Northern France

grantmac

grantmac

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Whist pretty well versed with anything East of Holland in Germany I have never been to France on a bike trip.
Am looking to plan a few days trip but still relatively close from Holland. Would like to avoid spending too much time in Belgium (roads are dreadful in general) but don't want to sit on the Motorway for 24 hours to get to the ''nice'' bits mid / South area.
I have driven by car through the northern part of France, Haute de France / Normandie are the Regions in this area, so basically the WW1 battlefields areas and around Bayeux & Caen. The coast around Calais & Dunkirk is not great either but inland seems fine enough especially the rolling hills toward Le Havre if you head towards the coast from Amiens
Problem I find with France in general is getting suitably good quality accommodation which is not in one of the chain hotels by the motorway where your bike gets nicked from but smaller village places that don't cost the earth for an overnight stay.
Am i looking for something that doesn't exist?
I had already an exchange with Wapping on this but would be grateful for any other ideas.
 
Never had an issue finding good, reasonably priced accommodation in all parts of France, generally thru booking.
To avoid Belgium, ride South thru Germany (albeit perhaps a 6 hr slog on main roads/motorway) and pop out into the Jura/Vosges mountains of France ?
A quick search of booking finds some great accomm...

Are you going solo/with wife or partner or mates ? How far do you want to ride a day? Want to be based somewhere for a few days and do day rides or move on?
 
At the moment a couple of us each on own bikes. We normally try to ride around 230-250 km per day on the smaller roads and then stop overnight moving on the next day.
 
Have a look at https://www.logishotels.com/en/ - these are mostly privately run hotels who have a restaurant specialising in local cuisine. They just share a marketing scheme that predates the internet. They used to produce a booklet when I first toured France. Most are also on booking.com and other booking portals. Many are in villages as the only hotel/restaurant. Most have off road parking.

https://www.brithotel.com/ is similar.

Wapping and I have stayed in hotels in both associations, once on the same trip where we stayed in the Brit Hotel in Avallon and the Logis hotel in Doussard at the southern end of Lake Annecy.
 
On the whole France is more expensive than Germany on the accommodation front.

I try to vary my stays. If I have an 'expensive' night, I'll try to balance it out with a cheap night somewhere else. In the main, I try to stay at private family run hotels, such as those falling under the Logis banner. But, that being said, I don't mind staying a night - for example - in the Ibis Budget in St Omer. Why? Unlike many 'budget' hotels, its location is not on some industrial park or railway siding. It is but a short walk up to the town, maybe only five minutes more than walking from the more expensive 'regular' Ibis in the centre of St Omer.

Booking wise? I use Booking.com or direct through the Logis / Ibis websites. If a hotel is listed as full on Booking.com I might well then call the hotel anyway to see if there any vacancies. Quite often there are.

In short and as with Wessie above, I try to use my imagination. If I know I'll probably eat in a restaurant or pub in town, I'll not worry that the hotel has no restaurant or that it is shut that evening. If a hotel is outside of a town, I'll take a taxi in. If the hotel looks OK on Streetview or similar, it's probably OK. If, as with many country hotels, the restaurant is open and looks OK, I'll eat there, recognising that the menu choice might be limited. I have never starved!
 
I don`t like hotels in any form, but the Logis hotels in France are a welcome change, no two being the same and I have stayed in many...Not for the last few years though, but I am guessing they are just the same, they are like little time capsules, one of the reasons for liking them.
 
thanks all, sounds like you guys share my ideas as well. Will get on to the logis website and see whats what. I also prefer the smaller family run places with maybe a restaurant in house or nearby. Don't mind paying a bit more if its worth it.
 
If you get the chance one day the South East of France/Alps is definitely worth the journey for limitless amazing roads. Just avoid the well known alpine passes during the busy periods. I usually cheat and transport my bike down there with van or trailer. I usually get to the good stuff in under 24 hours from leaving home. Should be quicker for you living in the Netherlands.
 
I'd be googleing "Gites avec tables d'hotes". Then you are pretty sure to get a reasonable deal in a nice place with probably good food, maybe with Vin compris.

Chambres d'hôtes avec table d'hôtes en France
 
Are you going from place to place?
I’m looking at a trip in September to do the D-Day beaches and that area. We are looking at booking a Eurocamp chalet for 5 days as a base, only 22km from Caen. The beaches, Bayeux and costal towns, Honfluer within easy reach.
 
grantmac said:
thanks all, sounds like you guys share my ideas as well. Will get on to the logis website and see whats what. I also prefer the smaller family run places with maybe a restaurant in house or nearby. Don't mind paying a bit more if its worth it.
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That is a very good plan.

