Day 1 : Sutton, Dover, Calais, Breinne-sur-Seine
Left very early in the morning from Sutton to catch the ferry from Dover to Calais. Took the A26 south. Went via Albert to see the South Africa WW1 war memorial. Found a B&B in Breinne-sur-Seine on a farm.
Day 2: Reims, Champagne, Ay, Aisey-Sur-Seine
Woke up to a stunning day. Rode through to Reims and did the Reim cathedral. Once done there we took the scenic route through the Champagne Region making our way past all the world famous vinyards. Stunning beautiful. Stopped off in Ay and had 4 course sunday meal with champagne and our first experience of fromage and jambon for Euro15 (We love France) although ordering the food was a wild guess at what was on the menu but everything we did order was very tasty. Carried on south via N77 and on the N71 through stunning scenery following the Seine river. Found a lovely little hotel, Hotel Du Roy, on the Seine river in Aisey-Sur-Seine for the night. Classic little little rural French town.
Day 3: Dijon, Geneva, Chambery
Woke up on time at 7:30 and walked down for 8:00 breakfast. Everyone was busy cleaning and busying around the hotel...ooops....TIME CHANGE!!! We were 1 hour late for breakfast and the hotel manageress was not a happy bunny. Stuffed down two dry croissants and promptly left. Took the N71 down to Dijon where we dismounted and walked around the town. As it was a Easter Sunday everything was closed and deserted. At least we found a small coffee shop to have some coffee. To make up time we jumped onto the Autoroute A39 to A42 then got off at juntion 7 and on to the N75. As it was coming onto noon we started looking aroudn for somewhere to stop for lunch but everything was closed and there one or two restuarants open but fully booked. After passing the point of starvation we found a small pattiserie near Nantua and ahd the most tasty quiches ever.
By now we were climbing up and up into the Alps through amazing mountain passes and somewhere along the way we decided to take to detour to Geneva. Stopped off THE Fountain and ate our custard slices that we had bought at the previously mentioned pattiserie.
Got back on the bike had a bit of trouble find our way our of switzerland. Totally by accident we found our way onto the A40 and then onto the A41 towards Annecy and chambery. this whole route had stunning views and rides alongside Lac du Bourget.
Arrived at Aunty Nettie's at 20h30 after getting a bit disorientated (lost to you and me) in St Baldolph.
Day 4: Chambery
After a wonderful breakfast we went up to Val Morel with Nettie and klein Roland to visit Nettie's brother-in-law who ran a lovely wood cabin restuarant in the mountain valley(note that at this time we had no idea that this was actually the major skiiing area in Europe...ignorant bliss). Ate cured ham, pickled onions and cheese fondue with very strong beer (no it was not the altitude). After this heavy meal we went for a walk in the little bit of snow that was still around. During this stroll Rensche lost her wallet...well actually Rensche gave it to me to keep safe and I lost it. And we actually didn't know we had lost it except that Nettie noticed a wallet lying in the snow on our way back to the restuarant...ooops.
In the evning we went to visit Nettie's in-laws and had some lovely homemade berry spirits with Brut vin de Savoie. lovely stuff!!!
Visited Haniballs Memorial in Chambery at the elephant statue. Chambery is a very neat town and here we once again noticed how the French are so very good at just that little extra something that makes them have that touch of class/finese.
Day 5: Chambery
Slept late again. Had lunch at Les Quatre vallees, a restuarant on the top of the mountain with stuning views overlooking Chambery and the Lac du Bourget. Still lots of snow around. After snooze we went and visited Nettie's in-laws to say goodbye. Had wonderful multi-course meal prepared by Nettie with the family.
Day 6: Chambery, Route Napoleon, Castellane
Left mid morning and took a quiet backroad south towards Grenoble. The D523 "vanished" at Domene so we went back to the A41 to Grenoble were amidst a fountain of swearing and cursing and getting lost in the maze of roadworks we finally found our way onto the Route Napoleon (N85) to Gap. Stunning scenery with valeys and snow covered mountains. After a quick coffe we took the D900 to Digne-les-Bains with stunning views over Savines-le-lac and got one or two snow flakes. While savouring a tasty local beer we noticed that the people and architecture were starting to look more mediteranean. Good health people!!!
Took the rest of the N85 Route Napoleon down to Castelane. After what felt like hours looking for a place to sleep we founda room at a hotel called La farge. Loved the twisty roads in the mountains...big grins all the way!!!
