Firstly my apologies for the delayed report as 2 full weeks have now passed since we returned, I've noticed of late that the pre-emptive ride report seems to be de rigour on these pages of late, something along the lines of "my bags are packed we leave in 6 months" but I digress and apologise again for the more traditional post ride trip report.
The planning (such it was) fell to me, I've fancied the Balcony Roads of the Vercors for some time https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/france.html
but was unsure that we could make a week of it in that are alone so added a loop in South East France and Route de Grand Alpes for good measure.
Four of us were booked onto the whole 9 (was going to be 10) day trip; myself, cookie, Oscar and Dave with Mark and Sean joining us mid trip for a day in the Vercors and the staggered journey back North to the ferry port, the bikes were 3 x GS LC Rallye, 1 x 09 GSA, 1 x KTM 1190R and 1 x 1200GSA LC iconic.
The four of us arranged to meet at Portsmouth Brittany Ferries terminal for the overnight crossing to Le Havre crossing which departed at 23.30 on Thurs Sept 13th the 08.30 arrival the following morning would give us a fighting chance of reaching the first hotel booked on the South shore of Lake Geneva the following day some 520 miles away.
I grabbed some supper to eat whilst awaiting the arrival of my travelling companions
They arrived too late to share much to Oscar's obvious disgust
We were soon aboard the Baie De Seine part of Brittany Ferries "Economie" service where we had 2 cabins booked, we were aboard by 10pm ish and had a couple in the bar
Day1 Friday Sept 14th; Destination Mellerie on the South shore of Lac Leman, Garmin suggests 527 miles or a possibly optimistic 7 hours 45 minutes, we shall see.........
It was cold (6 degrees C) and foggy in France for the first hour whilst we waited for the sun to burn the through the cloud, needless to say our group of 4 became fragmented in the rush hour traffic and the 3 of us pressed on minus Oscar
Our route comprised mostly Peage down the A6 ( a necessary to get the big miles done in 1 day) which took us close Versailles and as close to Paris as we wanted to be, at one point a rider aboard a fully dressed White K1600 approached from behind LED headlights ablaze and hazard lights on and the traffic parted (he was dressed in an open face lid casual jacket Chinos and boat shoes which seemed de-rigour for city dwelling high speed commuters) we followed for as long as we dared as the speed increased, we gained a few km's and saved ourselves some time no doubt but lost Dave in the process who felt unwilling or unable to follow in the wake.
The journey was largely uneventful and punctuated every 180 miles or so by a fuel stop (the only time I miss an ADV over a regular GS) and an occasional coffee
Most of us had registered and got a Sanef Liber T tag for supposedly quicker and painless passage through the toll booths on the Peage, for the most part they worked well
I put mine inside a zip lock bag and put it in the sleeve pocket of my jacket where it seemed to be easily read or recognised I only had to resort to waiving my arm around in front of the reader once or twice.
At some point after passing through a toll we were reunited with Dave and then Oscar too
It wasn't to last.........
As we neared our destination we were waived and signalled by a van driver as we drew alongside his van he was gesturing to us and we gathered he was telling us not to speed as the area was patrolled by Police helicopters-thanks mate He saved us for sure as few km's later we passed a lay by full of Police motorcycles preparing to pull out into the afternoon commuter traffic.
Cookie and I arrived at the hotel Les Terrasses in Mellerie, we checked out all 4 booked rooms and selected one each and awaited the arrival of the others......
Garage parking was offered a short walk away but we opted to use the car park and group all the bikes together.
Some views from my balcony;
Humming bird?
We enjoyed a few beers on the terrace as the sun set and then retired inside for a good meal
Day 2 Sat September 15th Destination Suza Ialy Garmin suggests 208 miles or 5 hours 43 mins, again this seems optimistic for the road type we were travelling.......
