From Reims to ferry ?

Four of us are doing a bit of a mini tour and are staying in Reims on the first night the 8th of July and don't have to be on the Rotterdam ferry till the 12th.
Would any of you knowledgeable seasoned tourers please help a fellow tosser that's pushed for time and doesn't know the region with a bit of itinerary.
Many thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Do you mean too pushed for time to have a look at a map? Or too pushed for time to make it back to Rotterdam in 4 days?

I would head slightly east of north and traverse the Ardenne, still in a northerly direction. Once you come out into Belgium, use a map to avoid as many cities and large towns as possible, keeping to the eastern side of the country, tends to be very slightly less flat.

Alternatively after the Ardennes, head north of west, on a line towards Dunkerque. Going through the Parcs Naturele. Even a cheap Michelin 1:200,000 map will show you most of the decent roads. You could continue towards Ypres or swing off towards Gent. Or fit in both. A trip up the coastal highway N57 - I think it has a posh name, but can't remember now - to marvel at the engineering and enter Rotterdam from the SW.

I'd go through Luxembourg - I think Ride has some GPX files - to Trier and up the Moselle. Koblenz to Rotterdam is under 4 hours according to Google maps.

Cheers lads....We was around Koblenz and the Mosel in April BUT seeing as I haven't been to Lux then that could well do the trick.

Although I've been to France many, many times, I've always been riding through and not toured a specific area, that's why I was asking for places, sites to see, more than roads.

Verdun, in that case. Its a bucketlist top few. Not always easy in the detached almost Disneyesque sort of way that so many sites of tragedy become. The battle area is quite extensive - you keep coming across stuff like gun barrels in farmyards or seemingly miles of little one man pillboxes.

Trier, capital of Roman Germania, well at least one of.. Nice town.

Aachen, where Charlemagne is buried in the Dom. His inability to nominate one of his three sons to be his heir could be seen as the reason for the successive centuries of conflict between France and the fracturing Holy Roman Empire/Germany.

Nurbergring? Fancy trying your luck?
Roads towards it from Germany are excellent. Leaving northwards into Belgium - if you go that way - beware the "road of death" as it is often called by the 'Ring boys. Almost the worst road I have ever ridden on in western Europe.

Down as far as Alsace, the Balon d'Alsace. Old parts of Colmar are nice. Travelling back up the Rhine, there are occasional bits of Maginot Line. No doubt someone will pipe up if they know with more exactitude. You could have a coffee/beer in Neuf Brisach, an pretty much complete Vauban "star" fort and a unesco WHS.
If you have come this far, then Mulhouse is not much further. The French National Motor Museum, which incorporates the Schulmpf collection of Bugattis, confiscated by the French govt after they discovered the Freres Schlumpf had defrauded them of millions in tax revenue in order to fund the world's largest collection of Bugattis. Lots of other stuff with motors too. Did I mention they have Bugattis?
Almost next door is the French Railway Museum. Not so extensive as the UK one in York. It does show how advanced much of their system was, and how homely in parts.
Both have free parking right outside. I got lost last time I went because I was trying to get to the old site. Probably a satisfactory use for a satnav.

Connecting any or all of the above can be easily done by seeking interesting looking roads as they appear on a paper map. The cheap Michelin Regional series, 1:200,000 are more than good enough. The red 1:1000,000 series are really only of use for plotting general lines of advance, IMHO.
Any road which fails in the ride satisfaction stakes usually becomes a road not travelled at all. There are loads to choose from. Finding your own can be very satisfying.

Four of you are doing it? What are the other three doing by way of planning?

Come on, between the lot of you, you can do it.

