Suggest Recommend route Cherbourg/ one week/ Cherbourg

Had a "quick fuel stop" on one trip and a guy goes and orders some hot food not realising they cook it fresh, after a long wait for it to be cooked and almost eaten another guy decides he is a bit peckish and goes off for a fucking ice cream, as he is finishing the one smoker must have a pre-departure fag, by this time everyone else needs a piss, followed by gearing up and actually moving off, reckon it must of been a 1 hour fuel stop.

Have a mate who always takes off helmet / jacket / gloves to fill up, even on card only pumps reducing efficiency of herding everyone into those.

Also had to teach some people how to fill up their bike as they ram the nozzle all the way down and stop 6 inches from the top of the tank - and most bikes hold most their fuel in that last 6 inches, all of a sudden their bikes can go twice as far!

Once ONE RIDER removes helmet at a fuel stop, it becomes a 30 minutes stop minimum!
 
I took a couple of friends, we want to do the alps see the mountains, 3 cols later we are fed up of doing all these hairpins can we go to Monaco, FFS:anger::anger::anger::anger:
 
I took a couple of friends, we want to do the alps see the mountains, 3 cols later we are fed up of doing all these hairpins can we go to Monaco, FFS:anger::anger::anger::anger:

I would of said "Yes, see you back at the Ferry". And what an utter congested shit-hole Monaco is, great if you want to ride the car GP circuit at 3 mph in solid traffic whilst melting in your bike gear and pay £20 for a Coffee / Pint / Ice Cream, otherwise well worth avoiding.

Unlucky to find 3 hairpin strewn cols in a row, or were "all these hairpins" really just a handful near the top on one side of the col which is fairly common.
 
Not that many hairpins really just that they didn't like them and truth be told were finding them difficult with their bikes loaded.
 
I would of said "Yes, see you back at the Ferry". And what an utter congested shit-hole Monaco is, great if you want to ride the car GP circuit at 3 mph in solid traffic whilst melting in your bike gear and pay £20 for a Coffee / Pint / Ice Cream, otherwise well worth avoiding.

I love the place.. In 1983 i parked my BMW up against the Palace walls while i played the tourist , the ceremonial guard who was marching up and down the palace wall (and around the bike) said "no need to lock it up, i'll look after it".
 
I would of said "Yes, see you back at the Ferry". And what an utter congested shit-hole Monaco is, great if you want to ride the car GP circuit at 3 mph in solid traffic whilst melting in your bike gear and pay £20 for a Coffee / Pint / Ice Cream, otherwise well worth avoiding.

Unlucky to find 3 hairpin strewn cols in a row, or were "all these hairpins" really just a handful near the top on one side of the col which is fairly common.
Reminds me of a section we used to have on the " Alpineroads.com" website many years ago.
Something along the lines of : " Things you wont hear said in the Alps"
Rasher do you remember ?

!! Unable to copy the section Leedude wrote ?
 
Not that many hairpins really just that they didn't like them and truth be told were finding them difficult with their bikes loaded.

Few passes with zero hairpins, but many where they are predominantly fairly wide radius and no worse than the average dual carriageway roundabout.

I would of maybe taken them out to edge of Alps - Castellane as a base then looped around Gorge du Verdon...

... Castellane - St Julien du verdon is an awesome stretch, the gorge du Daluis (a great ride, no steep climbs or hairpins) across col du Valberg (few tight hairpins) then D28 from Beuil to Touet sur var and back to Castellane.

Or told them to F*****g man-up, My Mrs has done everything thrown at her on a 1090 / 1190 Adventure including some pretty nadgery passes like Sampeyre, and hairpin fests like col del la bonnette.

I assume back in blighty they just ride to the local bikers cafe / pub and stand around talking bollox?
 
Few passes with zero hairpins, but many where they are predominantly fairly wide radius and no worse than the average dual carriageway roundabout.

I would of maybe taken them out to edge of Alps - Castellane as a base then looped around Gorge du Verdon...

... Castellane - St Julien du verdon is an awesome stretch, the gorge du Daluis (a great ride, no steep climbs or hairpins) across col du Valberg (few tight hairpins) then D28 from Beuil to Touet sur var and back to Castellane.

Or told them to F*****g man-up, My Mrs has done everything thrown at her on a 1090 / 1190 Adventure including some pretty nadgery passes like Sampeyre, and hairpin fests like col del la bonnette.

