2022 European trip – A “tour de France”

[Rynglieder]

Think of this post as a "coming soon" trailer...

My last excursion into Europe was the 2018 circuit of Spain and Portugal. During 2019 no arrangements were made as my mother-in-law was terminally ill, and then Covid scuppered any plans for 2020 and 2021.

I had planned and booked a trip around France in 2021 and having shelved it managed to rearrange it for this year, I should be heading for the ferry terminal in Portsmouth on the 23rd June. It's going to be a solo ride for me this time – my wife who has accompanied me over the last 10 years on these excursions is just not up for it, but she knows how much I want to go so I've been given a pass...

There will be a bit of coast, some time exploring the river valleys and gorges, a break on the Mediterranean, a couple of days in amongst the Alps and a return through the centre of the country picking up on a few historic towns and sights. 19 nights away from home in all, about 2900 miles but I'm allowing another 200 as the Garmin Zumo is bound the get me lost once or twice.
A rough map is attached but this has included motorways which I will be studiously avoiding, so the routes linking the stops will be straightened out to a degree.

The planning is all done now, a service has been arranged for the GTR just before I leave and I'm looking forward to getting on with it. Once I'm back I'll post up a bit of a report with photos – probably over several instalments.

[KiwiCol]

Sounds fantastic, especially on the GTR!

[VladTepes]

Looking forward to living that trip vicariously through the forum.

[GSXKING]

If you were doing it on a push bike I'd be impressed 
Just kidding  I too will be keenly awaiting your very thorough reports 👍👍👍

[grog]

Will be fun to read your reports, your the Master of ride reports.

[Kiwifruit]

I'll second that 

[Rynglieder]

Well, I'm back and I've had a thoroughly enjoyable two and a half weeks. The bike has been on its side once and for a short time I was stuck without phone, wallet, passport and all my other essentials but despite all that it's going down on record as a good trip. Details to come, but here's a couple of spoilers...

[Rynglieder]

Day 1 Home > Portsmouth (163 miles)

The pannier bags had been packed the night before so it was a matter of minutes to load the bike up after it had been pulled from the garage.  The ferry was not due to sail from Portsmouth until 20:15 and although I kicked around the house for an hour or two after getting up I just wanted to get on with my adventure so set off around 11:30 with the intention of making something of the day.

There were a couple of coffee stops on the way down to break the trip into manageable chunks and by 14:00 the GTR had settled on the car park at Porchester Castle – it seemed sensible to use up my surplus time with a couple of hours around this English Heritage ruin and my camera started accumulating the holiday snaps before I had even crossed the water.

Another quick stop at a nearby supermarket enabled me to refuel the bike and indulge in a quick snack. I arrived at the terminal in plenty of time; Portsmouth's terminal is very easy to navigate ad after the traditional waiting around in a queue I managed to move on through the border checks. Two other bikes and myself were pulled in for a quick customs examination, but having opened up one of the panniers the dude from Border Force seemed fairly satisfied that there were no illegal emigrants concealed in there trying to flee Britain. There's one upward ramp to negotiate on the "Bretagne" and a couple of tight U-turns to get the bike pointing back in the right direction, but the ferry staff take care of strapping down the bike so it's all quite painless compared to some ferries I have boarded.

Motorcycles are first onto the ship so I was quickly upstairs finding my way to my cabin and the bar before the hordes arrived. I'd got the alarm set and my head down at a sensible hour – bring on St-Malo...

[Rynglieder]

Day 2 Mont Saint-Michel and Saint-Malo (80 miles)

Usual story, first on last off - but at least whilst I was waiting to disembark I could get the Zumo programmed and the Innovv camera set up for the day. It was always intended to be an easy first day, I wanted to visit Mont Saint-Michel and new that it would deserve more than the half hour that most other places on my itenery would get, so once I had broken free of Saint-Malo it was a case of travelling some quick but unexciting trunk roads to my destination. It was about 09:00 when I reached the large motorcycle park and although it was early-ish I was surprised to find only one other bike there – even more surprised to find it was another British registered GTR1400; what were the chances of that??