The Logis hotels can (in typical French style) sometimes - by no means always - be a bit basic on the bedroom side, especially compared with their German counterparts. But, to some degree or another, they are generally run by really nice and helpful people. I don’t speak anything like fluent French but am not afraid to give it a go. The hoteliers (those that don’t speak English) will usually join in the fun. What is clear and you notice it more and more, is how hard the owners work. We commented on our last jaunt (all in private hotels) that it is no easy job, especially in the smaller places.

Out of the several hundred I guess I must have stayed in over the years, I can say that I have only had two duff ones. Some have been exceptionally good. All the rest good or definitely adequate. I have stayed in worse ‘expensive’ to ‘very expensive’ hotels on business, some of which have been poor. Not in the sense that they are dirty or anything like that, more often because - and att said it - there really is no ‘feeling’ in them at all. You really could be anywhere. Give me a Logis hotel with a slightly dodgy floorboard and a game of ‘Hunt the plug socket’ any day.
 
I tend to use Booking.com and also check directly on the hotel web site in case it’s cheaper

Otherwise I use AirBnB a fair bit, some really nice places available and it’s far more convivial if you’re traveling with friends
 
We too do gite hires and have done Air B&B when travelling more than solo. They work out pretty good value and you can get some laundry done!
 
I must have stayed in over 30 French Hotels on our Jaunts to / from / in the Alps / Pyrenees and they have all varied from OK to very good, generally better value than the UK so we are normally happy with what we get for our Money,

booking.com is generally very good, but I always check hotels.com as well as sometime they will have some extra choice or a better price, but I would guess 75%+ of our web bookings are with booking.com

Generally stay away from chain Hotels, maybe used 3-4 over the years, but they have been fine.

Not all Belgium roads are awful, but they do tend to remind me of the UK roads which are also falling apart rapidly, but some of the roads are actually well surfaced and others are worth riding despite the state of the tarmac.

Don't know much about Northern France as we ten to whizz past it on our way to the Alps and tend to clear the most northerly areas via motorway before heading to our destinaton via the Ardennes / Luxembourg / Black Forest / Morvan / Vosges - which are all nice enough in their own right
 
Its more or less confirmed now. We leave 15th September and head from The Hauge down through Belgium to North France. Then we have 6 days riding and would like to return on the Tuesday evening back in Holland.
So basically day 1 - NL to north France, Day 2,3,4,5 in France and Day 6 North France back to NL
For the 4 days would like to head through Amiens area, Then towards Le Havre, over into Normandie and then back. Not sure if that works. Richard, can you send me those routes you already had. Thanks for tip on hotels, will give that a go
cheers
 
Rasher said:
I must have stayed in over 30 French Hotels on our Jaunts to / from / in the Alps / Pyrenees and they have all varied from OK to very good, generally better value than the UK so we are normally happy with what we get for our Money,

booking.com is generally very good, but I always check hotels.com as well as sometime they will have some extra choice or a better price, but I would guess 75%+ of our web bookings are with booking.com

Generally stay away from chain Hotels, maybe used 3-4 over the years, but they have been fine.

Not all Belgium roads are awful, but they do tend to remind me of the UK roads which are also falling apart rapidly, but some of the roads are actually well surfaced and others are worth riding despite the state of the tarmac.

Don't know much about Northern France as we ten to whizz past it on our way to the Alps and tend to clear the most northerly areas via motorway before heading to our destinaton via the Ardennes / Luxembourg / Black Forest / Morvan / Vosges - which are all nice enough in their own right
Click to expand...

Trivago is worth checking is it tells you the price on different booking sites including the hotel itself. Be aware that even though several different sites are listed, most are owned by one of 2 companies, Expedia (hotels.com) or booking.com

I have found hotels.com a little better for the ones I want to prebook in September in the Pyrenees & Picos as they are offering better cancellation terms which is handy if the weather turns nasty. In general, like you, I find booking.com has the better choice of hotels, especially when needing several rooms. I suspect their sheer size means they can block book more rooms at a time.
 
AndyB_11 said:
So do I. It’s got chocolate to pacify the wife if I leave her at home then beer plus road racing for my entertainment.
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Seldom a truer statement than this, but I never get the chance to leave her at home :blast

I’ll be heading there next Wednesday for some beers to top up the supplies for Winter
 
Paul Young said:
Seldom a truer statement than this, but I never get the chance to leave her at home :blast

I’ll be heading there next Wednesday for some beers to top up the supplies for Winter
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Go again when we go to Gedinne in August. I can squeeze you in the redneck truck and you know where I live.

You’d need to sort a cabin but that might be very easy because we’ve currently booked a twin and a single but I think the single cabins are actually twin with a bed folded up.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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