Start by putting your start and end location into Google maps. You have now got your direct direction of travel. Zoom the map out a bit.... Oh look, there's the Ardennes.... Every bikermate and his mate have heard of the Ardennes as a bikermates' Mecca, have they not? Great, you are already cooking with gas. Now let's look at something else.... What's that, to the right of your start point..... Verdun.... That rings a bell as a big WW1 site, lots of things to see and do, you could spend a half day (or a full day) there... What next..... Staying with the same Google map, trace your finger near enough straight up from Verdun....Wonders upon wonders, there's Bastogne... What happened there, mate?...... Well, it's Battle of the Bulge territory (all that Band of Brothers stuff)... Anything to see? Yup, sure there is, mate.... A big modern museum, the large memorial.... Anything else?..... Now it's your turn.... Here's a start.... Google ADAC motorbike maps... Aw, feck it... Here you go:

http://www.mapsman.com/store/category.php?id=41

Jacal said:

Four of us are doing a bit of a mini tour and are staying in Reims on the first night the 8th of July and don't have to be on the Rotterdam ferry till the 12th.
Would any of you knowledgeable seasoned tourers please help a fellow tosser that's pushed for time and doesn't know the region with a bit of itinerary.
Many thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Click to expand...

Disneyland Paris

Stay there for a few days and don't go anywhere else, there is nothing else to see in France.

Three full days in Rotterdam, if all else fails.

Cheers lads....Really luv ye lot.

Three days in Rotterdam it is then

Jacal said:

Cheers lads....Really luv ye lot.

Three days in Rotterdam it is then

Click to expand...

From memory jacal is a bit of a whizz ( well he ought to be at his fekkin age and after starting off with a Garmin Streetbrick many years ago) at "Satnaving", Germany including many laps of what the 'Ring bods/biker mates call the Road of Death ( you sure its called that Parchment?) and Europe in a general sense with and without bikermates , on two wheels not cages, so I'd imagine that the hidden condescension in the very informative replies will account for the hidden condescension in jacals reply above.


Parchman, you are Wapping aren't you and I claim my £5


You sarcy Yorkshire twat Jack.

Jacal said:

Cheers lads....Really luv ye lot.

Three days in Rotterdam it is then

Click to expand...

It really cannot be beaten.

Tinytim said:

From memory jacal is a bit of a whizz ( well he ought to be at his fekkin age and after starting off with a Garmin Streetbrick many years ago) at "Satnaving", Germany including many laps of what the 'Ring bods/biker mates call the Road of Death ( you sure its called that Parchment?) and Europe in a general sense with and without bikermates , on two wheels not cages, so I'd imagine that the hidden condescension in the very informative replies will account for the hidden condescension in jacals reply above.


Parchman, you are Wapping aren't you and I claim my £5


You sarcy Yorkshire twat Jack.

Click to expand...

Are you trying to imply I wrote that the 'Ring was the road of Death? Not so, the road north into Belgium was what I said.
I have noted your sign off, seems appropriate.

alan29 said:

I'd go through Luxembourg - I think Ride has some GPX files - to Trier and up the Moselle. Koblenz to Rotterdam is under 4 hours according to Google maps.

Click to expand...

If you look on the Routes page of the RiDE website, you'll find an interactive map, which has a "search" function. If you type "JUN16 Garmisch" into that search bar, it'll bring up three routes which do indeed lead to Garmisch. The first one cuts through Belgium to Trier. Admittedly, it sets off from Calais, but adapting it to go from Rotterdam is simple enough.

Where to go, though... too many options. Pick things you want to see: I'd suggest Verdun for the war memorials (not just Douamont - seek out the more obscure ones like Montsec and Montfaucon d'Argonne); or the forts along the French border (Montmedy, Neuf Brisach, Bitche); you have time to get to the Black Forest if you want to ride the B500, or the Vosges if you want to ride the Route des Cretes, or both; you could visit the champagne houses of Reims, or the old GP circuit outside it at Gueux; you could go to the Somme and Flanders. Loads to see and do.

Parchman, Don't know the "road of death" and I thought I'd done most of the route to Adenau from Belgium, I know the road of bones or should I say my spine does ;-)

A big thanks to all that's given advice (sarcy or not) and I've taken it on board

As for that Welsh twat, don't forget I still hold the record for a lap on the ring....OK....40 minutes isn't quick but I was holding Phils drip for most of it and it's about time we went back, the last time we were there I seem to remember a Welsh arse mooning from one on the balcony's in the Nordschlife Hotel....Can't take you anywhere !!

I remember it just felt like death riding over it, so what's left of my mind wrote that instead. Soss.

Road of Bones - isn't that from LWR?

That's me....I'm Orf.....Don't know if I can do the full 3 days on Rotty so may just venture further

July is but a distant memory.

Thread closed.