Millau or Bust!!

[fairwaysflyer]

Hi guys, Off to view the Millau viaduct in Sept with my mate, me on the Varadero while he will be on his Triumph Trophy.

We intend to do Dover - Calais then travel down west of Paris and take 2 days to get there, then back up the east side of France, hopefully touching on a few different countries on the way. Italy, maybe Switzerland, maybe Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium. All in 6 days!!

Any suggestions on routes and places to stop would be appreciated.

[BobA]

I've always passed across the Millau bridge, nutting it north or south, but the best views, best scenery, and best roads are taking the old route actually through Millau itself. You'll get the best views of the bridge from there!

[VaradeRob]

I know this is not what you really want..but if you have 6 days..

heading down that way....Route De Napoleon....If you ain't done it already, it's superb..honest!

Route Napoléon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Here is a ride we did in May 2009

You can view a complete report on the Versys Forum

http://www.versys.co.uk/index.php?op...5&topic=5909.0


This is a brief overview of the trip and sites we used...

Arrive France via Tunnel/Boat....early

Night 1 ***8211; Lyon area:

Camping international seems a good site for a quick stopover and is just off the A6.
http://www.camping-indigo.com/en/Lyo...digo_lyon.html http://www.alanrogers.com/camping/fr...valley/FR69010

Night 2 - due to snow and other issues!!!
we stayed in Antibes at a "robot hotel" a chain called "B&B"....found with the aid of sat nav (49Euros)

Night 3 ***8211; Aix-En-Provence area:

This one which is only 2km from the city centre of Aix:
http://www.alanrogers.com/camping/ca...teARNo=fr13120
http://www.campingchantecler.com/an/...hantecler.html

The owner is a Biker who gave us a 10% discount....just mention you are a biker club!


Night 4 ***8211; Millau Bridge area:

This one is right by the Gorges Du Tarn and the Millau bridge: You sleep in the valley with the bridge in the background...we nipped up in the early evening to ride over the thing itself....amazing!

http://www.alanrogers.com/camping/fr...veyron/FR12390
http://www.campingmillauplage.com/

Night 5-Lourdes

We stayed at a lovely campsite right in the heart of Lourdes...called "Camping La Poste".
We literally stumbled on this one...but in my opinion it was a gem!
very small, with a lovely owner who helped us greatly and provided a good breakfast!


Night 6. St Sebastian

we were due to stay here:
http://www.alanrogers.com/camping/ca...iteARNo=ES9030

Very large well organised site....But on arrival we felt driven to bolt into Bilbao and grabbed a Cheap hotel minutes from the dock...."Formula 1" ....towels and soap and TV remote extra!!!!(32 Euros)


The beginning of May is in the very early part of the season...most campsites and some Hotels had limited facilities regarding meals etc...but were open for Camping...The same will apply for Sept I would think

[PHILinFRANCE]

We,re about 3hrs west of millau and our lawns free if you,re passing
Phil

[davsato]

route napoleon is awesome, but have a look at a michelin map with the green lines and you will see every third road in france not an autoroute is fantastic for bikes.
perhaps you could get down to millau first, across the med coast to cannes, up the RN (is it the N85 if memory serves?) to grenoble, east into the italian alps ducking into expensive switzerland if you must but i would cut across northern italy into austria to innsbruck, then munich and strasbourg then up into the fantastic ardennes forest, but in six days you will be pushing it.

its quite a small area but the ardennes is well worth a few days on its own, also luxembourg and belgium are lovely and surprisingly un-french if your british and youve never been before, not what youd expect. anti-french in the north, you will be better off speaking english than french in flanders, as my half french and thoroughly ignored mate will testify!
we camped at chimay for the classic racing and on the way home did a little "5 countries in one day" tour, BEL,FRA,LUX,GER,NED, it was only about 320miles. thinking about it we couldve done six if we'd caught the ferry home that day.

so you dont have to go far to have a great tour, and doing the miles can take over and you dont see anything if that makes sense? but whatever you decide have a good time

[6lda 28b]

Sorry to hijack this thread but is it possible to see the bridge in a long weekend (4 days) straight there and back would going via st malo help
Thanks.

[kritichris]

Originally Posted by fairwaysflyer

, maybe Switzerland,

Any suggestions on routes and places to stop would be appreciated.

If you hit the motorway in Switzerland you will need to buy a vignette which covers you for the current year. 40 Swiss francs, so stay off the autobahns.

[davsato]

Originally Posted by 6lda 28b

Sorry to hijack this thread but is it possible to see the bridge in a long weekend (4 days) straight there and back would going via st malo help
Thanks.

yes you could, its 550mi st malo to millau

[kritichris]

Originally Posted by 6lda 28b

Sorry to hijack this thread but is it possible to see the bridge in a long weekend (4 days) straight there and back would going via st malo help
Thanks.

Google maps shows 2 routes at 8-9 hours riding plus breaks so it's do-able but that's on the quickest roads (autoroutes). 5 days would give you a breather. It also depends on what you're riding, ie. tank range, cruising speeds and comfort can affect how knackered you get. Good luck

[davsato]

Originally Posted by kritichris

Google maps shows 2 routes at 8-9 hours riding plus breaks so it's do-able but that's on the quickest roads (autoroutes). 5 days would give you a breather. It also depends on what you're riding, ie. tank range, cruising speeds and comfort can affect how knackered you get. Good luck

depends on what ferry options you want to use, if you can get over and part way there on the first day you'll do it easy. 2nd night in millau or thereabouts, then reverse coming home. 400+mi a day on a french autoroute is boring but easy, (the tollroads are dead and you can just sit at 80/90 for tankfulls at a time) and leaves you time for decent meal breaks. if you dont use the autoroute then be prepared for very long days in the saddle.

why st malo in particular? the LD lines portsmouth to le havre is only £50 and will leave a shorter trip in france? or caen?