The car park charge includes a free shuttle bus from the mainland, over the causeway to the island. I haven't used public transport much in recent years but as my health and fitness is not great these days I decided to put up with mingling with the proletariat to dodge the walk and leave myself with some energy for the monument.

Having been disgorged by the bus at the town walls I set about exploring some of the island. I can't say that I saw it all and didn't go inside the abbey, but I still had an enjoyable wander round which included a late breakfast and a coffee. It's a place that is certainly worth visiting if you are near and I may well be back.

After eventually extracting my bike from the car park (after about five minutes I discovered that the car park barrier does not accept ferry cabin key cards and insists that you put the proper parking ticket in), I picked up the coast road in order to work my way back to Saint-Malo.  Let's bung in a bit of landscape – many compare Brittany to the south west of England and if you imagine Cornwall wearing a stripy jersey and a beret you are pretty much on the money. I passed a few seaside towns, sandy beaches and some rugged headlands; all very pleasant. There was a brief stop at Saint-Benoît-des-Ondes to take a picture of and from an old windmill tower that had been converted to a belvedere and then it was on to Cancale for my second proper stop.

Cancale is a small seaside harbour town that was pretty busy with tourists, fortunately there was a motorcycle bay provided and there was a bit of space I think those arriving by car were less lucky. It was OK to walk round for half an hour but largely consists of seafood restaurants – if you are the sort of chap who likes to get himself wrapped outside of mussels and whelks this will do you nicely but it was not for me. Half an hour, a quick cold drink and I was ready to see what was further along the road.

What turned out to be further down the road was the Pointe du Grouin, this was entirely expected as I had planned it. The bike was parked on one of a number of free car parks and I took a 15 minute stroll along the headland to take in the costal views and purchase yet another cold drink. Although the day had flicked between slightly overcast (with a handful of raindrops for one moment) and bright sunshine it had been hot throughout and it turned into a bit of a mission to keep hydrated.

Next up was supposed to have been some sculptured rocks just a little further along the coast, but the reviews had not been overwhelming so I decided that in view of the heat I would scratch that fixture, check into my hotel in Saint-Malo get out of the bike gear and have a shower.

Having executed plan B I set about prowling the streets of this beautiful old walled city. The hotel I had chosen was Intra Muros (within the walls), you pay a little extra for hotels in the historic centre but it was nice to feel part of it even if the bike was berthed on a motorcycle park just outside the gates. There was time to get something to eat, take a walk around the streets, city walls and beaches and finish by sending a couple of messages home from a small street café with a beer at the side of me.

(sorry, no pictures at the moment, still getting a 404 Forbidden message, I'll try and add them later but they can be seen on my Flickr accound (address in signature strip).

[Rynglieder]

Let's have another try with the pictures...

[Rynglieder]

Day 3 Saint-Malo > Tharon Plage (c. 155 miles)

After indulging in the hotel breakfast and hauling my bags through the city back to the bike I held the prospect of a proper full day's riding ahead of me. My ride would take me more or less directly south now, chopping across the peninsular containing Brest, so a sort of mastectomy route I suppose.

Out of Saint-Malo, across the Rance tidal power barrage and then just a short ride on more quick and easy roads expect for the time I missed a turning and the Zumo invited me to check the progress of the harvest from a few farm tracks and then to my first stop of the day at Dinan.

The delay to this year's trip had enabled me in planning to drill down to the detail of where would be best to park in each of my stops, this makes it all the more annoying when you find that the target car park has been requisitioned for the local fireman's ball and if your vehicle is not painted red you ain't getting in. No matter, there was space across the street where I could park up and take a look around the outside of the castle and find a café for the morning's coffee.

Although it was another hot and humid day a few spots of rain started to fall just as I remounted the bike. I contemplated holding on for a while to see if it would pass but decided to be a hero and get on with it. After about five minutes out of Dinan it was a complete deluge, another five minutes and it had broken through the gloves, jacket and trousers, only the boots were holding out, I resigned myself to an uncomfortable day, but after about 45 minutes I was back under a blue sky and within a further half hour I had blown completely dry. At least with a dry road surface I could enjoy the riding again, largely single carriageway roads, a lot of straights but the odd curve, bend and village to keep it enjoyable.

