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16 Mar 2010
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Registered Users
New on the HUBB
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: North Wales
Posts: 2
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North Wales to Cote d'Azur, and to hospital
Route Napolean and Côte d'Azur. October 2009 Draft 09.11.09
Wednesday, argue with myself that the Brittany fast ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg is my best route, but then book the Tunnel to give me most flexibility, I’ve got to be back the following Tuesday for a heart valve operation. That’s why I’m going, to give myself some space and in case, next Wednesday, I wake up to be greeted by Michael Jackson.
Thursday afternoon, went to Wrexham town centre to get spare bulbs and some Euros (because ages after the rest of Europe has got itself Euros we still haven’t,). Parked up in a free m/c parking bay and very conveniently got what I needed. All set now, let’s go.
Oops, I feel very dizzy on the bike, could be low blood pressure, can’t carry on and must turn round, so proceed slowly along dual carriageway and take the exit that takes me to A & E.
I’m sweating profusely, so park up and enter A & E, 3 hours later at 4pm I’m given the all clear and feel OK, so let’s try again. STUPID I KNOW! Cross Birmingham by filtering for miles, it’s raining and a Sikh family in a Transit give me space and follow a safe distance behind. Thanks.
Dartford now, it’s going to be well signposted from here isn’t it. I ask at the Toll which way is the Channel Tunnel, so they re-direct me back through the Dartford Tunnel (uh!). Let’s try again, OK now, and arrive tired and late. Automatic machine says to me “have you a booked ticket?” Dunno, I have a ticket but I’m late, so does it apply? Voice says “put the ticket in and then another one will be printed”. There’s nobody around, no customs (shut), no cafe (couldn’t find it). What’s the big letter for on the new ticket? Dunno. How difficult can it be to find a big hole with a train? Ah, there it is! so ride in and park as directed, so that the bike doesn’t topple over and break my legs. Half an hour to ponder why nobody else in the world uses trains in tunnels, for vehicles which can drive in and out under their own steam.
I’m in France around 1:00am and within minutes have practiced my French and fuelled up, ‘sussed out’ the credit card/ petrol pump French thing, and decided to use 98 - because I found a sticker in English saying “don’t use SP95 E10 (10% Ethanol) unless you know it’s OK”. Already got lost getting out of Calais. But not for long, I’M ON MY WAY! Decide to keep going, to make up time lost this afternoon in hospital. Sussed out the auto-route ticket machine and given up worrying about the cost – I’m saving on a bed tonight – great plan. Steady ride at 80/90 mph. Past St. Quentin, Johnny Cash is on the pillion. Rheims, pronounced Rrrrrhams, I’m corrected, and Troyes. A nice night but a bit cold, -3°C now and perhaps I was a bit rash taking the winter liners out of my £45/£35 riding outfit. Plenty of service areas mostly deserted, so share a chocolate bar with the French attendant, and start to pile on the waterproofs, glove liners and those petrol gloves as well. Find a new riding position by pushing my feet forward on the pegs (for use in hours of darkness only). The stars come out, and it’s getting very froid. Got to stop and warm up properly. Meet an Hungarian from N. Ireland taking a GSXR to Hungary, he’s stopped because of ice, but the road’s very dry, he hopes to sell the bike in Hungary where they are much more expensive, it’s going to get colder for him!
Leave the auto-route and take the N77 from Auxerre, a clear dawn breaks and I’m riding inside a freezer. Here’s a Citroen garage with a cafe’ just opening, a customer comes to chat, me in Frenglish, him in Engrench, he’s a motorcyclist and realises it’s so cold. God, the managers a miserable guy but the rest of the customers are good natured, it’s homely and I get the radiator. I’m stopping to plan my day’s route and get my core temperature into single figures. I’m using the new guide “Motorbike tours of Europe: France” which is a guide with waterproof route sheets and map, see www.europeanmotorbiketouring.co.uk . It’s what encouraged me to do the tour, it was going to be the tour of Northern France with my lovely wife, or this one to the Gorges du Verdun and the Côte d'Azur all by myself, “you must be joking, if you think I’m going ” she said.
Lovely open Northern French country-side, clear blue sky, hardly any traffic, great roads, and I follow the route to Avalon. Seem to get a bon reception wherever I stop, and at mid-day I pull into the small and quaint market town of Saulieu, and it’s easy to stop in the centre, opposite a school and war memorial. There’s a tourist information office here, and good selection of restaurants, hotels and cafe’s around. I choose the Auberge de Relais, they have a ‘plat de jour’, and I’m warmly welcomed to an exceptional steak with mushroom sauce, Potatoes Dauphinoise and French beans, followed by superb cheeses. Simple, and wonderfully tasty, with friendly service. I’d love to have the wine, but that would be taking chances!