I assume back in blighty they just ride to the local bikers cafe / pub and stand around talking bollox?

You assume right, and i did warn them what it was going to be like they were pre warned and i was assured they were up for it. I learnt my lesson the hard way and will not be doing that again.
 
Personally I would book hotels, work out a route and give everyone the details then tell them that they can go at their own pace. Little groups will form and they’ll be different tales to tell round the dinner table.

My route, for what it’s worth would be:
Cherbourg to Swiss Normand stopping for lunch along the banks of the Orne river.
Cut through the Perch national park for the first night in Orleans
From there cut across to Avalon - stop for a look round and/or lunch. Then down through the centre of the Morvan. Either stop for a night in Chalon Sur Sloane or a country hotel on route.
Next day head down to the Jura mountains (a real hidden jem) and plot a twisty route through the centre - this will prepare your party for the Alps
Then your in Switzerland.
After I’d head north through the Black Forest then motorway to The Ardennes.
From here it’s motorway I’m afraid but plenty of memories for the boring slog.
:beerjug:
 
Personally I would book hotels, work out a route and give everyone the details then tell them that they can go at their own pace. Little groups will form and they’ll be different tales to tell round the dinner table.

My route, for what it’s worth would be:
Cherbourg to Swiss Normand stopping for lunch along the banks of the Orne river.
Cut through the Perch national park for the first night in Orleans
From there cut across to Avalon - stop for a look round and/or lunch. Then down through the centre of the Morvan. Either stop for a night in Chalon Sur Sloane or a country hotel on route.
Next day head down to the Jura mountains (a real hidden jem) and plot a twisty route through the centre - this will prepare your party for the Alps
Then your in Switzerland.
After I’d head north through the Black Forest then motorway to The Ardennes.
From here it’s motorway I’m afraid but plenty of memories for the boring slog.
:beerjug:

pretty much what I would choose to do, but spread over 10-14 days to give 2 or 3 nights in some of the stops for some R&R or daytrips. Compressing that journey into the time between the OPs proposed ferries is a lit of travelling in a short space of time. I would have done that 20 years ago, but not now.
 
I think Wessie has hit the nail on the head in relation to post 53.

The OP has a reluctance to use motorways, wants to limit the daily mileage, has a decent sized group of mixed riders, wants to stop and see stuff. Mix in that the first and last days of the week available are only half-days, dictated by the arrival and departure times of a ferry.
 
Planning in reverse...

...Set time constraints and then try and squeeze all of your desires into them.

I either set out what I want to do and figure out how long I need, and if I cannot commit the time then figure out what compromises can be made - and key is knowing at what point you need to rethink....

...or see what I can do in the available time.

2-3 Days - Wales weekend (on or off road)

4-5 days is a short hop to Ardennes / Luxembourg / Black Forest or Morvan

6-7 Can get a whistlestop trip to Alps, but I would in most cases stick closer to home, maybe a loop around Black Forest, Lux, Eifel or similar.

8-9 Enough for a trip to a single Alpine base (Andermatt / Barcelonnette / Livigno) or blast down RDGA if happy to move on almost every day - also enough for Ferry and run around Pico's, or anywhere in France (Tarn Gorge / Ventoux and Gorge du Verdon maybe)

10+ Looking at a good trip wherever we fancy with 2-3 stops of 2-3 nights for luggage free days out and no check out / check ins to waste time. Also posisble to get further out (Dolomites etc) time to run down French side of Pyrenees and back up on the Spanish side.

The problem is there is never enough time for us poor bastards that have to work for a living, the further out you go the more places you have to fly past / through that in an ideal world you would spend time to enjoy. I have never stayed in Morvan or Vosges, but try to ride through them rather than bypass them on Motorway, Lux and Ardennes are both weekend trips and a good way to head out / home for us - can be a bit of an anticlimax after a week or more in the Alps, but they beat the crap out of using the Motorway (and in isolation beat anything we have in England / Wales)
 
I think Wessie has hit the nail on the head in relation to post 53.

The OP has a reluctance to use motorways, wants to limit the daily mileage, has a decent sized group of mixed riders, wants to stop and see stuff. Mix in that the first and last days of the week available are only half-days, dictated by the arrival and departure times of a ferry.

I agree with Wessie also, I’m just giving the OP what he asked for - let’s hope he does a ride report 😀
 


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