Tour of France, April 2009 - The report

[Jacqueslemac]

After much planning and a few changes here and there, we set off, completed our trip and have returned.

Here's a brief report. Suffice to say the weather was variable, the scenery wonderful, the riding superb and the company très sympa.

Here's our first stop in France:




And here's the crew. SteveR:



Cooking Fat (Geoff to his mum, probably):


And last (and by the angle of this photo, least), SteveT:



Heading south from Calais the roads are both quiet and just a teensy bit boring. As in straight. For miles and miles and miles. We had planned to stop at Magny-en-Vexin but could find no campsite. We slogged on for another 100 Kms or so in search of one before finally striking lucky a few miles off the main road after following a sign that looked hopeful (don't ask me how a sign can look hopeful, all it did was stand beside the road and point).

We were the only people there foolish enough to be under canvas:


We'd had a reasonably dry run down, but soon after we put our tents up the rain started. Here's Geoff enjoying his supper:


We spent a little while huddled under a tarpaulin we'd stretched between some trees but needless to say, we turned in early.

To be continued...

[boboneleg]

just like my old one, Fridge has now sold it. wonder where it is now.........



sorry for the interuption James, please continue through France

[Jacqueslemac]

Day 2

We packed the tents away in drizzle and that set the pattern for the day. There were dry periods, though, including one during a brief stop for lunch and a cup of tea when we crossed the Loire:


As you can see from the clouds, though, the rain was never far away:


Later on in the afternoon we hit the Massif Centrale. The area has some of the least populated départments but that doesn't mean they skimp on road repairs. We enjoyed two or three hours of superbly smooth but empty roads. There were long sweeping corners that could be taken at reasonable speed without any nerves. The exits were visible, the surface predictable and no cars holding us up. After a day and a half of straight roads they were a delight.

We reached our planned stop at Neuvic only to find most of the campsites shut. We had reached the stage of trying one last one before giving up and returning to a closed one to camp anyway when we were lucky and found it open. There were a few static caravans occupied but again, no tents.

We found a pitch right beside the lake:


When we arrived it was dry, as it had been for most of the afternoon. Unfortunately, although the lake appeared half empty, the sound of thunder warned us the clouds would soon be doing their best to fill it up:


Sure enough, it soon started to rain. In fact, it poured heavily. We didn't even try to eat, but found the showers, hung our gear up in a vain attempt to dry it out a bit and headed to the bar for something to eat. The barman had a limited menu as he claimed the site had been full all weekend and virtually all the food was gone (this was SUnday night, after all). Still, there was enough for us from the limited choice, although the barman was very amused when both Steves asked for their steak to be medium rare. Apparently that's all the Brits ever ask for!

After a couple of beers (everything is very expensive in France at the moment - and not just because of the weak £), we headed back to our tents for a night accompanied by a gentle rumbling from Geoff and the pitter patter of rain.

[HUDDERS]

To be continued, come on James we are waiting

Good start bye the way

BL**DY HELL THAT WAS QUICK

[Jacqueslemac]

Day 3 (Monday) dawned a little brighter. The rain had stopped but not even the wildest optimist would have bet on there being no more rain:


We packed our damp tents away, ate our breakfast standing up and prepared to set off:


My mother used to own a house near Carcassonne and the next section was one of my favourite parts of the journey to reach it.

At first the weather looked promising. The clouds started to lift and the rain held off:


Everything was still pretty damp. Good weather for snails:



The roads were dry, though, and as quiet as they had been the day before:



As we lost height, though, the rain closed in again. This is during a brief photo stop at Estaing, one of the most beautiful villages in France according to the sign:





There was still around 100 miles to go to our planned campsite. There are no more photos because the weather got worse and worse. I phoned a friend who told me the campsite was closed anyway. She'd found another that was open but none of us fancied putting our wet tents up in the pouring rain and cooking outside getting wet so we bailed out. The three lads went into a cheao hôtel in Carcassonne and I stayed in a small village just outside, in the tiny house of my friend. The house is so small I couldn't even get a photo of it, but it's down the street behind my bike somewhere:

[Jacqueslemac]

Monday morning. In "my" part of France if I don't know which direction to ride I head to the top of the local ridge at Caumont-L'Eventé and see where thebest weather is. It doesn't always work, but at least you can see a fair distance.

Carcassonne lies in a valley that stretches from Biarritz in the west to Narbonne in the east. The nearest high ground is either the Montagne Noire to the north (highest point is over 3,000 feet) while to the south the Pyrenees loom large. However, there was no need to get to high ground to spot the bad weather. In fact, none of the mountains were visible, as they were all covered in low cloud and rain.

Our plan had been a circular route up into the Pyrenees, into Spain and possibly Andorra before returning to Carcassonne. That didn't look like a good idea so we resorted to plan B, which was to stay low, head towards to Mediterrannean and see where the best weather was.

SteveT left us at this point. He was off to see his sister in Spain and elected to take a low level route through the Pyrenees. There was a bit of joking at this point about how the weather would improve now we'd jettisoned the Jonah, but it took several minutes before the sky began to clear and, oh, almost an hour before the sun came out:



We had a brief stop by the Canal du Midi:


...and to let some of our stuff dry:


And then it was off to the coast at Narbonne. Later in the week we met a Dutchman who'd lived in the area. He said the wind never stopped and our experience was much the same. You'd select a good line for a corner and just as you began to lean into it, a blast of wind would knock you a yard or two off your line. It wasn't dangerous as there wasn't much traffic, but it was entertaining.

We stopped at the beach (don't know if you can see the sandstorm):






From here on we were to head north. We'd left our original route, so we took time out for a relaxed lunch stop and to plan a new route:












The gods of chance smiled on us. The afternoon's ride took us to Bédarieux and onto the D35 over the "Col of the 13 winds", down into le Bousquet (a complete cliché of a French village, even down to the roadworks that meant we rode through soil and gravel) and D8.

It was to be the best afternoon's riding of my life to date.

Unfortunately, I'm off to London for a couple of days for work now, so will continue the story later...

[stanbloke]

Brilliant report James......keep it coming..

[Dee Duble Yuh]

Great trip! And I like this picture:

...We found a pitch right beside the lake:

(... because you can scarcely see the Triumph! )

[Jacqueslemac]

Great trip! And I like this picture:


(... because you can scarcely see the Triumph! )

Tiger = leader of the pack!

The photos from Geoff and Steve may possibly feature other, less British bikes...

[Jacqueslemac]

Brilliant report James......keep it coming..

Patience, dear boy. I'm stranded without my laptop for a couple of days, so you'll have to wait.

Suffice to say the pictures feature a little more sunshine, plus an unfortunate hiccough for the mighty Tiger.