Le Mans Weekend followed by a week round France

[franco]

Mate Gav suggested Le Mans, so at last we booked up, then spent a week dodging thunderstorms in France with a great degree of success

Bike loaded up, ready for the off early Friday morning

Decided as it was 1070kms from home to Le Mans to do it all in one day on the motorway, stayed dry all the way up until around Bourges where I hit the mother of all rainstorms, but 10 minutes later I was through it. Stopped off for some much needed refreshment and a smoke.

Arrived nearly 10 and a half hours later at the Bounty Lakes campsite. Mainly a fishing venue but the guys there do a great job hosting people for motorsports events too. They run regular free minibuses to Le Mans, with the added advantage of having plenty toilets, unlimited hot water in decent showers, London Pride on tap at 4EUR a pint, and food too. Full English comes highly recommended. Having heard the apocalyptic conditions on le Mans campsites, this did me nicely.

Nice view from the bar

Cloud was building again though, and there was a deluge during the night.

Looked ok in the evening though.

Mileage or kilometrage by the time I'd got there

Spotted this dude totally blootered before the race even started

Crowds were pretty massive in the lovely weather though

Left Le Mans Sunday, just before the race finished and headed cross country to Clermont Ferrand. Managed to dodge a few storms and had a lovely ride across a mixture of D roads and smaller. Didn't take any photos though. Got to Clermont and sat in a pub outside the cathedral watching footy and drinking Pelforth on the happy hour, which seemed to last all night.

Next morning, went for a tootle round the local roads, this is heading east to Ambert with Ambert down below.

Some cracking roads round there, with very little traffic, this was pretty typical of roads we did all day.

Some strange place names roond here too

Found this place after the gorges du loire, in a monastery, in a village called Chaise-Dieu. Run by a bloke with THE biggest collection of whisky I'd ever seen. Couldn't partake of any unfortunately as we were on the bikes. Did have a nice coffee from the extensive selection though

Back on the empty as ever roads towards Clermont with Puy de Dome visible in the distance

Another nice countryside view with a big bloody motorbike in the middle

Tuesday morning, the shop was open in Clermont, so filled up with t-shirts for the kids and a few free sheets of stickers along with a map of Languedoc Rousillon, our next point of call.

Rained a bit on the Tuesday morning, in one place, we were in the clouds, in the rain, visibility down to about 20 metres...awful. However, it started clearing when we saw this strange thing at the side of the road

More Later....dinner is on the table.

 

[franco]

So, the next few kilometres were horrible, really foggy and wet, and that part of France where they stick the effigies at the side of the road to show where people have died in accidents..

Then the weather started to clear.

Passed another milestone (kilometrestone) in the life of the Adventure.

Came across this old mediaeval village called La Garde Guerin on the D906 which was in reamrkable condition, as usual, nobody about

They had an old tower with crumbling steps and rungs nailed into the wall with signs warning that people of a non athletic nature shouldn't climb it. After squeezing through the tight openings which were more like caving than visiting a monument, I got to the top.

The view to prove it

The only car in the village

A few miles down the road we stopped at the viewpoint to see the Barrage de Villefort which we subsequently rode across on the way to Ales

Another refreshment stop in a quiet town called Portes

Portes had a Tabac, and a castle, which we couldn't be arsed walking up to.

Also had a Col in the high street

Nothing much happening in Ales on a rainy night, so we watched the footy, had an earlyish night and headed out into the Cevennes next morning. This was the smallest road we'd ridden on all week, one of the dotted red ones on the Michelin maps. Sunny and dry on the north side of the hill, but fog and rain on the other side.

So, headed back north again to one of my favourite roads in the region, the Corniche des Cevennes. Plan was to ride along the whole road, then loop back round the Gorges du Tarn, but a massive thunderstorm meant we about turned and headed south. This is a typical view on the Corniche

After a lovely lunch in the creperie in St Hippolyte du Fort, we headed up again towards Mont Aigoual. The weather was picking up.

Nice view of the southern approach to Mt Aigoual

View from the carpark at the top where we had some cafe creme and Gav bought a sticker

As we were there, thunder started to rumble again, and massive spots of rain started to hit the roads...RUN AWAY!! Road south still looked clear, so we took a different route down. Used some tiny little white roads on the map.

A last look back at the weather we were running from.

Even on the little road, every time we stopped, the rain caught us up again.

Still looked clearer further south. So, onwards and downwards.

Stopped in Ganges in the sunshine, looked at the map, and decided to make for Sete on the Med. Found a great hotel with nice little balcony overlooking the harbour and the sea

Sete is a cool little town. one of the biggest working harbours on the Med, so not as pretentious as St Tropez and the rest. Very industrial on the outskirts, but the old town is nice.

Next morning we got stuck as the bridge was open to let some of the bigger boats in.

Decided to spend our last night in Annecy, watching the French game in the Captain pub, so cross country once again. Around Sete, Montpellier, the roads are minging so we took the autoroute up to Orange where we had the first stop of the day outside the roman theatre.

Arc de Triomphe in Orange

Some lovely roads across country, and got to the first big climb of the day, the Col de Rousset, via a place called 'Die'....."We're going to Die"..

You get to the top and go through a tunnel, on the other side of which it was foggy and raining again.

 

[franco]

Rode along in the rain again for half an hour or so, coming across quite a few other cols including this one.

Finally Annecy came into view.

Fine night in Annecy, though the Captain Pub telly was broken, so we necked a couple of swift beers there, and headed off somewhere else to watch the French game. Enough said.

Next morning, up early, Gav programmed his Garmin for Calais, and I headed back south over the mountains...

