France 2017

Demonbaker

Active member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
Jul 2, 2009
Messages
164
Reaction score
0
Location
Pewsey,Wilts.
Hi all.
A couple of mates and I are going down too Le mans for the 24 hrs this June and then have the rest of the week to have a tour around France. We intend leaving our base at champgeneteux on the Monday and heading south too Oradour-sur-Glane and camp near by that night. After that we have no concrete plans apart from heading to Belfort for Thursday or Friday and then the Eurotunnel back on Sunday. I would just like to tap into the vast knowledge of the collective and any recommendations of routes or places to see.
Thanks in advance
Demonbaker
 
Places to see: Millau bridge, Ardennes, U-boat pens, Monte Carlo, Ardeche gorge, Morvan, Vosges, Verdun, RdGA and Paris. Others will be along with great twisty routes to join them all up, biker friendly places to stay, great cafes and a host of other essentials for your and your mates' week long holiday.

Failing that, the RiDE magazine website, loaded with routes for just such an Adventure, will sort you out.

PS You might need a map or two.

PPS What made you select Belfort as a destination?
 
Thanks Wapping.
Done Milau, Paris , Monte Carlo and u boat pens. We do have a plan for a route across France, but just thought i would put it up here to see if anyone had any little gems of route that we may have missed.
Plenty of maps thanks.
Long story, but we found it by accident a couple of years ago while heading back from the stelvio. We cut across switzerland and had a cold wet miserable day, Belfort was close by and we found an ibis hotel for the night. All of us enjoyed our stay there and this looks like a good time to pop back for a night as its the same three riders.
 
If you're in Belfort you'd be barmy not to ride, at the very least, the Ballon d'Alsace. The Vosges have some of the best bike roads in France.
 
Hi all.
After that we have no concrete plans.....
Demonbaker

No point asking Tricky for any advice then !!

laughing-smiley-004.gif
 
He and his two chums do have a definite plan, though they pretend they don't. They definitely plan to be away for a week in June, they plan on going to Le Mans, camp, visit Oradour (natch) and end up in Belfort (Ibis hotel possibly, reason why now ascertained) and return via Calais for home. It's the bits in between they'd like assistance with; those little gem roads and things to see, known only to the very few.

Away you go, Biggles and Khulu, the limelight is lit, the stage is all yours and an eager audience (of at least three) awaits....
 
He and his two chums do have a definite plan, though they pretend they don't. They definitely plan to be away for a week in June, they plan on going to Le Mans, camp, visit Oradour (natch) and end up in Belfort (Ibis hotel possibly, reason why now ascertained) and return via Calais for home. It's the bits in between they'd like assistance with; those little gem roads and things to see, known only to the very few.

Away you go, Biggles and Khulu, the limelight is lit, the stage is all yours and an eager audience (of at least three) awaits....

You're slipping,Ricardo !!! We had to wait 59 minutes after the OP post before we were treated to your witty travel-based repartee !!

Anyway,I'm too busy packing as I'm off to France tonight....with a plan and a GPS with maps....
grinning-smiley-010.gif
 
In the 59 minute interim, I had to help some bod with his nervousness over Nav V updates, snowfall in the north, a bicycle route conversion and the employment of known felons (scum, in bikermate parlance) in high street key cutting and shoe repair shops. All from the comfort of my bed.

Enjoy your holiday.

In the meantime, just pumping the OP's known destinations into Google maps / viaMichelin, producing a software generated route of many miles across a big country, gives a good clue to what might be around. Zooming in and out, for the finer / broader detail. They'll crack it I'm sure; anyone who has braved the Stelvio.... On that subject, there was a bod looking for advice on the Stelvio, maybe the OP can reciprocate?

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/443571-North-Italy-recommended-roads-required
 
This little route would not be a million miles out of your way, and has some good roads and places to see along its length, rocamadour and saint cirque la poppie and dom to name a couple of the many.
 

Attachments

  • 25-04-2017 09-45-49.jpg
    25-04-2017 09-45-49.jpg
    107.7 KB · Views: 338
To make it easier for bods to contribute great roads and things to see between Le Mans, Oradour, Belfort and Calais, I think this is the timetable to be filled in:

Monday 19 June Le Mans to Oradour

Tuesday 20 June, though I guess this is spent looking at the memorial village, perhaps?

Wednesday 21 June / maybe Thursday 22 June between Oradour and Belfort (Arrival in Belfort flexible but ultimately important)

Friday 23 June maybe (unsure, see above), Saturday 24 June and Sunday 25 June in or around Belfort but most importantly to include the ride from Belfort to Calais for the train home, departure time a closely guarded secret.
 
You're slipping,Ricardo !!! We had to wait 59 minutes after the OP post before we were treated to your witty travel-based repartee !!

