7 days and 6 nights in France/Switzerland & Italy

shready

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My wife and I on the GSA just had a 7 day trip that took in the Vosges, Alps and Morvan. First 2 days threw some nasty patches of rain at us but the rest of the holiday was dry.

I'd never travelled through the Vosges or Morvan before but glad we did, especially the Morvan, 2 and a bit hours of riding on empty roads with beautiful scenery.

Hotels booked in advance, so no worrying about finding a bed. Out of the 6 hotels, I would use 5 again and recommend, the 6th was fine but it was a chain so soleless. All of the hotels had safe and secure parking served good food and drink or were near local restaurants and bars.

Any info, happy to help :thumb
 

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My wife and I on the GSA just had a 7 day trip that took in the Vosges, Alps and Morvan. First 2 days threw some nasty patches of rain at us but the rest of the holiday was dry.

I'd never travelled through the Vosges or Morvan before but glad we did, especially the Morvan, 2 and a bit hours of riding on empty roads with beautiful scenery.

Hotels booked in advance, so no worrying about finding a bed. Out of the 6 hotels, I would use 5 again and recommend, the 6th was fine but it was a chain so soleless. All of the hotels had safe and secure parking served good food and drink or were near local restaurants and bars.

Any info, happy to help :thumb

Hi Shready,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I'm having a similar trip leaving London on 31/08 and aiming to get to Genoa (my hometown in Italy) on 08/09 and I'll be doing part of the route you've done. I was wondering whether you can give some good tips, especially in the case you think there are routes that are not worth riding.

Please find below a link to Google maps that shows part of the itinerary of the first day (London to Charleville-Mezieres) and the whole itinerary of the second day. Destination Baden Baden.

Charleville-Mezieres to Baden Baden

Look forward to receiving your feedback.

Cheers,

Gab
 
Hi Shready,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I'm having a similar trip leaving London on 31/08 and aiming to get to Genoa (my hometown in Italy) on 08/09 and I'll be doing part of the route you've done. I was wondering whether you can give some good tips, especially in the case you think there are routes that are not worth riding.

Please find below a link to Google maps that shows part of the itinerary of the first day (London to Charleville-Mezieres) and the whole itinerary of the second day. Destination Baden Baden.

Charleville-Mezieres to Baden Baden

Look forward to receiving your feedback.

Cheers,

Gab

Hi Gab,

You seem to be riding slightly further north to the route we took. I wanted to take in the old Reims race track and the Vosges so dropped down slightly. The original plan was to take in the Alps but as we were 2 up that meant either long motorway sections or a mixture of roads with some sights along the way. Therefore, I ended up with the route I posted. It worked pretty well, we saw some new areas of France, to us and never arrived late at hotels, so we got time to relax before dinner and take in the places.

I've never booked all hotels in advance before and have mixed opinions really. On the plus side we knew we had a bed for the night at each stop but it did take away flexibility of changing the route due to bad weather, which I may well have done.
 
Nice jaunt. Good route.

Out of the 6 hotels, I would use 5 again and recommend, the 6th was fine but it was a chain so soleless. All of the hotels had safe and secure parking served good food and drink or were near local restaurants and bars.

Any info, happy to help

The hotels were and where.....?

PS If you host the file on something like Dropbox, bods will be able to download it.
 
Hi Gab,

You seem to be riding slightly further north to the route we took. I wanted to take in the old Reims race track and the Vosges so dropped down slightly. The original plan was to take in the Alps but as we were 2 up that meant either long motorway sections or a mixture of roads with some sights along the way. Therefore, I ended up with the route I posted. It worked pretty well, we saw some new areas of France, to us and never arrived late at hotels, so we got time to relax before dinner and take in the places.

I've never booked all holidays in advance before and have mixed opinions really. On the plus side we knew we had a bed for the night at each stop but it did take away flexibility of changing the route due to bad weather, which I may well have done.

