France tour - advice appreciated on route home now

[spadge]

Hey all. My best mate, his bro and myself are going to France for about 10 days at the start of August this year. We have already booked the ferry (£27.50 rtn!) but are starting to plan our route.

Just wondering if anyone has toured France on their bikes before and has any useful advice/tips for us! We are mainly going to be camping with one or 2 nights in a b&b. I have attaced a map of france with various campsites that are apparently biker friendly and wondered if anyone had stayed at any?

My mate has proposed the first "4stops" on the attached as a starting point but we are already thinking of adding an additional stop between stop 1 and 2 because of the distance.

Hope the attached makes some sense - if not i blame my mate as he sent it me lol

Anyone recommend any routes that we should take/avoid in France?

Advice on anything (related lol) appreciated - i.e. daily milage, spares, route etc etc

Many thanks in advance

Cheers

Spadge

[Itchy]

can't open your file , JPG it maybe ? (home PC nowt on it)

Avoid the Chamapagne area , its straight as the eye can see I maxxed out the CBR600 on that bit and caught some serious air ....

Its worth spending some money on autorouting (toll roads) it at least to Dijon anything north of Dijon is uninteresting , infact anything north of Bourg En Bresse is uninteresting

It starts to get seriously interesting in the cols (gorges) between bourg en bress and Chamberry, I had my chased by a cop incident there.

but you MUST MUST hit these two routes

N85 from GAP to Grasse
N202 from Castellane to Monaco

if you pass through Grenoble DO NOT ENTER THE CITY I'm serious the key to Grenoble is the Rocard Sud it is a motorway which goes through the heart of the city, I did not know this take the first off ramp to University for the hotel F1 , but DO NOT ENTER GRENOBLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES I was lost in that city going in circles for hours. The Hotel F1 has a tram station nearby to get into the city if you want.



best routes I've ever hit,

Had a look at the map of yours:

291 miles , is a tad high , its all flat around Rouen and not that twisty (note I'm a twisty mountain pass type man)

2nd stop I reckon you should do the Pyranees , and go slightly more south a bit

Hold on all in all I think you trip is TOO well planned in that you want to be at location X at time Y , this isn't fantastic as it doesn't give you chance to explore go off the beaten track and doesn't give much scope to get lost either.

300 miles a day IS possible in France if you autoroute it but it will be boring , I often started to ride at 7am I would go into riding mode and ride till 2pm eat a light lunch and ride till 4-6pm and only cover 250 miles and I ride very quickly.
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[EuropeanNC30R...]

The French love bikes, all campsites are 'biker-friendly'. I might even go as far to avoid a specialist biker campsite, chances are it's going to be full of beardy fat BMW-riding Austrians.

I never thought I'd say this, but Itchy is sounding a bit conservative!

300 miles of non-motorway roads a day is fairly standard if you're getting a good move on and your group all ride at a similar pace. I've been pretty lucky when riding in groups through France in that everyones at a fairly similar pace so you can get a good move on without worrying about leaving people behind.

In my opinion the good stuff starts South of Troyes, that's when the sliders start going down. Follow the route through the gorges as itchy described to the Alps, then onto the N85 for the best riding if your life. If you can hit it in the evening all the better, almost traffic free.

I went through Grenoble the first time, it was a bit hairy having constant traffic light GP's with a 205 GTI that kept outbraking us to the next set of lights, but the place wasn't that bad lol.

For 10 days I'd concentrate on South France and the Alps. I'd like to say do the Massif Central but it's choked with campervans; don't expect a fast pace there.

[spadge]

cheers for the advice guys. I think i have done the monaco road a few years ago but in the back of a volvo lol so can't wait to do it on a bike.

Think you are both right about the milage (esp as mate is a fairly new rider) but also about over planning route!

Meeting up on thursday night to plan a bit more - well to have a look at a decent map so will have a look at your suggestions.

