First bike trip to France

Lee Frost

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Planning a 6 or 7 night trip to France in June with Mrs F riding pillion with me on the GSA and my stepson riding his Yam MT07 - his first big bike on what will be his first proper trip away. We'll cross to Calais and have 6 or 7 nights in France. I don't know France very so have no idea where to go! I've explored Provence before but don't fancy riding all the way down there on this trip. Any suggestions for good roads/routes and pretty towns/villages in northern and central France? Would prefer to avoid motorways where possible and explore the countryside, covering maybe 200-250 per day. Any hilly regions worth exploring? Good twisty roads?
Any advice appreciated :thumb2
 
First thing I'd say is get over the channel before you stop for the night....Dover isn't the nicest place for a stopover....

Which way do you want to go? If it was me I'd head down towards Verdun, and then Colmar. Nice roads and some hilly bits. You could also head towards the Ardennes ...Bastogne is worth a visit.. Although not in France :thumb
 
200 miles will get you to Normandy and a chance to explore the D-Day historic sites - recommend you stop at Honfleur which is lovely. Another day's ride will get you into the Loire Valley - you might consider a stop over at Angers which is fabulous and has a magnificent castle. Another day south will get you into the Perigord-Limousin region which has some wonderful places and scenery. Heading back north you might consider a stopover in Alencon and then for your final night why not go into Belgium and enjoy the delights of Ypres with its historic square, cathedral, Cloth Hall and watch the 8pm Menin Gate ceremony. It is only about 60 miles from Calais so an easy ride to catch your ferry/train.
 
Lee,
A mate & I went over this year,not for the first time.
We put the bikes on the Auto Train from Paris down to Nice & took 5 days riding back through the alps.
This meant we only rode through boring Northern France once.
If you missus is n't a seasoned pillion this may also make sense ?
 
I live in central London, cross to France via Calais and go there reasonably often.

Depending on what time your crossing arrives / returns and quite how far you want to go on day one and / or return from on the last day, I would suggest one of the following:

A. A trip down to the Morvan, via roughly Verdun. Say three days in the Morvan / a ride across to the Côte d'Or for a day out and back to Calais. Two days to get there, three days there and a day (or take two) to come back.

B. A bit further would be to go to the Vosges, which are sort of the French side of the Black Forest. This you could do by going Calais, Verdun and then a longish day down to Colmar and the Vosges. Come back via the Morvan, perhaps?

C. A trip westwards into Normandy and Brittany, perhaps? But, if your wife thinks that looking at yet another German pillbox or another museum is reasonable grounds for divorce, you only have yourself to blame.

D. Not going to France at all, but heading across into the Belgian / Luxembourg / German Ardennes. Lots of really good riding and if it all goes to hell in a handcart, very quick to come home.

I wouldn't rule out motorways, if only to get from A to B quickly. Nobody will ever know and there are no public awards of medals for avoiding them. For instance, if you go down to the Vosges, you can go via Nancy. You'd be well advised to take the motorway (at least around the city) as it's a real grind getting through the place, trust me.

Similarly, it's near enough 350 miles from Dijon, about halfway down France, to Calais. You can do it in a day, missing out the motorway and still use some really good roads. Do not let anyone tell you that it's all boring they (and not the roads) are just dull. But 350 miles is further than you want to go and / or you might not have enough time. So, do the last 100 miles back to Calais (say from St Quentin or Cambrai) on the motorway. It's peanuts. There, you've just done 350 miles in the time it might have taken you to ride 250.

I have posted several threads on suggestions, very similar to the one you are looking for ideas on, often along with GPS downloads of the routes to take. Alternatively, have a look at the RiDE magazine website. It really does have some very good suggestions (and pre-made routes in GPS and Google map formats) to answer your appeal for help.

http://www.ride.co.uk/magazine-routes/routes-from-ride-magazine

Richard

PS Do get some good maps. People do sneer at them in the 21st century but they will never let you down. I promise.
 
Thanks chaps, I really appreciate this. Some great suggestions that will help with planning the trip. We're only an hour from Dover so getting there and over to Calais then getting some miles behind us in France on the first day will be easy. The 250 miles a day limit isn't written in tablets of stone either - we could do more if necessary. I don't mind - the GSA is very comfy! I'm thinking more of the 20 year old on his MT07!
 