Decided not to go the usual route south from Annecy to Nice, but cut round south west. On the D911 south of Annecy

On the way up to the Col de la Croix du Fer, where I got chatting to some Scottish cyclists...They were doing some race there in a few weeks, so took a weekend off, flew down and had a trial run...mental

For once, it was sunny-ish but bloody freezing at the top

Just a couple of Kilometres doon the road to the next one.

Next few miles of road once past Bourg-d'Oisans were lovely. All the fields were full of flowers.

Stopped in a wee place called Le Perier for lunch 3 courses, including deep fried whitebait for 12 euros...

Mmmmm

Further south again, across the Col de Parquetout, the scenery got less mountainous, but no less lovely.

Decided to go over the Col de Noyer which I'd never been to before. There was a sign saying the road was blocked but I was enjoying it so much I went right up to the barrier. Scenery was amazing.

So, the road was definitely closed as the bridge was out. So, a 40 km detour saw me come across the Col de Noyer from the west instead. Glad I did, if anyone is around Gap this summer, ya gotta do it.

Once over the top, the views were lovely. Nobody there either.

The east side

Bit further down the Col.

The road down from the Noyer to St Etienne are stunning, and empty.

The lovely D937 heading towards Gap.

Hammered on down the Route Napoleon, took this less than an hour to go.

Castellane was shining in the sunshine

Route Napoleon was a lovely, car free ride down. Sun was setting as I turned off for home

Mons looked lovely as ever in the sunshine, with the Med beyond. 15 minutes to go...

There we are at last.....

 

[immigrant]

Great report, thanks for posting.

Impressive mileage on the bike as well.

 

[Wingit]

Nice write up. Great photography. I enjoyed following your journey through some of my favourite bit of France.

 

[Yodagoat]

 

[2 wheel humvee]

Superb-as ever, great pics and I'm not even slightly envious of where you live
I did think of you when I saw the flash floods on the news though, glad you didn't entirely escape the rain

 

[corsicandreamer]

Nice

That looked like a good ride, we were in Castellane last weekend it is a dream to ride in that area. We are doing Aix next weekend but its looking like that could be the last weekend as the UK, is calling, hoping to be back in sept. so maybe we will get to ride out with you then cheers Ken.B.

 

[ChasMill]

My annual trip to Le Mans with Wapping was a little different. Cafe/hotel on Wednesday evening in Cap Gris Nez followed by a very nice gite in Pont Vallain. Saturday night camping and watching from Arnage. Much drink was taken....

 

[ChasMill]

Wapping examining the inside of his eyelids as 1,000s of horsepower thunder past 50 feet away ...

 

[franco]

.

Ha ha, I'd say yours was more of an endurance event than ours, I was in bed by 3am both nights Was your first course pic after the Mulsanne corner, where it heads up towards Indianapolis? We were there for a while on Saturday night drinking beers. We'll get a beer one of the days.

 

[ChasMill]

Was your first course pic after the Mulsanne corner, where it heads up towards Indianapolis?

Certainly is - the other ones are from the other end - Arnage corner.

 

[Balders1450]

Great post! Going down that way to Alps in Aug, got 2 days in Cevennes Park area then up towards Briancon, so will go Col de Noyer etc.

 

[wildbeeste]

Thanks for that Franco
Will keep these places in mind for next time
Love the feelings and memories that your photos invoke

 

[Gaulois]

+1 for the Col de Noyer. Was there a few days ago. A great ride on deserted road with brilliant views of the Alps. The Dévoluy valley (on the west side) has great and empty roads. IMHO the pass is best done from east to west.

 

[Wapping]

Thanks for posting the pic's etc, Franco.

I have been on many of the roads etc. you travelled on. Col de la Machine (and the Vercors) is not often read about; did you see the large memorial to the many French murdered by the Germans?

 

[franco]

In the Vercors, it was pissing rain, so we didn't stop or hang around much. Did see a lot of resistance memorials in the mountains though. Great part of the country which I fully intend to go back and give more than a cursory glance....

 

[Noddy]

We have family in Curbans, just south of Gap so this is an area well known. Have had some great runs around the Hautes Alps for years as well as finding interesting stuff on route to and from Grenoble.

Have seen the monuments to the Maquis on the mountain roads and I belive there is a large memorial center at Die.

The bungy jumping from the Pont De Ponsonnas, the back road from Corps to Saint Etienne, taking a dirt track to the left on the way up to the Noyer and ending at the top of the mountain. Noyer was a very rough trail the first time I rode it, you could drive a bus up there now.

Great area and so empty of traffic in June.

Spent a couple of weeks there in January, in the absolute worst of the weather on hospital sitting duties in Gap, but sneaked away for a short run around occasionally.

Picture of the Col taken from Polignoy one afternoon in January.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Excellent

 

[franco]

We have family in Curbans, just south of Gap so this is an area well known. Have had some great runs around the Hautes Alps for years as well as finding interesting stuff on route to and from Grenoble.

Have seen the monuments to the Maquis on the mountain roads and I belive there is a large memorial center at Die.

The bungy jumping from the Pont De Ponsonnas, the back road from Corps to Saint Etienne, taking a dirt track to the left on the way up to the Noyer and ending at the top of the mountain. Noyer was a very rough trail the first time I rode it, you could drive a bus up there now.

Great area and so empty of traffic in June.

Spent a couple of weeks there in January, in the absolute worst of the weather on hospital sitting duties in Gap, but sneaked away for a short run around occasionally.

Picture of the Col taken from Polignoy one afternoon in January.

Hi Noddy, definitely an area I'm going to check out a bit more once the summer rush is over...nice photie