Ride magazine - Route Napoleon and gorges - Eight day jaunt

Ride magazine's issue released this month (we are in October, so in publishing speak it's December) has a couple of page article and review of the new Aprilla Caponord.

As interesting as that may be (it's certainly not a bad motorcycle) maybe of more help is a downloadable link to the routes they took down to and back from the south east of France, along with the circular routes they rode on for the bike's launch.

You can download the routes in BaseCamp / Mapsource friendly .gpx files and see them displayed in Googlemaps, too.

http://www.ride.co.uk/Routes/

Scroll down to 'Gorgeous gorges - riding out'. The link gets this title as it's also possible to do just the Route Napoleon and gorges by flying out, too.

Are the routes down / back perfect? No, of course not. They are not meant to be. However, they would give anyone an idea of how to do it and answer the oft heard plaintive cry of "Me an' me six mates is join' next year, any 'must do' ideas and where can we stop". Just looking at the routes in BaseCamp shows where changes could be made, taking out bits of motorway or slotting more bits in.

At eight days it's a good length, do it including a bank holiday weekend and it would only be five days off work. Do it over an Easter (when the festival is late in the calendar) and you'd save a day or two again. All in all, a good effort by Ride and good of them to share so openly.

Richard

PS Some other good suggestions on the webpage links, too. Click away, you can't break it.

Thankyou for that.

Nice find,worth a subscription to ride. Some good ideas for routes and easily developed. Winter coming on time to get planning next years trip.

What I will do is rework some of the bits and post them up in this thread. Again, not because they are better or best; just an alternative.

Their "Routes" section is a terrific resource.
Not so sure of the Capo, though. I think you would become very familiar with your dealer.

Wapping said:

What I will do is rework some of the bits....

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I have made an encouraging start.

To be honest, the route suggested in Ride is pretty good. The changes I have made so far are:

(a) Ride's day 1. This starts in Calais and follows the motorway at the beginning to Roye. From there it's the near enough traditional N and D roads to Troyes for their first overnight stop. Depending on what time you cross the Channel, this is fine. If you cross earlier you could exit the motorway much higher up, say at Cambrai or St Quentin.

As I live in central London (not Peterborough) I have done something a little different. I could either make sure I was on an earlier crossing and then take the motorway just to Cambrai and then onwards down the N and D roads. Alternatively, which is my preferred option, I would cross over the late afternoon / early evening of the evening before and overnight in St Omer, making an early start the next day to avoid the motorway entirely. The advantage would be the crossing's journey time avoided and the hour time difference saved.

(b) Ride's first overnight stop is Troyes, which is fine. I would maybe go just a little bit further, to stay in or around Avallon or a little bit deeper into the Morvan. Much would depend on the time taken to get there.

(c) Ride's second day takes them through Avallon and into the Morvan, which is excellent. I have left this all near enough unaltered, not least as I have anticipated starting from around Avallon anyway. The only changes I made were a couple of little housekeeping amendments to change Ride's routing through or past a few towns, just little things really. The overnight stop at Le Puy or thereabouts is sensible, so I have left that alone.

(d) The third day leaving Le Puy, I have a made a reasonably big change.

Ride's route picks up the A7 / A8 motorway at about Orange, taking it right across in a big sweep south and then east, exiting the A8 at Aix-en-Provence. Then it's near enough due east on N and D roads to their overnight stop in Grasse. I have done something different. I follow Ride's route right up to the point where it meets the A7 motorway. I then join the motorway at Mondragon but then almost immediately exit it again at Orange. In short: I get ON the motorway earlier but get OFF much earlier. I have then plotted an N and D road route into the heart of Provence itself, due east to Sault (skirting the south side of Mt Ventoux) and then due south, via Apt to Cadenet. From Cadenet, I swing east again, following the N and D roads to Salernes, where I meet up again with Ride's route. I then follow their route exactly all the way to Grasse and the next overnight stop. in essence, all I have done is take out a significant chunk of motorway, running my route broadly in parallel (or a mirror image) to Ride's.

The reason to route away from the motorway is that I might think it worthwhile to take in Mt Ventoux and / or some other sites in that part of Provence, overnighting in Sault (quite a nice town, http://www.beyond.fr/villphotos/sault-photo-gallery.html ) before going on to Grasse. That option was probably not in Ride's mind when they plotted their route, their intention being to get to Grasse and ride a test bike. That's the great thing about using someone's suggestion, you can always fiddle with it to suit yourself. It also highlights the danger of listening to too many 'Must do' ideas, as you can lose sight of what the real intent of your journey is. Alternatively, I could swing near enough due south after Sault, to end up in the Camargue (dead flat) and on to the Mediterranean for a day or two swimming; then continue or go home.

