Help/advice wanted re a ride in France

Batman, heading south on Richards route just below Soissons you will come to the little town of Chateau-Thierry where you will see this;

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It will be visible up above the town and is a memorial to American and French soldiers who fell in the Great War. Well worth stopping for a half hour break.
 
Shall I need another map Richard, or will the one that you previously suggested cover this area, the one I ordered should be here tomorrow so I suppose I'll answer that one myself tomorrow afternoon.


The map I suggested covers the whole of France on one sheet. But it strips out all the fine detail. Great if you want to work out A to B without getting distracted but all but useless if you need to find the 'Must do' hamlet of St Perdue.

The fine detail, smaller roads, towns and villages, you can get from other Michelin maps, biking you certainly won't need them all. I suggest you go to a half decent bookshop and have a look if they have any maps for sale, then chose the ones you like. They are very cheap and will last for several years. Helpfully, these are sometimes at exactly the same scale, which sometimes makes things easier. To give you an idea, download the ViaMichelin app, which is free. Zoom the map in and out and see how the detail changes. It really is a very good app, as it also includes ideas on hotels and places of interest to see. I have it on my iPhone 6 and on an iPad.

I did a big thread on maps and on road signs in France. The maps one needs redoing, as some of the explanatory pictures have vanished.
 
Rasher,
Good idea! I may have just enough time to do most of salient points and sights of the journey on Street map before September.:augie

Aidan,
Well I won't be able to miss that, it's huge, do you know what the two statues represent?

Richard,
I have tried searching St Perdue..Hamlet..France etc on Google but I keep getting a place in Canada, I'll try again in the morning, can you point me to it?
I'll get the Michelin download sorted too.

Cheers, Guys
 
My apologies, I added an 'e' at the end.

The figures represent the United States and France.
 
Rasher,
Aidan,
Well I won't be able to miss that, it's huge, do you know what the two statues represent?

Cheers, Guys

the picture with the statues has a clue in the Roman date for 1918 and the partial words *MERICA TROOPS COMMEM*
 
You could possibly do the entire trip using Street view, save a few quid and not risk getting wet.
 
As stated: Millau and the Tarn has everything you will need and no harm being a bit south to avoid rain.
I like a bit of a run out the first day, get some miles under the tyres.
 
One thing about reducing the total mileage to be travelled over the six or seven days, is that it gives you time spare to see things that you might come across by chance. Here's an example I came across coming back from a 19 night lap of Germany I made last September. It came about totally by chance in France, miles away from where I had been in Germany.

Riding along, I came across some official looking brown French tourist road signs, telling me I was in the neighbourhood of the 'Maginot Line Aquatic'. I had no idea what it was, though had enough of an idea to know that the Maginot Line was a string of forts and aquatic would suggest that they were perhaps unusual enough to rely on or use water as a part of the defence strategy. In short, enough to justify a short detour to see what there was to see.

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An hour later, I'd learnt enough to at least understand the basics of what I had tripped over by chance, had a break and could continue on with my day. Yes, it's 'In foreign' but just about understandable with the simple pictures and a bit of imagination.

http://www.moselle-tourisme.com/images/brochures/La ligne Maginot aquatique.pdf


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The French like their 'Routes', which are (as the name suggests) tourist roads linking together things that are perhaps worth seeing. Whether, as in this case it's aquatic based 20th century forts or if it's fortified medieval churches or just a pleasant drive around some attractive villages, they are sometimes interesting enough just to turn off the road you are to see... but only if you have time.

http://www.aube-champagne.com/assets/uploads/2016/03/eglises_bois_champagne.pdf

You can usualy Google up enough information to tell you something vaguely interesting and / or offer up an explanation of what it is you are looking at or had trundled past. It's how I found out what the figures on the huge American memorial represented.... I cheated.... I Googled.... 'Chateau-Thierry memorial figures' and up popped the answer. It was easy enough to guess without Google that they were allegorical figures of some sort; Google filled in the gap, that they represent the two countries, America and France.
 
You could possibly do the entire trip using Street view, save a few quid and not risk getting wet.

Now that's an idea for a new software business, like Total Recall but now easily do-able with modern technology. A mock-up bike or car seat, a very large curved TV screen, cast the route from streetview, add some sounds maybe some smells. Obviously the streetview would need to be throttle responsive or it would take forever. Have it set up in a spare room and you could even send the kids into the room to take themselves on holiday safely without you. It could be done in parts, an episode of the journey each night. Homework questions after each section of the trip.....H'mm someone must have already thought of it.. Ha Ha!
 
Richard,

Yes I get that, did you ever get to this place in Speyer. http://speyer.technik-museum.de/

I have

Last year a buddy from Blighty & his wife came down and met us at Annecy, from there we went across the top of italy, did some lakes then up through Stelvio (stayed in Trafoi) up toAustria then to Germany stopping at the the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, stayed in Nuremberg amongst others and also Speyer for the museum which was well worth a visit
 
OP, if you drop into the Portugal section, you'll find a very recent thread on RiDE magazine's 'Castles routes', along with a post lower down where Leedude has created the routes in BaseCamp.

As luck would have it, Ride's routes in the French bits are pretty similar to the U-shaped route I hacked out for you. You could maybe adopt or adapt their suggestions to suite your plans.
 


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