Anyway,I'm too busy packing as I'm off to France tonight....with a plan and a GPS with maps....
grinning-smiley-010.gif

I'm so jealous - a GPS with maps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Ride magazine did a feature on the Limousine last year with (I think) three day's riding
Did a goodly chunk of one route in October, enrolee to Spain, & I'd definitely go back
 
Pick a random destination for the end of the day over breakfast coffee (in the general direction you need to be going).

Set GPS to shortest route and avoid M-Ways/whatever.

See what happens; nine times out of ten you'll end up in some places you'd never have ordinarily have sought out and usually all for the better. If you end up in a place or region you like the look of don't be afraid to change your plans.

Job done.

Andres
 
Hi all.
A couple of mates and I are going down too Le mans for the 24 hrs this June and then have the rest of the week to have a tour around France. We intend leaving our base at champgeneteux on the Monday and heading south too Oradour-sur-Glane and camp near by that night. After that we have no concrete plans apart from heading to Belfort for Thursday or Friday and then the Eurotunnel back on Sunday. I would just like to tap into the vast knowledge of the collective and any recommendations of routes or places to see.
Thanks in advance
Demonbaker

There's lots of great advise on here, as usual .Whenever we went to Le Mans we always caught the overnighter from Portsmouth to Le Harve. Take the road to Honfleur, down the D579 to Lisieux, livarot, down the D979 past the tiger tank in the layby at Vimoutiers, down to Gace, then the D438 , Sees , into Alencon, then D338 to Beaumont Sur Sarth , where we always used to stop on the way back on Sunday night, and then into Le Mans. There is now a toll rd that passes all that now days , but the old rd was always fun.:beerjug:
 
Pick a random destination for the end of the day..... (in the general direction you need to be going).

Andres

Vital advice there from the hippy.... as opposed to a totally opposite direction, I assume?

But there again, it would make an Adventure!
 
Thanks for all the input. Wapping, we normally get a eurotunnel or ferry crossing booking whilst on route that way it gives us maximum flexibility on times.

Thanks Stolzy for the ballon d'Alsace idea. This is the sort of info I was after and is now on the agenda for the week.
However like others have said plans normally change as we go along depending on weather etc.

Snelly, I know that route very well and love stopping for breakfast at the tiger tank and we also stop at Beaumont. This year we are sailing from Newhaven - Dieppe then riding to Champgenteux and staying at a mates place over the Le man 24 hr weekend.
 
Something along these lines would probably be not too bad:

https://goo.gl/maps/kfChi7Ps5SJ2

They are by no means the exact roads, I just just dragged the blue line around to hit the reasonable bits, having set Google maps to avoid motorways and tolls. For instance, you could move the line upwards to cross deeper into the Morvan, exiting eastwards towards Dijon and Belfort. If nothing else, it inevitably shows how difficult (or easy, depending on the effort people are prepared to make) to offer up routes of one thousand or more miles, along with things to see on the way.

Total distance Le Mans > Oradour > Belforth > Calais is 1,100 miles. You have Monday through Sunday to do the journey, which is seven full days, so plenty of time. Take off one day to look at Oradour and a full day in Belforth and (maybe) half day to catch your return train in Calais (assuming a mid-afternoon Sunday crossing) leaves 4.5 days or an average of 250 miles a day on French N and D roads, which is quite doable. That leaves time for a morning coffee, lunchtime lunch, an afternoon coffee and whatever flower pressing you need to do, all without breaking your butts.

In planning (there's a dreadful word for all seat of the pants Adventure bikermates) 1000 mile jaunts across France, a great help is the excellent Michelin 726 map, which looks like:

france_grand_itineries_map_726_michelin_2015.jpg


france_grand_itineries_map_726_michelin_2015_sample.jpg


http://www.themapcentre.com/michelin-route-planning-france-2017-6955-p.asp

It's designed specifically for help in planning routes such as yours across a big country. It has all the motorways, which you don't have to take. More importantly, it has all the main roads and the suggested 'holiday' Bis routes coloured green on the map - you can see a short segment in the picture below, running west from Dreux in the bottom left hand corner - (which have their own distinctive road signs, too) but without all the clutter of some very detailed maps. Similarly, any town with a green box around it not only appears in Michelin's excellent green guides but will at some point appear on all local road signs, too. Use it to get a good feel for the direction, roads to take and fill in any fine detail with other Michelin maps. The useful thing about the other maps from Michelin is that they can be found in the same scale, so France always appears at a uniform size. Maps are cheap, last a good number of years and unlike your GPS will not let you down. Buy and use with confidence.

Now sit down with your mates and plan (or not) your holiday.

Richard
 


Back
Top Bottom