What my change does do though is turn the third day into quite a long one. Ride's version is not short at about 270 miles but with a block of motorway. Mine is 300 (only 30 miles more) but with far less motorway. Not impossible by anymeans but worth an earliyish start, I would have thought. Anyone thinking of doing it in the height of summer in August when the mercury really can sit at north of 30C for days and weeks on end, might like to have this in mind. My parents lived for many years not far from Apt, deep in the Luberon, one of France's great natural treasures http://www.atalante.fr/voyage-le-lu...mbes-dorees/provence-cote-d-azur/40058/47672/ . Trust me, it's very hot when it wants to be. Nothing much moves if it has any sense after 11:00 or before 16:30. Take lots of water, you'll need it.

(e) That's as much as I have tinkered with so far. I will probably leave the 'Ride the Aprilia' days unaltered and much of Ride's suggested return idea via Annecy alone, they look fine. Maybe only cutting across, via Dijon, on the way back. We shall see.

As promised, when I have finished (it won't take to much longer once I sit down) I will ping it all up, laying my suggestions on top of Ride's so everyone can see the changes made. I will colour my routes green, leaving Ride's in their original magenta, which should make it easier for bods to see which is which. Anyone can then have a go at creating their own version.

Richard

PS Ride's route does work well for near enough any journey down the eastern side of France, starting from Calais or even the Dutch / Belgian ports. It could be adapted quite easily to take in the Millau bridge, or reversed and amended to bring in a day through the Ardennes at the start.

PPS All done on BaseCamp..... Some claim it's impossible.

I have now looked at Ride's suggested return route in full.

It's fine. You could make some changes but they would be near enough cosmetic, driven more by where anyone might want to stay as much as anything else.

My alternatives in green.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/25nqc0dwb... magazine RN & Gorges ride out.GPX 2.GPX?dl=0

I will keep an eye on this thread thanks

your efforts are very much appreciated here, thankyou.

zip files?

Hi all, How do you convert the zip files? can do the single files by changing to a gdb file...no joy when zipped

ta for ya help

TD

unzip the archive first with something like 7zip or winrar, this should then leave you with just the files that you can then open in your mapping software.

What is the consensus on how early this route could be done (without freezing to Death)

Looking for something of a week or less next Spring, already planning RDGA for late summer with Mrs Rasher coming along on her bike, but want to get a bit of Spring riding with a mate or three to kick the summer season off.

I assume there is nothing on this route likely to be snowbound around May time.

Early June could still have snowbound roads I think


Al

Rasher said:

I assume there is nothing on this route likely to be snowbound around May time.

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I wouldn't bet on all the passes being open till the end of May.

Thanks Mr Wapping.

Will watch this with interest.

LittleJohn said:

Thanks Mr Wapping.

Will watch this with interest.

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Unfortuntely, I believe that Richard (Wapping) has left the forum in protest at the thread regarding child porn. So he is unlikely to be posting any additions

paul08 said:

Unfortuntely, I believe that Richard (Wapping) has left the forum in protest at the thread regarding child porn. So he is unlikely to be posting any additions

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And this thread is an example of the positive contributions he made whilst here

paul08 said:

Unfortuntely, I believe that Richard (Wapping) has left the forum in protest at the thread regarding child porn. So he is unlikely to be posting any additions

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Which is a great shame he made a great contribution here and to the travel sections in particular

paul08 said:

Unfortuntely, I believe that Richard (Wapping) has left the forum in protest at the thread regarding child porn. So he is unlikely to be posting any additions

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My mistake. I remember seeing something from him but was not fully aware of what had happened.

Rasher said:

What is the consensus on how early this route could be done (without freezing to Death)


I assume there is nothing on this route likely to be snowbound around May time.

Click to expand...

Going early is a gamble. I've done La Bonnette in the first week of June, but also been there when it's still closed by snow in the third week of June. I'd recommend not going before the last week of June, to be certain of getting the roads open.

As to the lengths of the days and the transit routes down, Richard's made some very strong suggestions for alternatives. I planned the original routes to be suitable for the largest possible number of people - there are some long days, but a two-up couples taking it steady should still be able to get round in reasonable comfort. For solo riders, or those wanting proper big-mile days, they may be a little conservative - especially with the time-saving motorway legs. If you want a longer ride (especially if you're riding solo) Richard's version passing the Ventoux is excellent – in fact, you should really go right over the top if you're ever within 50 miles of it - but be prepared for a pretty tiring day.