This is part of the third section of our around the world trip.
Complete Trip Overview & Map

Coming from  Monaco

6/1/98 There is nothing worse in any vehicle than an intermittent fault or one that happens under certain conditions. That is what has been occurring with the motorcycle almost since Greece. The motorcycle would not accelerate smoothly in the mid range, seemed to bog down and also occasionally misfire in the cold. After cleaning the carburettor, fuel tank, fuel filter, V.O.E.S., adjusting mixture and timing by ourselves to no benefit we changed tack to an electrical problem. Our ohm meter was faulty but the Harley-Davidson dealer in Nice, Cote d' Azur, allowed us to work with his mechanic to solve the problem. It turned out to be a faulty tachometer. Surprised, so was I, but the tacho was earthing the signal from the coil and giving an incorrect reading to the ignition module. We were so pleased with the service we received that we returned next morning to give the H-D dealer one of our few Australian Harley T-shirts and an Australian pin that we carry for just this situation. The dealer insisted on us taking one of his local pins and two T-shirts as a gift also.

7/1/98 Nice to Avignon down the motorway. The holiday traffic having disappeared we travelled slowly looking around. Being Australians our impressions from home of the "French" was very clouded by the nuclear testing in the Pacific, our back yard. As such I was not looking forward to visiting France. But like most countries there is a vast difference between a countries people and its government. So far the people have been overly helpful and generous.  We stopped to wash a very dirty motorcycle at a pressure wash. After $US 2.00 it had barely lifted the first layer of dirt. The manager approached us, looked at the motorcycle, saw where we had been and gave us free time to finish the wash. Twenty minutes later and a sparkling Harley.

8/1/98 The usual tourist spots today, Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct, built when BC became AD. It spans 275 meters across a river and about 50 meters high. Two million tourists visit it each year and judging by today most must be Australians. Either that or it is school holiday time in Australia and they are the only ones stupid enough to visit Europe in winter. Also a quick visit to the Palace of the Popes, where a series of seven popes ruled around the 14th century.

9/1/98 On the road again, no rest for the wicked. Left Avignon at 7 am in the dark and fog for Andorra, up in the Pyrenees Mountains, about 400 km. The fog finally cleared to a crystal clear day as we started ascending about 100 km from Andorra.

Move with us to Andorra ,  or go to our next visit to  France .
 

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