Day 7: Castellane, Gorge de Verdon, Cannes
Due to more dodgey weather we juggling the idea of heading staright for the warm coast or doing the route around the gorge de Verdon (D957-D955-D9-D71-D19-D957). Thank goodness we decided that the coast could wait. The gorge was absolutley stunning...a must do!!!
Got back to Castelane at 13h00 and while having lunch it started hailing and showering. At the first gap in the cloud s we headed south on the N85 but the rain soon caught us and we spent most of the trip down to Caen in varying degrees of drissle to rain.
In Caen we headed straight for the Tourist information who directed us to Le Ranch. After getting lost again and taking 2 hours we finally got to Le Ranch. As the holiday season was only starting the next week there was no one there. Dropped our luggage, dried off and then went for a sunset cruise along the Caen riviera on the bike. Loads of bling people, flash cars, big yatchs, palm trees...the works. We could live here! Had a fabulous 3 course meal at a lovely fish restuarant on the harbour overlooking the bling yatchs.
Day 8: Cannes, Monte Carlo, Antibes, Nice, St Rapheal, Cannes
Todays agenda was to start from somewhere east of Monaco and head back down the coast taking in all the cliche sites and towns. Left our luggage at Le Ranche, donned our jeans and leathers and headed east along the A8 via "hundreds" of tunnels. Got off at junction 59 and stopped of in Menton on the sea front and had crepes and coffee while people were soaking up the sun on the rocky beach. Everyone looks cool, loads of fashion outfits and 1000's of scooters ridden by people dressed in Dior and riding like maniacs...horrors!!!
Stopped off in Monte Carlo and had a stroll along the harbour looking all the yatchs with matching helipoctor on board. Not very impressed with this place. Loads out dated flats and people who think they are very important.
Carried on along the Cote d'Azur but everywhere look very much the same with red and brown dated flats, kamakazi scooters and plastic surgery. Nice is not worth mentioning.
Arrived at the very refreshingly beautiful Antibes with it's stunning little harbour. Had a huge icecream.
Carried on through to St Rapheal with stunning coast road along the way. Found a restuarant but services was hopeless and food mediocre. Got back to Cannes to have a coffee on the riviera among the rich and famous at the Carlton Hotel.
Day 9: Cannes, Grasse, Avignon
Headed out of town to Grasse, the home of perfume. Took the guided tour of Fragrond Perfume factory. Note: There are 150 perfume "noses" in the world of which 100 work in Grasse. A Nose studies for 6-7 years and earns E100,000 per month and can distinguish between 3000 fragrances.
When we took the D502 to Draguigan. Stopped of for a sandwich and coffee at a roadside restuarant. The English may have coined the term "Sandwich" but eh French know how to make them...HUGE and FRESH.
Then took the D557-D560-D554-D4. Nice road with many cork trees along the way. The got onto the N100 towards Avignon which is the most stunning road I have ridden. Stoped in Apt for a coffee and chatted to some bikers. I asked them which road we should take to Avignon and they recommended to carry on with the N100 instead of taking the D943-D973 (green Michelin route). I took their advice and was sadly disappointed. I shoudl have taken their sports bike into consideration. It was a excellent flat straight fast road but no scenery at all.
Got to Avignon via very poor industrial area of town. Got a room in the Central Hotel within the old city walls. Walked around, bought some Ray Bans, had supper in a tent restuarant on the square.
Day10: Avignon, Sete, Carcassone
Woke up late and barely mad it out of the hotel. Left Avignon directly after taking a few photos and took a small country road following the Rhone river south. Stopped off at Beaucare for a coffe and sandwich (a HUGE half baguette with fromage and jambo). It's a very beautiful little town with lots of gyoseys, stalls and boats along the river. We carrie don along the Rhone down to Arles; got lost and back out again; and found our way onto the D570 which took us through the Rhone delta to Stes-Marie-De-La-Mere. The town had a distinct Spanish feel to it with a big Bull and matador statue at the main town round-about. Seaside town with many horse farms along the road. We then went along the coast to Sete. Most of the way the raod passed classic British Tourist trap resorts. Sete was a classic harbour town with 1000's of caravans. We saw lots of other bikers along the way who all waved. We carried on along the coast to Beziers in the rain. got lost again but finally made our way onto the D11/D5/D610 through vinards looking for a B&B all alone the way with out any luck. Following a sign to another B&B onto a small single track road we hit a dead end and had to make a U-turn. It was dusk, I was in a hurry so instead of asking rensche to jump off first I attempted the u-turn on the small narrow inclined road. half way through the turn the bike started going over. I got me foot down but could barely hold the bike; Rensche slid off the seat and got her foot down which immediately made the bike light enough for me to recover; Rensche slid off the bike and I wheeled the bike around...NEVER try to u-turn on a wet cold sloping road with a pillion.
