A few days in the Ardennes / France?

wow, so much info, thanks to all. Unfortunaltely we have just postponed our trip as it was supposed to be next week and everywhere we were going is forcast rain/thunderstorms.

Don't normally shy away from wet weather riding, but when you've only got 3 good days on the roads and they are all forcast to be wet and we can rearrange, it seems silly not too.

Back in motorhome the following week so hope to get the bike tri done in 2 weeks time.
 
wow, so much info, thanks to all. Unfortunaltely we have just postponed our trip as it was supposed to be next week and everywhere we were going is forcast rain/thunderstorms.

Don't normally shy away from wet weather riding, but when you've only got 3 good days on the roads and they are all forcast to be wet and we can rearrange, it seems silly not too.

Back in motorhome the following week so hope to get the bike tri done in 2 weeks time.

Where were you going ?
We leave for France on Monday and I’ve been keeping an eye on the weather. Might be a few showers on Monday and Tuesday but most of France will be sunny and dry from Wednesday
 
wow, so much info, thanks to all. Unfortunaltely we have just postponed our trip as it was supposed to be next week and everywhere we were going is forcast rain/thunderstorms.

Don't normally shy away from wet weather riding, but when you've only got 3 good days on the roads and they are all forcast to be wet and we can rearrange, it seems silly not too.

Back in motorhome the following week so hope to get the bike tri done in 2 weeks time.



Where were you going ?
We leave for France on Monday and I’ve been keeping an eye on the weather. Might be a few showers on Monday and Tuesday but most of France will be sunny and dry from Wednesday

According to an earlier post, he was going here:

So, thanks to all the advice, the trip is now sorted.

We have booked a Logis hotel in Montherme. Tried Rocroi but couldn't get suitable hotel.

Day 1 - morning : Calais - Canbria on motorway, lunch somewhere
afternoon : Cabria - Montherme via Kurviger twisty roads, 86 miles 2hr 40 mins (tried Rocroi but couldn't get suitable hotel)
Day 2 - Ride magazine day trip 'Ardennes Taster' 160 miles, even starts at Montherme :)
Day 3 - TBC, but looks like we are cental in the Ardennes so lots of options. Givet, Dinant ?
Day 4 - reverse of day 1 for a 16:20 train

Really looking forward to it now.

In other words, the Ardennes.

He must have been expecting rain on a biblical scale, I guess. It’s a pity, as the weather forecasts show it to be not too bad at all; it is the Ardennes after all.
 
Yep the Ardennes, all along the French, Belgium border

My riding buddy is a farmer so is well into his weather forcasts. We spent Saturday morning trawling all of them and on our main riding days (Wednsday, Thursday), were going to be wet with potential thunderstorms. Not consistant rain, but enought to keep the roads damp. The problem is a low weather front that is passing the UK now and is slowly moving across western Europe and will be around for next week.

New departure date is 21st Sept. It's handy being flexible. Although, this Ardennes trip may now run into our annual end of season Wales trip :)
 
What’ll you do if it looks like it might rain in 17 days time in the Ardennes AND in Wales?

As it turns out, most of the medium range weather forecasts for that part of Belgium have been improving since Saturday, the two days you mention not being particularly wet. It’s a shame you’ll miss the chance to go, the pair of you having talked yourselves into not going.

Hey-ho, the Ardennes won’t vanish before this time next year or any time after that. That being said, they can get all sorts of weather within one hour, let alone a day or a week. It’s a part of their charm and part of what riding an Adventure (with a capital A) motorbike is all about.

:beerjug:
 
Yep the Ardennes, all along the French, Belgium border

My riding buddy is a farmer so is well into his weather forcasts. We spent Saturday morning trawling all of them and on our main riding days (Wednsday, Thursday), were going to be wet with potential thunderstorms. Not consistant rain, but enought to keep the roads damp. The problem is a low weather front that is passing the UK now and is slowly moving across western Europe and will be around for next week.

New departure date is 21st Sept. It's handy being flexible. Although, this Ardennes trip may now run into our annual end of season Wales trip :)

Weird !

I’ve just looked and Wednesday looks dry all day and Thursday looks dry until 1500 then showers and possible thunderstorms from 1700 ish.
We’re you riding 1250s ? :)
 
it always rains in Wales and we always get wet. Two years ago we switched to Dartmoor, and not only was it torrential rain, it also had 50mph winds to keep things interesting.

If it's still raining in 17 days in France, then we'll just probably go as it will be our last chance this year. Also, a third member had to initally drop out as he discovered his passport has expired :blast, he now has a chance to get it renewed and join us.

As for bikes, if I still had my GSA then I wouldn't be bothered (in fact I quite enjoyed wet weather riding on that), but I just changed to the F900R, and this will be it's first 'tour'. No weather protection and sports tyres means I need to assess it's wet riding capabilities. Will be putting sports touring tyres on it when the current one as a little more worn.
 
I am sure that an F900R is, like any modern motorbike, more than capable in the damp and wet. The same goes its tyres.

Enjoy your jaunt when it happens.
 
Well, that all turned out well.

The reschedled dates (last Wednesday to Saturday) turned out to be all lovely sunny days apart from the return home on Saturday when we got wet.

Monterme (in the middle of the French Ardennes) is a pretty, quiet town with the river running through it. There only appears to be 2 hotels/restaurants, so not a busy place. We stayed in the smaller of the two (Le Franco Belge ) which was a logis hotel. It was fairly tired inside and the rooms were small, but the food and drink were exellent and the staff very friendly. Beds very comfortable. I would go back there.

Day 1 - turned up early at Eurotunnel to be put on the 8:50 instead of our 9;20, only to sit on there for 30 minutes before being unloaded due to a technical issue. Ended up on the 10:20. When we go to Calais, we took the toll road to Cambrai, lunch and then the quickest route according to Google to Monterme. Got there at 6pm

Day 2 Ardennes - followed the Ride magazine route 'Ardennes Taster' (which coincidentely starts in Montherme). The first part is to Bouillion, which covers excellent mountain roads and Bouillion is a lovely place to visit. The roads out of Bouillion were also excellent twistys but the rest of the route was mainly flatter less curvy roads passing through many villages.

Day 3 Ardennes - went to Dinart via Givet. Used google maps for this one and found some lovely moutain roads there and back. Not as much riding this day as we spent a few hours in Dinat visiting the Citadel, which is worth a visit.

Day 4 - Quickest route to Dunkirk to see a friend then on to Calais.

Tip - Get your Petrol in France. Cheaper than the UK at the moment due to governmnet subsidy. THhe petrol station just outside the Calais Eurotunnely was 1,39 Euro a litre for 95 grade. This was the cheapest we found on the whole trip.
 
oh and the F900R was excellent, and with my Air Hawk on for Day 1 and Day 4 it was very comfortable.
 
You may have stopped short of many of the best roads which generall start at the Luxembourg border - try and push out a little further next time ;-)

And never trust a weather forecast more than a couple of days out, in the last year I have had 2 completely dry days on Enduro when forecast that morning was 90% chance of rain throughout the day, and got soaking wet on a day with a <5% chance of rain according to the previous evenings forecast.

The forecast for my time in the Black Forest a couple of weeks back looked great when I set of on Monday, but by Tuesday night they forecast 90% chance of heavy showers all day for Wednesday, but the morning was great, and the afternoon "showers" started at 1PM and stopped about 7PM without a single dry spell in between, Thursday AM was hideous, although they were forecasting showers by Wednesday we had about 2 hours of biblical rain which extended well beyond the area forecast to be wet.
 


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