Hi Adrian,
In the last 12 hours you have received replies to your query that are all perfectly valid and I agree with all of them (some days you will ride longish distances and on other days you will be stopping frequently for breath-taking views, sight seeing of whatever, torrential downpours blah blah &, yes, you can end up doing more than you prefer in order to catch some ferry or other - the Long Way Down people are doing exactly that right now and Ewan is not happy!); there are still factors that no one knows about you, such as "will you be carrying a pillion passenger and, if so, does he/she give you "grief" at every fuel stop?".

Very glad to hear that you are off on a short trip soon - no doubt you will use this to get a feel for your own preferences in the daily distances debate.
Let us know what you think after that!

Cheers,

Being Europe, each nation has its' own road classification system (having said that, there is also an EU system in place as well, I believe for just major motorways, just to clarify things :rolleyes2: ).

D roads in France are run by the local highway people; D = Departement, something about the same size as a county in the USA.
Therefore, there are loads upon loads of D roads and the numbers, as you have discovered, can repeat themselves across 100s of Kms of roads.

Having got that out of the way, the very best twisties in France are often the D roads!!

More about French roads
 

I've just noticed that the "As" and "Ns" are mentioned as well:

A: these are the Autoroutes/Autobahns/Autostradas etc, like Interstates in the US.

N: these are the national routes of strategic importance to France but not constructed to "A" standard (can also be quite twisty and of interest to motorcyclists therefore!).

Hi Adrian,
We covered some of the same ground recently and my 2 cents worth would be to take the motorways and cover big miles between the main sights you've chosen in Belgium and Germany to get to the Alps and northern Italy (e.g. the Lakes) spending most time liesurely winding around the mountains and lakes. We were a little disappointed by the Black Forest. Then motorways again down to Millau, winding back roads again through southern France. Cheers

Wile e,
Try these coords in Google Earth: N44 04.861 E3 01.243 - You'll see the tall pilons in place (or their shadows) and the construction work, but no bridge/viaduct road platform as the maps are still too old! We took these photos of the Viaduc De Millau on 4th August 2007:

Nice pics John. I must have missed that rest area under the bridge, good location.

Here's my ride over the bridge.
YouTube - Riding over the Millau Bridge

I was travelling away from Millau and the visitor centre entrance is on the right just before the bridge.

Tee!Hee!!!............................

I see you too slowed down crossing it - everyone seems to but unfortunately a very restricted view from the bridge itself. And the viewing points either side require a bit of a walk. We were there at start of European main holidays, so traffic was thick to say the least and thoe carparks chockers!

The main visitor centre is on the D992 which passes under the viaduc (not D41). The viaduc is on the A75. To get over the top and underneath, we were travelling south over the top then exited the A75 about 4 miles south, after a mile or so turned west on the D999 for 5.3 miles, then north 7 miles to get underneath to the visitor's centre. We didn't pay to sit through the doco movie on its design and construction. I actually saw that in-flight on our Qantas flight home a few months later! Very interesting. Continuing east on the N9 (we avoided Millau traffic) you can get a great view of Millau and the viaduc in the distance from the hillside on the N9/Route de la Caval.
Cheers

Yes a boring video, not much to see. A lovely bridge to view from afar. Millau is a large town, I got lost in there for an hour before making my escape.

It's not easy to make a good video from a bike camera!! Look at all the ones on Youtube et al.

I tried to get B&B in Millau a few years ago, with no notice and in the height of August hols - no chance! It is a very popular town and that was when the bridge was being built - could be more so, with all of the publicity about that bridge.

Gorge De Tarn
 

if your going to the milau viaduct can i recomend you get off the next junction on the way up and go through the gorge de tarn its europes answer to the grand canyon up to 500 meters deep and goes on for about 70 k with vultures and eagles flying above stunning place

I'll second that - got to watch the road there, rubber necking by everyone!!

Thanks everyone for your input, John downunder i think you may have a point in using the motorways between the main points of interest, those are some lovely photos you posted! is that a red camping sign i see behind the pan?, if it is i reckon that must one nice campsite!
Walkabout you are a wealth of info, do you have an emergency hotline number for stranded european travellers?:biggrin:
Flyingdoctor is that a tiger 1050 your riding? how do you like it?, im head mechanic in a Triumph shop and i reckon the tiger 1050 is the best bike Triumph has ever made.
Looks like im also going to have to visit gorge de tarn aswell, sounds nice.

P.S. I will be riding solo and camping every night.

Yes it's a tiger 1050. A superb bike. I've done nearly 15k in 6 months, can you tell I love riding it ? Long distance touring is sooo easy on it. It just ate Europe up this summer. You must visit the col de la Bonette. What a superb road and views from the top are out of this world. Have fun.

I ride solo and camp too. The freedom is wonderful and you actually talk to more locals when you're on your own. If you're heading through Andorra there is a wonderful campsite near Ax les Thermes on the road to Ascou.
Introductie Ascou la Forge | kleine camping | buitensport | outdoor| pyreneeen | canyoning | speleologie | speleo | rafting | kayaken | GGG | SVR | sportieve vakanties | klimmen | rotsklimmen | bergwandelen | grotten | via ferrata | klettersteig | mo Camping Ascou la Forge. It's run by a lovely Dutch couple. I used it for a base for 3 days this summer. A wonderful area. This years Tour de France went right past the site.

adrian74, I did a similar trip in the August just been, in 16 days:
http://www.europe2007.webset.co.nz/August_2/map.JPG
That included a couple of days in Munich, Salzburg, Venice and Groningen just being a tourist.
But, I had to do some serious hours on the motorways to spend decent time anywhere. I did Dunquerke to Munich in one day, and then Freiburg to Groningen in one day. I also spent one very wet afternoon riding across Wales to catch a ferry at Holyhead.

I found some good riding in the Black Forest, and the Alps are amazing ( I did the Grossglockner and Albula passes). Wish I'd made it down to Millau, it was on my original plan but I headed up to Groningen to visit a mate instead.

Good Luck!
Matt

If you don't mind riding everyday full on then perhaps 10 days is enough. However, if you would like to enjoy yourself and your ride, I agree that you may want to save some for another time. I had taken a trip through Europe on an R80GS over last spring and summer. At first I had planned to see a few more countries but decided to change it up to just a few only so I could really enjoy what I was doing taking my time and save the others for another adventure. I suppose it all depends on whats important to you. If you are trying to stay off the motorways and stick with the "Road Less Traveled", I don't recommend doing it in 10 days.
Nathan