Lovely ride cross-country to Autun, and then back on the Auto-route to Macon and Lyon, and then it gets really weird. I’ve been here before, a few years ago, and seem to remember a motorcyclist who couldn’t start his bike because of interference by a radio mast. I come out of the services and can’t start my bike. A French Texaco driver comes over and explains that it is the mast. I don’t know if it’s de’ ja vu, or if it’s really happened before! So I push the bike further away, and it starts OK. Next I come off the auto-route by mistake at Villefranche, and find my way through the centre, and then back on the auto-route, again I think I’ve done exactly this before! Don’t understand why Vienne is signposted (it’s because it’s the French one, not the Austrian). It’s on to Grenoble. Hit the toll booths, I’m tired, cold and need to stop, so it’s off here. Find an ETAP Hotel very near the toll booths, it’s warm, so I’m stopping and spread my gear out to air, get some drinks from the machine and to bed.
Saturday
Wake up to a glorious view of the mountains in sunshine, it’s Saturday morning and I’m at one end of Route Napolean . So lub. the chain, then stuff myself with all the pre-packed breakfast cheese, bread, jam, yoghurt, and sort out a route for the day. I’m not rushing off early, I’ve come a long way for this, and I’m going to enjoy today. Set off from Grenoble and find the road out, without getting back on the Auto-route.
Straight away I’m on fast, sweeping roads with glorious views of the mountains. Pull in at the Pays de Corps viewing point, and a Brit couple treat me to a decent cup of tea and some parkin. Thanks. They had a cheaper crossing than me, Norfolk Line, two people, car, Dover to Dunkerque return, something like £50, for me and the bike the tunnel was £76. Went to the loo behind the Pays de Corps signage, and see I’ve been in good company. Try an attempt at French Humour with a friendly French couple, “Le Toillette Francais” I say to them, “Au naturalle” they reply. Hope I got away with it! Onwards to Gap on glorious sweeping roads, and I’m using my rear brake to slow for the hairpins, keeping my head up and pulling away easily for the next. Sisteron, with the big rock, next, then Digne les Bains. Great to be using the edges of the tyres again after the Auto-routes, this is what this bike was designed for, it’s an Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 and I’m crossing France in comfort and with a certain verve. A brilliant, classic route.
I arrive in Castellane at dusk, and check the hotel list in “Motorcycle Tours of Europe: France” There’s Ma Petite Auberge, it’s right in the town square, they have one room available, and I check in at dusk. Perfect. Sort out my gear in the room, and check out a bar, watch Marseille v Nancy (well everyone else is), have a few drinks, then back to the Hotel for their three course evening meal, delicious. There are quite a few other diners which creates a good atmosphere, and I’ve possibly had one too many glasses of wine. Decide on a 7:00am start and a return to the Hotel later, for Petit Dejeuner.
Sunday.
7:00am unlock the hotel as directed and start around the Gorges du Verdun, bit like the Grand Canyon, it’s way below freezing and I have to avoid damp patches on the road from overhanging rocks. You can’t really go faster than 20/30mph and you need to concentrate, it’s a classic route and very quiet this early. I go Castellane, Mostiers, Augines, Corniche Sublime, Pont de l’Artuby, Comps, Balcons de La Mescia It’s a breathtaking loop and the ride takes all of 3 hours with plenty of stops for photos.
We came here in 1976 in an MG Midget that did 80 miles to the pint of oil. It’s fantastic to be back. Sharp bends, steep drops and glorious views. Just don’t get any wrong, because you can’t see what’s coming. That was wonderful and well worth the ride here, now back to the hotel, breakfast, coffee, sort out the next route, coffee, pack, coffee, au revoir.
Then on the Route Napolean to Grasse, you come round a sweeping left hand bend in the hills, and suddenly there’s the Mediterranean below you. The temperature soars, so I change in a back street petrol station, all the cold weather stuff off now and zippers open! Down to Juan les Pins, Sascha Distel with me now, and pull up by the beach, take some photos and on to Antibes. Then double-back along the coast road to St. Tropez.