Many thanks

[barnhatter]

France is a great place to tour, roads are generally very good and quiet, I have found the french helpful and friendly.
If camping the municipal campsites are of a good standard and most local to towns so within walking distance of food and drink.
The pyrenees are a great place to drive as well as the alps but going over mountain passes touring as a rule of thumb I allow 30mph for the distance plus 1 hour, most passes will take 2 hours to cross.
Last year I went to the Millau bridge, very impressive, went from Clermont-ferrand on the D922,Aurillac, D920, Gorges du lot, then onto the bridge. That was one of the highlights of the trip. Good fun roads, good views and empty.
The south coast can be expensive to camp I have used the campsite at Sospel, just in the mountains 30 miles north of menton.
I stayed in a municipal campsite at the sport complex, although it was closed last year, stayed there anyway. Nice small town, good food and bars and close enough to get to the Med for the day.
I tend to do 11 day holidays and aim to get somewhere in 6 days have a couple of days off to relax then 3 days to get home. The outward leg is to reach somewhere as is more enjoyable as the holiday is before me, the return leg feels just like the journey home so is more of a trip and less of a holiday feel.
Enjoy yourselves, if you want any more help email me.

[N.C]

[Faldo]

As has been said Northern France is boring. Good if you are just into hitting top speed (I hit an indicated 160 a few times with panniers and a massive bag strapped to the back), but I found the East and South of France has amazing roads. I'm afraid I can't tell you any of the roads I was on, but they were all good fun.

As for mileage, I was on my own, so I didn't have to stop for others. I used Sat Nav, and in the morning put in a destination approx 300-350 miles away and avoided motorways. I'm not an early bird (Most mornings I left at 10 ish), and I think the latest time I found a hotel was about 8.30pm. Most days I was doing 8-9 hours in the saddle.
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[650rider]

Looks like you have a nice tour sorted out! I can thouroughly recommend Camping Moto Dordoigne at St Aubin De Nabarat. One word of warning, if using sat nav to find it you will be ok, but if going by maps it is a pig. Luckily I stopped at a bar in the local town early evening and a French bloke jumped in his merc and guided me half way, then I got lost again in the middle of loads of lanes and cornfields, to come across a scouser in a lada! Who escorted me the last mile. It is however a great place and the area around is well worth exploring. Route 66 bikers hotel was only half finished when i stopped there, but i didnt stay, although the owners were real friendly. If you are down that way, have a look at Oradour Sur Glane which is not far from Route 66, real haunting town, where the Nazis exterminated the whole population, spooky as hell. The roads are great, would echo earlier poster ref Grenoble, I avoided it and went over the mountains via the borg d oisins to briancon, scenic and no tolls or jams. I only went on a toll road 5 times in 10k miles. the other roads are so good.

Happy travels

Ian (650 Rider)
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[spadge]

Thanks to all the responses so far and Ian it looks like we will be going through Oradour Sur Glance.

Advice now needed on route home. We are staying atGorge de Siolle in the Put de Dome area (No.8 Camping moto route 99 on attachment) on the friday night and our ferry is not untill monday late afternoon from Calais.

Can anyone recommend a good route to take back? We can't decide whether to go back east of paris (Auxerre - Reims - Calais?) or west of paris and go through Normandy areas.

All comments appreciated.

Thanks again

[650rider]

I would suggest the Normandy side, I came back via the E11, then the E604 (Bourges,Tours,Le mans) Then E402, A88 (Alencon, Argentan, Falaise) Then Caen, Le Havre and up the coast road for the scenery. Whatever route you choose, you will enjoy. I was just wanting to follow the coast.

Ride safe guys

Ian
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Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?"/ Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."

[mark83]

Avoid Charleroi (in Belgium) at all costs.

Officially the ugliest, most depressing place I have EVER seen.

apart from that, everywhere has its nice surprises.

The Calais - Boulogne road is a cracking last stretch.

Give it a go.
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