Eventually I reached my target car park below Josselin Chateau on the banks of L'Ouest. I made some time to take a few pictures from the river bank before heading over the bridge to an attractive looking hotel that seemed a good prospect for my next coffee. At the point of crossing the bridge I was accosted by an elderly couple who seemed to be making some request of me in French. I explained as best as I could that I was English and didn't understand, this forced a confession from them that they were also English, and would I mind taking a picture of them standing outside the hotel where they had spent their honeymoon 40 years ago?

Onward toward Saint-Nazaire... more of the same agreeable but unspectacular roads and countryside, a brief stop for fuel then a couple of dual carriageway stints – although the Zumo was programmed to avoid motorways some of the cross country roads in France were still threatening to square off the rear tyre. Eventually I reached and cut through the outskirts of the city. The bike was pulled up as planned on the dockside opposite the old Nazi U-Boat pens and after taking a couple of pictures I decided to relocate it, the dockside did not look that busy but I didn't like the thought of the bike getting a swipe from a forklift. The bike was re-parked at the end of a cycle stand in a side street, I nipped into a supermarket to pick up some bits for lunch then made my way up to the roof of the old submarine base. The word "brutalist" is often used is describing concrete arcitecture, it certainly fits here, the sheer mass of the concrete structure is a sight to behold. On the roof a small forest of trees has been planted to grow through the concrete beams to soften the thing, but it is still one mean building. At least the roof gives a couple of benches to sit down with your DIY sandwich and look across the port. I don't know why it has stuck in my memory, but I seem to remember a teacher back in my school days saying that the natives of Saint-Nazaire are less than friendly toward the British. Unlike other parts of northern France which saw themselves liberated, Saint-Nazaire was almost wiped off the map by allied bombing trying to get at that submarine base – it's certainly true that I saw very little in the way of older buildings during my brief visit.

From my perch on the roof I could see the Pont de Saint-Nazaire suspension bridge and that was the next thing the front wheel of the GTR was to be pointed at. Garmin's Base Camp seemed to have made several attempts to dissuade me from using this, I seem to recall having to add in several way-points to avoid it sending me on a major detour into Nantes to cross the Loire, as I approached the bridge I kept a sharp look out for any signs that motorcycles were prohibited but nothing came to my attention. True, the wind was doing its best to chuck the bike around a bit, but I was over it quickly and safely enough.

A little run down the coast from Saint-Nazaire bought me to Tharon-Plage, a coastal resort that gives the impression of being solely composed of holiday homes and the odd small hotel, it's alright but there is not a lot of charm to it – a sort of French Prestatyn. The hotel for the night had no car park so the bike was laid up in a motorcycle bay 100 metres down the road and fitted with the disc lock. After a shower and a change of clothes I took a walk in the opposite direction to the bike, up to the little harbour and from there back to the hotel for a couple of drinks.

Day 3 all accomplished as planned.

[Rynglieder]

Day 4 Tharon-Plage > La Rochelle (c. 150 miles)

The route for the day was far from a straight line between points A&B, like some interplanetary probe the GTR was planned to slingshot in a graceful arc picking up some points of interest along the way.

I left Tharon-Palge under a bit of light rain, nothing too significant and I could see blue sky in the distance that the nicely surfaced straight roads were taking me toward. The land it pretty flat and agricultural and whilst not unpleasant to ride through it got a bit repetitive so I took the opportunity to pull up in the small village of Geneston, grab a cold drink from the top case and take a break.