At last after an hour we found a sign to another B&B. The little coutry lane took us along a obscure route past miles of vineyards and finally to a old farm house. The rooms were newly refurbished and had a HUGE bath. After ecovering and cleaing oursleves up we were invited in for supper with our non-english speaking hostes and her two sons. We were joined by an Irish coupe from the Channel islands. We had a lovely supper of asparagus, quiche starters following by rabbit, spagetti and a few bottlels of her own wine. This all finished off with cholcate tart and cheese platter.
Day 11: Carcassone, St George
Good breakfast; said our goodbyes and rode to Carcassone. Walked up into the castle which had been rebuilt y the locals in the 1950's and which was host to the movie "Brave Heart".
Headed out along the D118 to Mazamet and then onto the D112 to St Pons and stopped for lunch and had the plat du jour. The scenery was absolutely stunning the whole way with vineyards and rolling hills.
Carried on the D908, a beautiful road, the found a few moe obscure D roads and arrived at St Pierre. We were clearly in the Pine Forestry area of France. made out way up the D999 through St Africa and by this time we were already starting to look for somewhere to stop over. We went all the way to the outskirts of Millau under the "Bride in the Sky"; turned round and followed another obscure little road to a B&B but after riding for 10miles without any sign of life we turned round and found a hotel in St Georges-de-Luzencon. Had a lovely plat du jour for Euro12. The waiter came over and showed his little Bokke rugby ball. Everybody was very friendly and we had a lovely time even through our room winder was directly next to the hotel's fridge courtyards.
Day 12: St George, Millau, Gorde du Tarn, La Chaise Dieu
Our day started late and we almost missed breakfast but our host had it all ready for us. We had a lovely rest but on the worst matress so far. We then took the road to Millau under the bridge in the sky and into the Gorge de Tarn. Beautiful winding roads inbetween caves and rock formations in the valley. We stopped for coffee in a little village in the valley and saw a few small castles along the turqoise green crystal clear river. We stopped in Mende and it suddenly got colder. ( We were clearly heading north). The N88 climed further and further upwards and we could see some stubborn snow. We rode past many fields where the farmers were ploughing and getting ready for summer.
The right hand heated grip broke in Langodgne. We stopped off and I fixed it with my trusty MacGuyver knife. (not just a pretty face). In the next town we stopped to take batteries out of the pannier and couldn't get it back on. On close examination we found a little stone was jamming the lock. We manage to dislodge it and the pannic was over. We had the most gorgeous quiche on the way with ham and cheese. We ended up in La-Chaise Dieu in a hotel. We desperately wanted to stay in a B&B we spotted in the town but the owner was out of town. We walked around town and found a beautiful old cathedral. Supper started off with a warm cheese salad but the main course we decided to leave it up to our hostess. She surprised us with lentils and sheep stomach for me and Rensche had the gammon steak with mushroom. Desert was nothing fancy. PS didn't get lost today..
Day 13: La Chaise Dieu, Nevers
We skipped the hotel breakfast and got straight onto the road. We noticed sign boards all along the way with numbers identifying the age of the people who has died in accidents along the road. Very effective. We stopped off at Olliequres for breakfast. The waiter had to run across the road to buy bread which turned out to be 8 crossiants and cafe cream grande. This all while the young waiters played DJ for us trying to impress us with french reggae band Trye.
The main aim of the day was to ride as many green roads as possible hence our zig-zagging across the map. Lots of rivers, pine forrests, pretty towns. We almost run out of petrol due to lack of service stations but found one on the way out of Thiers although the owner was just about to lock up. Riding on Sundays - we never learn!
We found our way to Vichy via the D1 from St Just. Vichy was nothing special - just another French commerce town. Pity!
We took the N9 to Moulins and then headed towards the Canal lateral de la Loire. Apparently the D1079 is the N79!! but the French forgot to tell the rest of the world. Once we found our bearing we made our way along the D15 which followed the Loire canal. Lots of small dead towns, farms and cream cows. (never use the Afrikaans word for cow in public in France- it means balls...) We stopped off at one of the beautiful steal bridges along the canal for a rest.