Hi Lee,

June is a lovely time for a trip in France but I will suggest that north France is not that interesting but you can try going to the Belgium Ardennes which is also very close to France borders if you must. Interesting roads around there. Loads of places to visit and ride i.e Chaleroi, Namur, Dinnant, Vianden and Boullion on the boarder with France. I have been a number of times with the Mrs and also when going down to Germany. Lots of lovely roads to enjoy especially in the national parks close by in France.

Search on this site and you will see people who have done this types of trips. You can also find ideas about biking roads on the biking roads website below.
http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcycle-roads/motorbike-rides-in-belgium-/belgium-__1072.html

Just a suggestion and not too far as you can manage it based on the miles you stated.

Cheers
SO
 
The bike and a bod's age don't have a lot to do with it. I see bods of all ages and on all sorts of machines, all quite happy.

A 65+ year old friend on mine tours for miles on her Kawasaki 600 sports bike. Another (quite a bit younger) on my old F800R, which I used to tour on.... and me, at somewhere between the two, have been known to use an HP4 ...... or an HP2 Sports; you try sticking luggage on that if you want a challenge.
 
The Vosges area for me, stay in Riquewihr in the north for a couple of days, Routes des Crete and south for another couple of days. The Vosges has some great roads and not too extreme re height and distances.
 
Started route planning based on the great advice given here and routes on the RiDe magazine website (thanks Wapping).
I fancy riding from Dijon into Switzerland (via Pontarlier) a few days into the trip, maybe to Lausanne, spending a night there, then doing a full day's ride in Switzerland that could end in Lausanne or Pontarlier or anywhere you chaps recommend? Wherever we stayed at the end of that day, the plan would be to ride to Colmar the next day then to Verdun then back to Calais. I'm thinking beautiful scenic route in Switzerland - I'm sure there are some great routes from Lausanne that could be done in a day and in no more than 200-250 miles?
 
I fancy riding from Dijon into Switzerland (via Pontarlier) a few days into the trip, maybe to Lausanne, spending a night there, then doing a full day's ride in Switzerland that could end in Lausanne or Pontarlier or anywhere you chaps recommend? Wherever we stayed at the end of that day, the plan would be to ride to Colmar

If you are staying in Colmar, I'd just ride down to the Rhine Falls, spend the lunchtime / afternoon and ride back. It's a longish day, if you take the backroads.

For specific advice on routes out from Lausanne, start a fresh thread in the Alps section, if I were you. But in the meantime:

1. The area is, near enough, the 'Jura'

2. John Hermann's bible of Alpine routes only has one circular route specifically dedicated to Lausanne, of about 200 kms. Buy the book, it will last you a lifetime.

http://www.mapsman.com/store/product.php?id=484

3. From a thread I did about Switzerland: http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-gb/motorbike-tour-jura.html?iPadCover

4. Have a gander at: http://www.lesrousses.com/en/what-t...tion-jura/motorcycle-routes-in-haut-jura.html

5. And from the nice people at Louise.de https://www.louis-moto.co.uk/fuer-die-motorradreise/tourentipps/schweiz/tour/lausanne-neuchatel
 
All of the above is good advice, especially Wappings comments on using Motorway, we do it every year, I always say a day on the motorway is exchanged for a day in the mountains, with just 7 days if you spend 6 days getting to and from the really good bits you only have one day there, with a day of Motorway you can be in the mountains (Alps, Black Forest, Vosges) by lunch time on day two (or even make it in a day if you have an ass made of Iron)

Really depends on what you want, my experience of Northern France is that it is fairy dull (compared to the Southern half) but we have still enjoyed it mostly because roads are as good or better than southern England and almost totally devoid of traffic, but if using them to go somewhere else the lower speed limit (56mph Vs 82 mph) and slowing for towns and villages mean in reality you will only cover half the distance as on the Motorway.

Also do you want to get to a "base" to explore from or are you happy moving on each day?

Verdun is quite good and reachable in a day, lots of WW1 stuff if you like that sort of thing and a days riding can take you into Luxembourg and back (with some more mountainous roads) The Vosges / Black Forest (Germany) is only a day from Dover / Calais and both have much better roads and scenery.

