Thank you for the full reply.
In no particular order.
Six bikes (and maybe more) is quite a big group. One fuel stop alone might, if you are not disciplined take half an hour. That, on French D roads is about 15 to 20 miles. Lunch stops, coffee stops, photograph stops, will all take a while, too.
If you boat docks at 11:30, I’d guess you’d be out of the ferry gates at around 12:15 and, by the time you have chatted at your rendezvous point, it may well be 12:30 which (conveniently or not) is time for lunch in France. Cherbourg is at the top of the Conentin peninsular. To be blunt, it’s quite a long way from nowhere really. To give you an idea, it is roughly three hours on the main roads to, say Laval. You say do not want to be finishing late in the afternoon. If you say you are on your way by 12:30, that would be 15:30. Add in 30 minutes for a tea break / fuel, will give a 16:00 time at the hotel. I’d maybe aim for somewhere around Laval.
Now comes the tough part. You, as so many do, want to avoid motorways. I’ll bet that with a group of six (or more) you’ll not be off, wheels rolling, much before 09:30 most mornings. Why you’d want to go cross country to Switzerland from Laval’ish, avoiding motorways, with your group of six plus riders of varying / unknown qualities is beyond me. But hey, it’s your holiday and your posse. It can be done, of course but you know you, better than we know you.
My suggestions would be:
1. You want war stuff. The ‘best’ war stuff is on the north Normandy coast, with all its D Day stuff / a bit on the Atlantic coast for the U-boat pens. You maybe don’t want to head to Laval if you want to do the Normandy coast but it can work. Look at a map and imagine where you want and need to go the next day and the day after that and the next day.
2. If you don’t want war stuff you could have quite a good holiday, down the western half side of France, right down to say, Bergerac; country roads all the way there and all the way back.
3. You might maybe suggest that your Swiss chums meet you in, say Clemont-Ferrand or Limoges (or anywhere along that axis) and have quite a good time there or there abouts.
Then back to Cherbourg, via different roads that you rode down on. In view of your departure time, I’d stay about two to two and half hours’ ride from the port and have a leisurely ride up on the day of departure. That side of France has plenty of the French ‘Tourist’ Bison routes, get the Michelin blue 726 map, which is designed specifically for holidays like yours.
Over to you.
Something like this would make a pretty good week away:
It does though show how big France is,
1. That is five individual (unevenly spaced, note) stops between leaving Cherbourg and returning to Cherbourg.
2. It avoids motorways and goat tracks.
3. It is 1,100 miles, give or take a yard or two.
You now do the maths on how many full days riding you have, not forgetting that your first and last days are only really half days; bods often forget this. Then work out how many miles / hours in the saddle you want to do. Consider if you want a day (or a full afternoon) off somewhere. What stops during the day you might want….. and do remember, when you are stopped, even for a pee break, you are not moving forwards, bods often forget this, too.
PS Now wonder how you were going to do Cherbourg > Switzerland > Germany > Cherbourg, avoiding motorways and taking time to see ‘stuff’, all whilst not doing too many miles a day and finishing in time for afternoon tea on the lawn….. and camping, into the bargain!