We slept in our MG Midget in a car park here in 1976, but didn’t visit the town then. Memories come back of the Honda Goldwing that arrived in the car park at midnight in an horse box towed by a Range Rover, and years later we found that a famous French bank robber had escaped from Nice police HQ onto the roof of a removal van, and away on the back of an --- probably just a coincidence!
I wait in St. Trop. ‘till dusk and take the windy road through La Garde Freinet on to the Auto-route. It’s very quiet and I blast at 80/90mph to Aix En Provence, pick up a toll ticket in Aix and I’ve got a system going – toll booth, gloves off, leave glove liners on, ticket, leave booth and pull in to check directions and re-glove. Goes wrong here because it’s windy and I lose the toll ticket – but it’s not a problem.
North to Montelimar Services and they have an adjoining hotel. It’s €70 but the guy on the desk drops it to €50, there’s some advantage in a bit of white hair (but really not much).
Monday.
Really good sleep and breakfast, fruit, ham cheeses, croissants etc . Damn, I forgot to go back for the fried bacon – next time. BUT I’M ON MY WAY HOME, and quite enjoy the Auto-route through the Rhone Valley. Back via Lyon, Macon, Dijon. Come off the wrong exit in Dijon, but easily get directions back on a country road. Pull in for lunch at Relais Le Village, in the tiny village Til Chatel, with cafe’/petrol station on a sharp bend. They make me omelette champignons (because they didn’t know how to tell me it’s sandwiches only), juice, coffee, yoghurt. They argue between themselves over the bill, because I didn’t eat the bread, ask for €6 and I give them €10. It was such fun I didn’t want the change. They advertise a single chamber at €12 and a double at €15! It’s very convenient for the auto-route A31 just South of Exit 5 on the Dijon Road, maybe next time. Onwards to, Troyes, Reims, St. Quentin, Calais. So what’s the French side of the tunnel like, well the French passport control is open, so gloves off, passport out, drop maps on floor etc., then re-pack. 50m and it’s the Brit passport control, so gloves off etc. etc., then re-pack again. OK which lane now so I ask the French lane controller, “which lane please?”, answer “there are 10 lanes, the first is No.1, the next is no. 2, next is No.3” and he continues all the way to No. 10. The “No.1 is green, all the others are red, so which do you think?”. “I think green” I reply, ”and that’s all you had to say, Monsieur”. The elaborate system typifies British bureaucracy and French bloody-mindedness.
Anyway, whilst on the train, I find a huge nail in the rear tyre (my fault for checking). Leave it in situ, and the tyre is still inflated. Then the M25 to my daughter’s for the night, and in the morning pull out the nail, which seems to be only the very end of the point, and hasn’t punctured the tyre (phew!). Battle through M25 traffic and get blocked by a young woman in a black Ka who is studiously looking the other way, but a guy on the inside lets me through. Have to watch my speed now, I’m tuned in to 85/95mph engine note, and forget that we are a country permanently stuck in the slow lane.
Home mid-day, clean the bike and my lovely wife runs me into Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool, for my heart valve op. the following day. I think I owe her, for letting me go on the tour, don’t you?
Oh! And no, I didn’t meet Michael Jackson.
Some stats, Thursday evening to Tuesday mid-day, 2,300 miles.
Average mpg 49.9
Tolls £90
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18 Mar 2010
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Registered Users
HUBB regular
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: New York and Vero Beach, Florida
Posts: 27
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I am inspired. Nice and compactly written report. Pleased to hear you survived France and surgery. Recent visits to the doctors and family history make me suspect I have a small time-bomb ticking away in my chest and I have recently acquired an R1200GSA for adventure. Wrapping up loose ends now and preparing for the journey of a lifetime. I'm starting close to home here in the US, but plan to come to UK to see family and revisit Europe soon.
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18 Mar 2010
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Registered Users
New on the HUBB
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: North Wales
Posts: 2
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I've messed up the message, so Ill try again
Many thanks for your comments. I really didn't know until recently just how bad I was. OK now thanks, hopefully most conditions can be fixed!!! When you've planned your route let me know and add me to your list of people for backup or any help you need. Best wishes, Dave.
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19 Mar 2010
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Registered Users
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: poole dorset
Posts: 148
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Sounds like a great trip. Hope your well now, i may follow your route later in the year.
Thanks Jim
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Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
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helps answer the question - Why Go? Inspirational stories by veteran travellers Greg Frazier (5 times RTW), Peter and Kay Forwood (193 countries), Tiffany Coates (Mongolia Mayhem) and Rene Cormier (University of Gravel Roads).
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