The Morvan is similar travel time but IMO does not have the same quality of roads as the Vosge / Black Forest, but is still very nice and feels deserted, we rode through it last year on a Beautiful Sunday in July and overtook one car every 90 minutes, where I live it is more like one car every 90 seconds with the other 89 spent stuck behind a tin box awaiting a chance to pass.

And if heading to the Eifel / Ardenne you can do it easily with less Motorway and easily get there in a day from Calais, or head the same direction and take two days to get to the Harz mountains.

For me with 7 nights (8 days) I would probably either:

A: Head to Andermatt in the Swiss Alps (one day of motorway and second day your in the Alps with 4 days to ride stunning roads with amazing scenery) 3- 4 days here is good enough to cover most the great roads as they are packed in close together with many options of ride outs from a few hours to a full day. Two days is plenty to get there / back (we do this in 1.5 days each way including a 2.5 hour ride to Folkestone)

B: If you are not so bothered about a base I would ride down towards the start of Route Des Grand Alps a bit North of the Coast and ride the Middle section of it (best bit IMO with all the High passes) with a day stopover (2 nights) around Barcelonnette and have a day looping over the passes to the East and West but this would mean 6 Hotels in 7 nights. (Troyes - St Ettiene - Valberg - Barecelonnette - Bourg St Maurice - St Dizier) you could keep it flexible and take the "spare day" either around Barcelonnette or BSM depending on how the weather loosk at the time, both have fantastic one day circular routes around them (some of the best days I have ever done on half a dozen Alps trips)

I would suggest a spring weekend away with your posse to establish pace and endurance, as well as discuss what they would like to do (Roads, mileages, scenery, moving on vs having a base) all the ideas you have been given are good, and whatever you do will be very enjoyable as long as it suits the groups desires.
 
+1 for Lord Snooty Honfleur Angers and the Loire, Also Caen, Tours and Orleans are well worth visiting as is Saumur on the Loir.

If you visit Tours check out Place Plumereau very vibrant part of town full of restaurants and bars (street view it on google maps) we usually stay at the Ibis Centre gare there is an underground car park.

Other routes to look at are the German Castle route and Romantic route coupled in a visit to Strasbourg.

First stop over the Channel personally I would head straight for Bruges

One more thing, first visit its very easy to forget to ride on the Right I stick my ferry sticker on my screen to remind me. stay safe and bear in mind when your leaving a fuel station or minor road to a major one especially if there's no traffic around.
 
A word for the Auvergne. Rode through it a couple of years ago. Fully intend to return and explore.
Just a thought. My OH can only manage about 200 miles a day on the pillion, or six hour days with plenty of stops. If you haven't done major trips together it might be an idea to see how it goes in the UK before you start planning.
 
If you do head into Switzerland be wary of getting caught on one of the main routes without a vignette. Many people intend to use only smaller routes and before you know it you've inadvertently slipped into a naughty road and the fines are pretty daunting
 
We, a group of 12, had a great trip to the Auvergne via the Loire. We had a couple of nights in Blois followed by 3 nights in La Bourboule in the Massif Central. Great mountain roads here for day trips around the extinct volcanoes. A few overnight stops in either direction to split the distance.
 
We, a group of 12, had a great trip to the Auvergne via the Loire. We had a couple of nights in Blois followed by 3 nights in La Bourboule in the Massif Central. Great mountain roads here for day trips around the extinct volcanoes. A few overnight stops in either direction to split the distance.

Lee, as above recommendation, if going to Loire recommend strongly you check this years dates for the Sancerre Wine festival. It's free lots of tastings, cheese and oysters ( nasty little feckers). Held inside a large cave in a hill at the foot of the vineyards. If it is possible let me know and I'll send the details of the hotel with the decent rooms overlooking vineyards and an infinity pool.
 
OP, as in the words of the late, great, Arthur Daley... "When it comes to France (and just about anywhere else)....

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Some good tips there for you dude, especially which side of the road, very easy to forget.
Although I ride that much over the pond, when I'm driving my van over here I literally speak out loud when exiting a petrol station
" which side ? ... " just to remind me,,,,


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