I generally like to plan in advance and have all the hotels booked so I can focus on enjoying the ride. Although I see your point on having the flexibility to change the route in the case the weather is not good, which is something I am a bit concerned about as I'll do a lot of mountain passes :confused:
 
We're recently back from a ten day trip from Santander to Roscoff.

It was so hot most days that we amended our route depending upon the weather and chose hotels either the night before (using Booking.com) or when we arrived somewhere.

When hot, we tended to shorten our ride on those days. When it rained, we just kept going more.

I can see the advantages of a planned route but some days can become long hard slogs and others too short. It all depends on the conditions at the time.

This was our first trip abroad so I may well be talking absolute shite...
 
Nice jaunt. Good route.

Thanks Richard, the route took me ages to sort out as I didn't want to rack up mega miles as carrying a pillion, who is subject to numb bum!

I also wanted to get some new areas.

I'll sort out a Dropbox or similar for the route details.

The hotels were:

Day 1 - Chavot Bellevue, Chavot-Courcourt, Epernay, France - (secure bike parking behind gates, fantastic owner and well priced good Champagne)
Day 2 - Hotel Wistub Aux Mines d'Argents, Sainte Marie aux Mines, France - (private bike parking, very well priced with a fantastic breakfast, right at the top of the Vosges)
Day 3 - Hotel is Lausanne, Switzerland - I'm not recommended this, there are far better ones available.
Day 4 - Les Campanules Hotels - Chalets de Tradition, Tignes, France (the star of the holiday, pricey but unbelievable, superior room with views over the mountains, outdoor pool, sauna, steam and perfect food. Park next to hotel, off the road).
Day 5 - Chateau Latours, Fours, France - (B&B run by a Dutch couple, secure bike parking in a locked barn. You can opt to have dinner with them and other guests on a big long table, we did and it was very nice, they also have an honour bar. Right next to the Morvan).
Day 6 - La Salamandre, Beauvais, France - (another favourite, recent stylish conversion of a beautiful building in the centre of Beauvais near to the cathedral, lovely owners and secure bike parking behing locked doors.
 
We're recently back from a ten day trip from Santander to Roscoff.

It was so hot most days that we amended our route depending upon the weather and chose hotels either the night before (using Booking.com) or when we arrived somewhere.

When hot, we tended to shorten our ride on those days. When it rained, we just kept going more.

I can see the advantages of a planned route but some days can become long hard slogs and others too short. It all depends on the conditions at the time.

This was our first trip abroad so I may well be talking absolute shite...

We did the same last year in Spain/Portugal booking each night or morning for the next stop. But because we had a planned route with known mileages I decided to pre-book. This was our daily mileage:

Monday 24th July Calais to Epernay 216 miles
Tuesday 25th July Epernay to The Vosges 219 miles
Wednesday 26th July The Vosges to Lausanne 226 miles
Thursday 27th July Lausanne to Tignes 169 miles
Friday 28th July Tignes to Fours 283 miles
Saturday 29th July Fours to Beauvais 274 miles
Sunday 30th July Beauvais to Calais 146 miles
TOTAL 1534 miles
 
The Morvan we were there earlier this year on the way to the Vercors, a great place to spend a few days.
 
shready's route is a really good way to see a decent amount in seven days, all without killing yourself and (more importantly) remaining attached to your spouse at the end of it. Lots of bods ask for ideas for seven days away; here - on a plate - is one that works.

Thanks for sharing the hotels. When I have a chance I'll create a post in the Accommodation and link it to the route etc.

Cheers,

Richard
 
The Morvan is well placed for us when heading towards the South of France / Vercors / French Alps, surprisingly empty roads (even on a summer Sunday, we managed to ride for about 2 hours and IIRC only overtook one car and probably saw no more than a dozen vehicles all day) mean you can make decent progress with the benefit of decent roads and scenery.

By the time we pop out the southern end of the Morvan most of the roads are good and scenery pleasant, and it is an easy day for us to get to just North of the Morvan (We typically stop in or around Troyes having blasted down the Motorway from Calais)

Planning to do the same again next year, not sure I would spend several days there (it is a small region) but it is a fantastic alternative to the main roads.
 


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