back from France report (long)

[feef]

Doesn't France have an Awful lot of very straight roads

<shouts> BAaaaack</shouts>

knackered, but happy, and all in one piece.

Over night ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre saw us hitting France at just after 8am local time last Sunday (after a delay the night before, due to a late boat)

Headed out over the fantastic Pont de Normandie bridge.. but I can confirm, that if you head from Le Havre to Le Mans on a Sunday morning, there isn't a petrol station open for over 100 miles.. (apart from the ones in Le Havre, which aren't much use if you have a full tank at that point)

After filling up in some tiny town, we blatted past Le Mans, heading towards Angers, and with the exception of compulsory routes, managed to avoid motorways all the way. Campsite in Angers was (alleged) to be a 4* affair.. maybe it is... when it's fully open. As it was... the pool seemed to be permenantly filling, and the bar/restaurant and other such stuff seemed to be under some internal construction.

Also, Sundays in France aren't ideal for finding foody places open,when it's getting late, and you don't know the town.. so I must confess we McDonalded :S

Day 2 and saw us visit the Chateau at Angers, Lovely day... almost too hot, but we could see a thunder storm passing in the distance. Headed back to the campsite to grab the rucksack to do some shopping at the Carrefour hypermarche.. somehow, said trip to the shops coincided with the thunderstorm changing tack and passing over angers...

walking around a Hypermarche in dripping wet clothes isn't fun.

Headed west to a village called Bois de Cene (north of Challans) in the Vendee region. Lovely ride over (with a bit of a detour when the GPS seemed to get lost with compound roadworks) Still managed to avoid autoroutes all the way tho... and still move very straight Nationals with the occasional twiddly bit.

Wednesday, we headed to the beach, well.. its a holiday.. you can't not can you? and after a lunch on the island of NoirMoutier, reached by a rather spectacular bridge, we went paddling somewhere further south (I don't know the name.. I just followed signs for "plage") some swimming was considered... but quickly discounted when bits of ones anatomy went into hiding.

heading north, (cos we thought it might make the final ride back to Le havre a little shorter) we passed over yet another spectacular bridge at Saint Nazaire (the French DO like Spectacular bridges don't they), and headed up to a campsite between Pontorson and Dol de Bretagne, about 20km south of the Mont St Michel, which was our destination for the following day. If I could have rolled up the road from Pontorson to the campsite, and bungeed it to the back of the bike, i'd have brought it home... as it is.. lets just assume that for those few miles, I mistook the 50km signs on the bendies to mean 50mph (even then, I might have been a tad naughty).

Final ride back to Le Havre saw us pausing in Caen for lunch outside the Theatre, and following, as best I could, a coastal route from there to Le Havre. As we had the 9:30am crossing this morning, we found a hotel in the town center, and stayed there.. and it was a nice change to be able to walk into town and find somewhere to eat without worrying about lids and suchlike.

The 'ace behaved impecably throughout the week... and we were quite happy for runs of over an hour at a time before pee or numb-bum breaks were called for. the only mishap was on the last night in Le Havre.. and was a rather embarrassing one. well.. I tried to dislodge a steel, solidly pavement mounted bin with my right pannier as I was carefully negotiating the bike down from a rather high kerb (at the slopey bit at the end. not OFF the kerb obviously)... unfortunately my left leg isnt long enough to reach from bike, past pavement, down another 6 inches to the road

Crash bobbins work rather well, and I never even got a chance to thank the nice french chap who helped pic the bike up, and I think Le Havre was lacking some entertainment that night anyway :S

if, after over 1200miles, that's the only "accident" or "breakdown" I had, I'm a relatively happy bunny... just have to work out if it's embarrasment, or sunburn on my cheeks now

The English side was rather boring, just motorway'd it all the way, broken by a jaunt through Bordon, and then Farnham, where they were having some sort of classic vehicle rally thing in the town, so the oncoming traffic was interesting to say the least. then it was blast back via the M3-M25-A1(M) and A505

Next time, we are thinking about Portsmouth - Bilbao, and riding back up thru france... but we've done the camping bit.. it's B&B, Pension, Chambre D'Hotes and Hotels from now on in

a
____________________
Mudskipper wrote: feef, that is such a beautiful post that it gave me a lady tingle
Windchill calculator - London Bike parking
Blog and stuff - PlentyMoreFish dating

[Dom]

Sounds like a great trip, I'm envious.

I have to ask - any pics?

[feef]

have a few... not many....

will post them up when I get my arse in gear

a
____________________
Mudskipper wrote: feef, that is such a beautiful post that it gave me a lady tingle
Windchill calculator - London Bike parking
Blog and stuff - PlentyMoreFish dating

[M1ke]

Hey, where do you get 1.2k miles from? I just ran the route through via michelins site and it only came up with 896 miles

Heres whats I got

Le havre - Angers = 193
anger - bois de cene = 84
bois - NoirMoutier = 24
Noir - Pontorson = 153
Pontorson - le harve = 142


total = 596

Cambridge - portsmouth = 153 X2 = 300

total = 896

Admittedly they will be the shortist routes but surely the back roads don't add 300 odd miles! Glad you had a good time, but next time head more south east for the ultimate twisties! And don't be such a pansy, I did over 3000 miles on a 250 last year in 8 days. You have an ace! OOO and finally, I agree with the camping thing, get your self in Formula 1's/B&b's screw riding 300 miles and then sleeping on the floor

Lets see the piccies then.

[Adam_P]

[feef]

[EuropeanNC30R...]

[feef]