UK/France/Spain
 

Hi,

I am doing my first trip ( first of many i hope ) in May 2011, I am travelling with my son ( im 49 hes 23 ) on the follwoing route.
Day one - Manchester to Dover - overnight stay in Dover
Day two - Dover to Calais ferry ( early morning ) then ride to Clermont Ferrand. - overnight stay in Ferrand
Day three - Clemont Ferrand to Playa d Aro in spain.
We will camp for three nights in Playa d Aro and then complete in reverse.
We are both very experienced and have covered lots of miles on UK trips.
Has anybody done this route and has anybody any tips that may help, also any places on interest along the way.
Cheers

Tony:helpsmilie:

Hi
I did a trip in Oct last year, UK thru France and then a week in Spain.

The thing I didnt consider was the cost of toll roads. You can take the back roads but its slow going.

Also the campsites in Spain seemed expensive compared to the UK ones.

Heres a link to a ride report i did for our club website

Spain and Portugal 2010


Cheers
Geordie

Hi,
Thanks for that, I appreciate the comments on your report for your club, we aim to try and come off the motorways a couple of times to break things up a little, are the tolls really expensive ?

Hi just had to dig out my little old notebook cause I keep a rough record of miles and costs for my trips.

My normal costs in Europe is around 50 euros a day. 30 fuel, 10 camp, 10 for food.

however my first few days saw me spending almost a 100 euros a day, the fuel on the french motorways was very expensive and my average daily toll fees were around 30 euros a day.
Also with it being cold and wet in France i opted for a formula 1 hotel at around 28 euros a night.

It worked out cheaper to get the ferry from Santander to home, that cost me £163.

hope this helps

Cheers
Geordie

Was there last year
 

Hi

I did Clermont Ferrand last year, the toll roads aren't particularly expensive but if you're planning on coming off them for a while bear in mind you've set yourself almost 450 miles that's going to take a fair bit of time if you're off the toll roads and it will be your first day riding abroad, which might be setting yourself a bit much for the first day. Another idea would be ride from Manchester get the ferry straight to Calais and just do 30 miles or so that evening , that way the next day won't seem so daunting as you already got over your first day abroad.
One other thing Clermont is in the Auvergne area of France, we had a week in this area at Chambon sur lac and believe me it 's biking heaven....:funmeteryes: winding twisty roads ,stunning scenery and hardly a car on the roads.... would be a shame to miss having a play :mchappy:!!!!

Hope this helps

Neil :thumbup1:

What Neil said. Big day including negotiating Paris. Be very careful if you take the boulevard Peripherique; it's crazy and remember that in Paris you must give way to the right meaning even you're on a major road like the BP, you must give way to traffic joining. You must also give way on a roundabout to traffic joining. 1,800 accidents a year due to people who didn't know. Of course, the fun starts deciding where Paris starts and ends.

Im laughing, I hit Paris around 4, just as the rush hour was starting !!

I just filtered as best as I could but found myself having to pull over to let the local bikers thru as they seem to whizz thru the traffic.

If I recall it took the best part of a hour to get thru.... then I started smiling again !!

Cheers
Geordie

Thanks guys, I may look at keeping to the toll roads on day one, then go off piste after that ! is there an easy option for by-passing Paris ?

Cheers
:eek3:

Not all of the autoroutes are toll roads. If you've got a GPS you can tell it to avoid tolls. Then you get off before the tolls and travel on N roads before getting back on. Which isn't too bad. However, if you do go through the tolls make sure you go through a manned one otherwise it assumes you're in a car and the tolls are twice the price.

England / France / Spain
 

Hi Tony

I have travelled this route several times. A lot depends how long you have, will it all be camping and your budget.
To save money why not use Tesco coupons and travel for "free" on the Euro tunnel" as I have done for years now. Forget the French motorways unless you are in a desperate hurry.
You may have a good reason for going to the home of Michelin (Clermont Fer) but personally I would go that bit further to Le Puy en Velay.
You are more than welcome to have a look at my detailed maps and discuss further if you want. I live just over the hill from you in New Mills.
Regards
Dave Gilligan

Calais - Rouen - Chartres - Orleans - Clermont. Not so many tolls either if memory serves me.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for that, from your experience is that do able in a day, ie 7am boat from dover, and plan to arrive at Clermont about 8 pm ish ?

Cheers

Don't forget that a 7am boat from Dover will get you on the road in Calais at about 9.00am and that becomes 10.00am French time. That'll give you 10hrs to get to Clermont by 8.00pm. Possible on the autoroute but you'll have to go some to do it on the normal roads.

Can't remember the bike tolls I paid Calais to Lyon last year but it was about €60 by car a couple of weeks ago. Based on my recent experience don't even think about swapping to the tunnel. The 30 min transit time compared to 90mins on the ferry would seem a worthwhile time saving but the delays more than wiped that out - and then some.

Hi Tony. It'll be a big day. I've normally stopped in Orleans if I'm going that way and arrive around 17.30 if memory serves me. Clermont is another 300kms but then I'm only heading to the south of France so no need for the big days in the saddle.

Google maps says Calais to Clermont via that route is 711kms and will take 7 hours, 17 minutes. That's exactly the same mileage as via Paris but 47 minutes more due to not being on autoroute all of the way but then you won't have the aggro of the BP around Paris and will be on Route Nationale some of the way; a much more agreeable way to travel.

By the way, make sure you ride across the Millau Bridge the next day; phenomenal!

I have ridden all the way from the Madrid to the channel in a day, so it can be done but it wasn't fun! It was a challenge at the time...

Why do you want to head to Spain? Why not head East and ride the Alps instead since your trip is so short?

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.