At 15h30 we started the dreaded search for a B&B and stopped off Decize for quiche but everything was closed and there were no B&B. So we headed onto Nevers. There we went straight to tourist information who directed us to a hotel which was full. After trying to negotiate the one-way system for an hour in pissing rain we chose one of the major roads out of town and saw a hotel-du-verdon. Which turned out to be the Marie muncipality office. We headed into Nevers and found a hotel overlooking the town park at 20h30. Forgot to mention but during this entire period of frantically searching for accomodation Rensche said thank goodness it isn't raining to which Mother Nature kindly responded by dumping a thunder storm onto our heads. In bed by 22h30.
Day 14: Nevers, Bar-Sur-Seine
We slept nice and late and at about 09h45 realised we were suppose to be out of the room and at breakfast by 10am. We made it out of the room at about 10am but there was no problem and breakfast was all ready for us: a huge breakfast : eggs and bread, not just crossiant and jam. The hotel was full of animals, birds, fish ,cats, dogs. Our kind hostess mentioned that the weather for the day was very poor - she made a real effort to speak English.
We headed off via the D979 to Clamecy. Beautiful pine forrests, fields with cows, slowly turning into vineyards. Cold and rainy so no photo's taken due to frozen fingers. We stopped in Clamecy at a pub-restaurant and had some coffee to defrost. The pub was crowded with a frog theme but everybody was friendly and returned our greetings in French. We got onto the N151 to Auxerre we took a wrong turn but finally got back on the D965 to Tonnerre and then onto the D944 and again in the middle of nowhere turned into the D44. We stopped off in Chaource for another coffee to defrost.
At 15h00 we found ourselves in Bar-su-seine and decided to stop and look for a place to sleep. Almost immediately we found a beautiful hotel. We seemed to be the only guests. Our hostess was a French speaking English woman who reluctantly spoke English to us. We walked around town and bought boxes of chocolates and quiche as it was too cold.
On recommendation of the waitress we chose the speciality for supper and Rensche ended up with afval sausages. (pofadder sausages) which we didn't eat. But at least desert was nice apple tart and mouse.
Day 15: Bar-Sur-Seine, Reims, St Quentin
Got down to Breakfast at 10:00 and had very very fresh bread with marmalade, chocloate spread and coffee. Took the N71 to the A5/A26 and headed straight up towards Reims. it was very cold.
At reims we went straight to information to get directions to the various Champaign houses. We decided to go to Tattinger. Our tour started at 14:20. Tunnels were already dug into the chalk in the 4th century by the romans. The Champaign making process and explained to us and after the tour it was really pissing down with rain.
We decided to carry on anyway so we headed up the N4/A26 in a terrentual downpour. Got off at Junction 26 to find accomodation As we were riding we noticed a nasty rattle. We carried on inot St Quentin and found a hotel on the way into the Centre Ville. After unpacking I took the bike for a spin to try find the rattle bu the rattle had suddenly vanished.
Went out to a local restuarant in the town square and ordered food we knew...steak and chips..mmm.
Day 16: St Quentin , Calias, Dover, Sutton
We had lots on offer for breakfast including full English (North France clearly caters for the Brits. Due to the worry of the ratlle of the bike and the weather we decied to get on the highway right away and head for Dover. It got bitterly cold and we had to stop at the services to warm up with some coffee. We saw no other bikes but plenty GB cars.
When we arrived at Calais we were informed the ferry was delayed. After waiting in the cold for an hour and a half we were directed in front of the queue and onto the ferry. I hung around to check the bike was tied down but the steward said he would do it. we went up on deck but just before leaving i went back down to the hold and found that my bike had not been tied down...trust the French.
We spent the next hour or 2 being depressed and annoyed about being bakc in the UK. The ferry only docked at 5 and we headed straight for Sutton.
Arriving at Sutton we found that Renches front door had been smashed in and was locked with a HUGE padlock bolted to the frame. Apparently after a power cut a power surge activated the electrical shower which sprayed onto the flow next to the bath. The neighbours below noticed their ceiling getting wet and phoned the police. They broke down the door and called out a plumber/handyman after 22:00 at night to come switch the shower off and fit the lock. We first had to ride around to the police station to collect the key for the padlock to get into the flat...what a homecoming welcome!!!
All in all it was a wonderful first big trip!!!!!
note to self: take less clothes next time
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