Hi, read with interest the comments and have to say I agree about the long ride to clemont from the coast. dull on the motorways and expensive.

the comment about the ferry from santander has point.we've done both routes numerous times, cheaper by ferry and spains roads are emptier and the fuel cheaper.the sun is likely to shine too!

we dont bother with france now..

Many years ago I met a biker near Calais who'd just ridden non stop from somewhere around Valencia on a Guzzi Le Mans. He could hardly walk when he got off the bike :(:(

Tony's doing the trip in May - not the best month in the Alps IMHO. Still snowed up on some of the higher passes, cold from the melting snow and looking miserable with the vegetation still recovering from winter. Spain sounds like a much better bet to me.

Are you going to Clermont for any special reason?
If not I would ask you to consider your route carefully.

If it were me I would take the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo and have a cabin. That way you arrive early morning ready to go. Follow the non peage road to Rennes-Nantes. Poitiers then towards Bordeaux. Stop for the night ( along the RN10) ? then the next day is an easy ride to spain where you can follow the Pyrenees to the med coast.

Come back up to Millau then cross to the A10 near Rocamadour then after Limoges follow to poitiers and up returning via Samur. (take the overnight ferry Caen/ouistreham to Portsmouth. All non peage.

Note however that you can overnight bivouac at rest areas on both the peage and other roads.

Timings, St malo to Bordeaux on the route I suggested is less than 8 hours on an Enfield.

if you want more info just ask here or message me.

Hi,

If you want some good riding while you're at Platja d'Aro (not a great place to be to be honest!) I've devised this route for another guy stopping down the coast at Lloret de Mar.

There are also several route over the Pyrenees!

Enjoy!

Simon

Further all the advice about avoiding the Tolls or Peage,

If you do use them, always go to a manned booth, never ever an automated one. Bikers pay a good deal less, but the auto-booth can't differentiate between a bike and a car

Hi Martin, et al

Regarding your very good point about the automatic toll booths: as of last week (Easter 2011) four main toll stations have been 'supressed' (fabulous thought!) by the Spanish motorway Czars!

So, on the AP7 apart from Martorell near Barcelona, you only have to collect a ticket as you whizz by, paying for the whole at the various exits.

This gibes you an uninterrupted ride from Barcelona to Valencia (I'm sure) and inland on the AP2 as far as Zaragoza (I think!)

Regs

Simon

+1 for get over the channel on the same day, out of the UK, and get a good start on the continent as early as you wish - maybe not such a great idea if it is the first time you have been riding on the RHS of the carriageway and it is at the end of a long day of riding.
There are loads of budget type hotels on that side of the channel and they will be half empty at that time of year.

IIRC, the French motorways are tolled wherever there is not an obvious, more or less parallel alternative route; where there is a N road nearby, then the motorways were not tolled last time I was there - check the Michelin map that does show this detail.

I was last over there in January (by car unfortunately) and fuel prices in the north of France were not much different to those in the UK.

Puy de Dome in the Massif Central; you won't want to go on to Spain!!
Only bikes and shuttle buses are allowed to ride to the top - all others have to park at the bottom and take the bus to the top.
It is near to Clermont and you can ride all day around that area; last time I was there I got onto a public road that was marked out for a hill climb, complete with count-down distance markers to the bends; they were very useful.
You could easily spend 3 days in that area and forget about Spain in that time frame.
France is seriously bigger than it looks on a map by the way.

When we go off to the Alps we usually set off early doors from NE England, get a lunchtime ferry to Calais and stay at a F1 / etap, just outside of North Reims (off the main motorway's).. Dead handy and easily do-able, and there's a nice Chineese buffet restaraunt just round the corner..

We think its much better than paying rip off britain prices for a night at Dover, plus you have a couple of hrs head start the next day, so you can use more of the back roads and still get to your destination easily enough.