It was after pulling away all refreshed that I had my first major falling out with the Zumo – it was bound to happen. Having left the village in the direction indicated it then instructed me to take a left turn, down a slip road and round an island to join a dual carriageway. The problem was that none of this existed I passed by the phantom turning and continued for half a mile or so with the unit screaming at me to do a u-turn. This was done when safe to do so and I took a slow ride back to the village carefully looking out for anything that I might have missed – but still no sign of anything other than fields and industrial units. I did an about-turn in the village and followed the directions again asking myself what was more stupid; the Garmin with its imaginary junction or me for looking for it again. Sadly the construction workers had still not installed any new roads within the last five minutes so it was back into Geneston to see what options the signs offered. My ultimate destination for the day was to le La Rochelle and as there seemed to be a sign for that, it seemed the way to go.

I was now having one of those uncomfortable rides where you go along in the hope that the Zumo will come up with a Plan B to get me to the intermediate points I wanted to visit and not just leave me to follow signs for La Rochelle and miss out everything between. After another 10-15 minutes I started to see Clisson appearing on the signs, it seemed I was heading the right way.
When I arrived in Clisson I found it much busier than I had imagined it would be. The bike was parked up easily enough but after walking around the outside of the castle and into the old town I found all the bars and cafes heaving with the young and middle aged sporting rock and metal band tee shirts, after about five minutes of absorbing the signs and posters I fathomed out that Clisson is the home to Hellfest rock and metal music festival. If I had foreseen this I may have incorporated it into the trip, there were a couple of bands I wouldn't have minded seeing. I did manage to find a quiet table and imbibe a coffee before rolling on.

It was still under mostly blue sky and uncomfortably hot when I left to take on more flat, straight roads. It was to be one of the longer stints between my intended stops so there was a bit of a beak in a wooded picnic area but it was not too long before I reached the walled hilltop town of Vouvant. Again my parking intentions were thwarted by a Route Barree and Deviation sign but I pulled up the GTR by the church as there were already a couple of bikes there. It was time for a decent walk as it felt I had been a while on the seat of the bike, so the helmet was secured to the bike with the cable lock and I went off to explore. My walk took me through the town, out of an archway in the ramparts and down to the lake at the foot of the hill. I spent half an hour at the lakeside before returning up the hill for a drink and to saddle up again.

Next up was Fontenay le Comte and the Zumo delivered me directly to the spot I remembered picking from Google Street View. I'd been a bit careless though and forgotten to note exactly what I had intended to visit it the town. I walked into the town centre in search of yet more fluid but with hindsight I think I should have been walking up to the medieval gardens. I did manage to get a drink, but the town was not that attractive so I didn't linger except to have a conversation of sorts with a chap on a mobility scooter who had pulled up by the bike and seemed full of admiration for it. I was sorry to hear that he too was once a biker but an accident on it had left him reliant on his little electric scooter.

There were 40 miles to do to reach La Rochelle, the sky was becoming a bit more overcast, it was still hot and the roads remained easy but uninspiring. Other than a quick fuel stop I was happy to push on into the city centre. The Zumo took me straight to the Kyriad hotel and I chanced a brief stop outside to unload the bags and sort out access to their underground car park.
Once the GTR was roosting in the basement there was the chance for a shower and a change of clothes so that I could go out to see what the city was made of. My hotel was in Les Mimes the cheaper area near the newer port but I wanted to see the Vieux Port (Old Port) area, my walk took me past a branch of McDonalds so I decided to dine in style before continuing tp the water's edge. The is a small passenger ferry (Passeur) that will take you from Les Mimes to the old port for the princely sum of €1 and it seemed the way to go as the little electric boat takes you between the two historic towers from which a chain was once suspended to protect the harbour from people like me (British).

Typically of a French city the Vieux Port area is a lively, friendly place with plenty of bars and cafes fronting the harbour. I took in my fill of the sights and a couple of beers before boarding the Passeur again and taking the short walk back to the hotel.

[Rynglieder]

Day 5 La Rochelle > Rocamadour (225 miles)

Having seen off breakfast at the Kyriad Les Mimes, I extracted the GTR from the underground garage and set off. To be honest it was a bit of a shaky start, I found the traffic flow and signage in this area difficult to follow, disappointing as I'm usually pretty good. The bike had to be swiftly extracted from a bus carriageway at one point and there was a bit of hesitation here and there whilst I tried to work out who had priority at some unmarked junctions but after five minutes I was clear of it all. Today was scheduled to be one of the longer runs of the trip but I was sure I had time in hand to cram in a couple of visits.