Instead of going via Bourg St Maurice and Val D'Iserre (a great route but we have all ridden this way many times before we opted to go via Albertville and Bonneval
We rode the Col du Corbier
Where we followed this chap
He was seemed anxious not to make contact with his expensive carbon fibre and the bumpy road surface that he slowed and weaved all over the road to avoid undulations, we swarmed around him like flies and then dispatched him........we later joked about the in-car Go Pro footage showing 4 fat bikes with luggage passing him on a mountain road
Our next Col was the Col de la Madeleine which was a fantastic mix of blue sky views a sinuous bends
We stopped at the summit for a healthy lunch among the calorie scoffing cyclists, what do you mean it's not healthy? There's green on the plate and Water on the table
Some of us were not so sure the next Col was worth including in our route as it seemed like it may be a time consuming diversion and little more than a novelty, how wrong we were.......I really enjoyed the Col du Chaussy yes it was narrow and twisty buit the road was empty and the views were fantastic
Not my pic;
Some of my pics from Col du Chaussy;
Our last pass of the day was the Col du Mont Cenis another fantastic pass with a mix of slow and tight hairpins and faster, more open flowing bends
As the light began to fade we paused for a sip of water before pushing onto Suza and our hotel
We were held up near the end of the pass as the local Trumpton put out a fire in a disused hotel/hostel, we would be checking in quite late again.........
We checked into the Hotel Fell in Suza where our hosts couldn't have been more helpful and kept the chef on for an hour so we could enjoy an evening meal, again no indoor parking but at the owners insistence we parked where directed in view of the cctv and the hotel drive gates were shut at night, this along with the trusty pound of butter in the fridge back home ensured we had a carefree restful night's sleep
Day 3 Sunday Sept 16th Destination Barcelonnette, Garmin suggests 205 miles 5 hours 25 mins another wildly optimistic calculation
After breakfast we were soon packed and on the road, leaving Italy we enjoyed the opportunity to use our Sanef Tags again (not intended.......) a brief spell on the Peage lead us back onto mountain roads and into Briancon where we paused to re-group
So many passes on today's route it was difficult to keep track, next was Col D'Izoard
Or route took us via the Gorges de Guilles and Col de Vars followed by the Col de la Bonnette, excuse the scrap iron.....
We took a little detour to Roubion for lunch and very nice it was too
The view from the terrace was stunning
The roads today had been fantastic but there was a real danger of becoming "cornered out" nearing tonight's hotel we paused for thought-and to re-group.....again
The new boots on my bike had impressed me so far and they'd had a fair workout today.
At last we arrived at our hotel after a long day in the saddle, The Grand Eperviere Hotel in Barcelonnette
Not long after checking in this happened
Oh yes I almost forgot......secure under ground parking for the bikes but the receptionist was somewhat lacking in the charm department
The planning (such it was) fell to me, I've fancied the Balcony Roads of the Vercors for some time https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/france.html
but was unsure that we could make a week of it in that are alone so added a loop in South East France and Route de Grand Alpes for good measure.
Four of us were booked onto the whole 9 (was going to be 10) day trip; myself, cookie, Oscar and Dave with Mark and Sean joining us mid trip for a day in the Vercors and the staggered journey back North to the ferry port, the bikes were 3 x GS LC Rallye, 1 x 09 GSA, 1 x KTM 1190R and 1 x 1200GSA LC iconic.
The four of us arranged to meet at Portsmouth Brittany Ferries terminal for the overnight crossing to Le Havre crossing which departed at 23.30 on Thurs Sept 13th the 08.30 arrival the following morning would give us a fighting chance of reaching the first hotel booked on the South shore of Lake Geneva the following day some 520 miles away.
I grabbed some supper to eat whilst awaiting the arrival of my travelling companions
They arrived too late to share much to Oscar's obvious disgust
We were soon aboard the Baie De Seine part of Brittany Ferries "Economie" service where we had 2 cabins booked, we were aboard by 10pm ish and had a couple in the bar
Day1 Friday Sept 14th; Destination Mellerie on the South shore of Lac Leman, Garmin suggests 527 miles or a possibly optimistic 7 hours 45 minutes, we shall see.........
It was cold (6 degrees C) and foggy in France for the first hour whilst we waited for the sun to burn the through the cloud, needless to say our group of 4 became fragmented in the rush hour traffic and the 3 of us pressed on minus Oscar
Our route comprised mostly Peage down the A6 ( a necessary to get the big miles done in 1 day) which took us close Versailles and as close to Paris as we wanted to be, at one point a rider aboard a fully dressed White K1600 approached from behind LED headlights ablaze and hazard lights on and the traffic parted (he was dressed in an open face lid casual jacket Chinos and boat shoes which seemed de-rigour for city dwelling high speed commuters) we followed for as long as we dared as the speed increased, we gained a few km's and saved ourselves some time no doubt but lost Dave in the process who felt unwilling or unable to follow in the wake.
