think it was all over... Well it wasn't. Can I ride my bike tomorrow, please?

More to follow...

 

[Micky]

Yes, you may ride your 'bike provided we get a full report Ma'am

 

[Magnet]

Yes, you may ride your 'bike provided we get a full report Ma'am

Patience please, I'm on with it. Might appear in the morning though.

PS saw a bear in the woods:





Didn't seem to have any sandwiches though...

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Love it, Magnet

 

[Micky]

Patience please, I'm on with it. Might appear in the morning though.

PS saw a bear in the woods ...

Didn't seem to have any sandwiches though...

But did it crap

Had a beer with The Bear t'other night, he had a Desperate Dan pie'n chips, then half of Redrick's

 

[Magnet]

Friday.

Weather a bit more changeable:



Wanted to go to an event in Courchevel in the afternoon, so we decided to have a run up the Road to Val Thorens first. I know my way up there, but decided to put it in the sat nav anyway. Glad I did as it found a little gnarley back road as an alternative to the wide sweeping turns of the main road, which is built for the coaches going up to the ski resort. Ooh! Look at that!



It did have white lines down the middle, but they were purely decorative I can assure you. I'm definitely a 'second gear, rear brake, slip the clutch' girl on hairpins, but a couple of these were so narrow, tight and steep that they warranted first gear, great stuff

Up to Val Thorens, which is a bit of a ghost town in the summer, just some builders renovating or building chalets and loads of not very attractive ski lift machinery. It was also COLD, so we worked our way back down the valley to St. Martin de Belleville, which is a proper mountain village and stopped for coffee.

Some nice pictures of a slim 800 GS with a lardy thing in the background, just for Micky





Oh, and one of the big boy for good measure:



They really make a effort with the flowers in these villages:





Every village seems to have a 'village dog', not a stray, but one that trots about the place like they own it. This was no exception:



Anyway, on to Courchevel. The event we wanted to go to was a round of the World Championship summer ski jumping competition. Didn't know there was such a thing? No neither did I until recently. They really know how to run an event, the French - there were birds of prey displays, aerobatics, beer tents, souvenirs and competitions for kids, women and men.

Bald Eagle:



Andean Condor (look at those feet!):



The big hills:



Kids competition on their own 'little' hill:



Preparing the hill:



Some early jumps:







Seemed to get higher and more stylish as the event went on:



Anyway, eventually we made our way home, which only took about 20 minutes.

While we were at the event, a couple of storms passed through, so I bought a hat to keep the rain off - those nice generous French folk gave me a flag to go with it. Might attach it to my bike

 

[Magnet]

Saturday:

 

[Micky]

Saturday:

That's life on the road for ye

 

[JerseyNeil]

I rode over the top of the Vosges Mountains in fog like that a few years ago. Not much fun and I wouldn't rush to do it again.

Take care.