It all started off on the dull flat straight roads I had become accustomed to, a mixture of cloud and blue sky but already getting hot again. Eventually I arrived in the town of Saintes and with a bit of shuffling round the back streets found my way to the remains of the Roman amphitheatre. Despite two years of planning I still hadn't got this detail right, it turned out to be closed on Mondays. I contented myself with a short walk around the perimeter and took what photos I could.

Moving on, there was a subtle change to the roads as I travelled east, nothing much but at least there was the odd slight curve on the horizon now and again, the GTR was easting it up and had to be constantly held in check to keep within the speed limits. Eventually I reached Barbezieux where a chateau held my attention for a short while before I walked the town in search of a coffee which turned up at one of the "tabac" stores.

I really enjoyed the next section of the day's route. Admittedly they were not really challenging but were interesting enough to make for a good ride, gently curving between villages. I took the opportunity for an unscheduled stop at La Rochbeaucourt-en-Argentine as there was a convenient layby opposite a partly ruined chateau as I was about ready to grab another drink from the case. I didn't stay long, just enough to re-energise for the run to the next proper stop.

The next section of the ride clipped the bottom of the Perigord-Limosin nature park and after a few more miles of fast-flowing roads I turned on to a series of country lanes through farmland and woodland where I eventually arrived at the ruins of Boschaud Abbey. Now, many of you will know I like a ruined abbey; I probably spent a good hour walking around there waking up the basking lizards and picking out the English bits from the information panels. It was a properly remote and tranquil spot but the schedule dictated it was time to move on.

It was only a short distance further south that I came upon Brantome-en-Perigord. Once again I managed to hit the target car park on the banks of the river opposite the abbey. Yes, another abbey, but as this one was intact it still qualifies as variety. I took a few minutes on each river bank and onto the curious angled bridge that links to the abbey's gardens. The gardens looked as if they could be worth going deeper into but the heat more than time dissuaded me from going on, I could probably have secured the touring jacket to the bike by I was minded not to drop the trousers.

The task now was to push on to my night's accommodation, still some distance away. It was a proper mixed bag of road types that lead me onward but all very entertaining and surprisingly free of Frenchmen or any other type of traffic, I wish the road around home were this uncluttered. There was now hardly a straight bit in sight, roads were of good width but not important enough to be awarded a white line down the middle of them. The big drawback was a lot seemed to have been resurfaced in the French style; basically dumping a lot of loose chippings "Gravellons" in the hope that passing traffic pounds them into the road and making sure that there is plenty of loose stuff on the bends...

There was another brief stop at Condat-sur-Vezere to buy another cold drink and straighten myself out. I would regard the GTR as a comfortable bike over distance but as the day wears on I find the need for stops becoming more frequent, I don't think clothes sticking to me in the heat helps much either.

After passing through Soulliac I found myself briefly running along the banks of the Dordogne with rocky cliff faces to my left, this was the first hint of how the next few days of my trip were planned to be, largely exploring river valleys and gorges. I crossed the Dordogne just south of Pinsac and it was almost with disappointment that I arrived at Rocamadour – I'd really enjoyed the day on the bike, but at the same time I was ready for the break.

I'd booked two nights at the Belvedere hotel and I'd made a good choice; there was a decent car park, bar and restaurant and its elevated position gave good views over to the historic town of Rocamadour. My bedroom was one level down from the reception but still gave good views, I was looking forward to seeing some sun on the valley in the morning. A handy door at the end of the bedroom corridor gave easy access to the bike so that I could pull all of the luggage off and I was soon showered changed and headed upstairs for an evening meal and a drink or two.

[Rynglieder]

Posting pictures seem to be a problem again, "failed security checks"

[Rynglieder]

Seems that it didn't like the map, perhaps the file size was too big but it didn't say so...