The journey was largely uneventful and punctuated every 180 miles or so by a fuel stop (the only time I miss an ADV over a regular GS) and an occasional coffee
Most of us had registered and got a Sanef Liber T tag for supposedly quicker and painless passage through the toll booths on the Peage, for the most part they worked well
I put mine inside a zip lock bag and put it in the sleeve pocket of my jacket where it seemed to be easily read or recognised I only had to resort to waiving my arm around in front of the reader once or twice.
At some point after passing through a toll we were reunited with Dave and then Oscar too
It wasn't to last.........
As we neared our destination we were waived and signalled by a van driver as we drew alongside his van he was gesturing to us and we gathered he was telling us not to speed as the area was patrolled by Police helicopters-thanks mate
He saved us for sure as few km's later we passed a lay by full of Police motorcycles preparing to pull out into the afternoon commuter traffic.Cookie and I arrived at the hotel Les Terrasses in Mellerie, we checked out all 4 booked rooms and selected one each and awaited the arrival of the others......
Garage parking was offered a short walk away but we opted to use the car park and group all the bikes together.
Some views from my balcony;
Humming bird?
We enjoyed a few beers on the terrace as the sun set and then retired inside for a good meal
Day 2 Sat September 15th Destination Suza Ialy Garmin suggests 208 miles or 5 hours 43 mins, again this seems optimistic for the road type we were travelling.......
Instead of going via Bourg St Maurice and Val D'Iserre (a great route but we have all ridden this way many times before we opted to go via Albertville and Bonneval
We rode the Col du Corbier
Where we followed this chap
He was seemed anxious not to make contact with his expensive carbon fibre and the bumpy road surface that he slowed and weaved all over the road to avoid undulations, we swarmed around him like flies and then dispatched him........we later joked about the in-car Go Pro footage showing 4 fat bikes with luggage passing him on a mountain road
Our next Col was the Col de la Madeleine which was a fantastic mix of blue sky views a sinuous bends
We stopped at the summit for a healthy lunch among the calorie scoffing cyclists, what do you mean it's not healthy? There's green on the plate and Water on the table
Some of us were not so sure the next Col was worth including in our route as it seemed like it may be a time consuming diversion and little more than a novelty, how wrong we were.......I really enjoyed the Col du Chaussy yes it was narrow and twisty buit the road was empty and the views were fantastic
Not my pic;
Some of my pics from Col du Chaussy;
Our last pass of the day was the Col du Mont Cenis another fantastic pass with a mix of slow and tight hairpins and faster, more open flowing bends
As the light began to fade we paused for a sip of water before pushing onto Suza and our hotel
We were held up near the end of the pass as the local Trumpton put out a fire in a disused hotel/hostel, we would be checking in quite late again.........
We checked into the Hotel Fell in Suza where our hosts couldn't have been more helpful and kept the chef on for an hour so we could enjoy an evening meal, again no indoor parking but at the owners insistence we parked where directed in view of the cctv and the hotel drive gates were shut at night, this along with the trusty pound of butter in the fridge back home ensured we had a carefree restful night's sleep
Day 3 Sunday Sept 16th Destination Barcelonnette, Garmin suggests 205 miles 5 hours 25 mins another wildly optimistic calculation
After breakfast we were soon packed and on the road, leaving Italy we enjoyed the opportunity to use our Sanef Tags again (not intended.......) a brief spell on the Peage lead us back onto mountain roads and into Briancon where we paused to re-group
So many passes on today's route it was difficult to keep track, next was Col D'Izoard
Or route took us via the Gorges de Guilles and Col de Vars followed by the Col de la Bonnette, excuse the scrap iron.....
We took a little detour to Roubion for lunch and very nice it was too
The view from the terrace was stunning
The roads today had been fantastic but there was a real danger of becoming "cornered out" nearing tonight's hotel we paused for thought-and to re-group.....again
The new boots on my bike had impressed me so far and they'd had a fair workout today.
At last we arrived at our hotel after a long day in the saddle, The Grand Eperviere Hotel in Barcelonnette
Not long after checking in this happened
Oh yes I almost forgot......secure under ground parking for the bikes but the receptionist was somewhat lacking in the charm department
