France / Germany Day 8

It pissed it down in the night and all morning which meant packing up camp in the wet.Net result you end up feeling as filthy at the start of the day as you do at the end.
A wet ride all morning and yup the trousers leak at the crutch despite a can of waterproof spray on em. The rain stopped and we had mile on mile of arrow straight roads with some great empty swoopy stuff and some sudden wicked bends. In France those chevron signs for corners are very expensive and they do not have many of them so when they do put one up it is going to be a mother of a bend. They also like to build garage forecourts with advers camber exits to lead on to adverse camber roudabouts , usually with a sprinkling of that fine gravel dust that takes your front wheel out in carparks.
Gas stations come in various flavours. You can have ones with no queues because they take French fuel cards and nothing else, hypermarkets that take anything but which incredibly shut for lunch, LeClerc and Super U, small town ones where you are taken in to the accounts office to pay, motorway ones which draw their staff from the same surly, bored pool as anywhere else.Toll booths are pointlessly varied too.
You can whizz up and instantly pay by card or you can have the infuriating fumble of taking a ticket which you need to produce at the other end. It is popular for truckers to drop said tickets at either end or both or for someone to not realise that payment is by card only having entered the booth thus provoking a splendid French horns chorus.There are also manned ones with windows set at truck height so you wave your ticket and card hopefully about above your head hoping no one fumbles or the ever present motorway howling cross wind does not snatch it away.
Surprised at how timid German bikers are at filtering and when they do they get in the way.Luxembourg drivers are fast and aggressive, the Germans are fast but prop up preconceptions by being taken completely unawares by anything not in The Plan.They howl into roadworks for example despite all the warning signs and today a mangled car at one point was the result and cause of a long delay - except for Mr London Rider ahem...
Got a very friendly reception from the Flyingbrick brigade and was amazed at how much attention Ethel got amongst all their stunning specimens. The handlebar muffs, safesac, 12v socket with different adaptors and the Airhawk seat - complete with bouncy cheapo air pillow after the original punctured were a hit, the broken top box lid, pound shop padlock, filthy screwed up tent and plastic petrol can lashed on any old how somewhat less so.
Rideouts have been organised with Teutonic thoroughness all of them with maps and grade of riding style. Touring, quick or mad fucker. I have signed up for Touring ride #2 please.200 km at 1000 Prompt it says. Oh yes you sign your own button badge and wear it - all we need now is Leslie Crowther.
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France Day 7

A long boring toll road slog to Beaune today but worth it to get the miles done. Tomorrow is the run to the Eifel so I'll pick non tolls and see where we end up.
Lyons is a nightmare to cross - I had to go into aggressive London rider mode to filter. Cannot understand why we went through the city centre jams and tunnels even though it was all signposted motorway.
Dog destruction carries on unabated at home and Rose wants rid. Anybody want a dog ?
If anybody wondered where all the silver surfers are the answer is - they are over here in their Euro vans in hordes. The campsites are full of old couples nailed together 24/7 trying to sound as if they are not bored with it all.
Good to be on a non English run site and to hear different languages around.I've been rating the various bits of kit I gathered up to bring with me and have come up with 2 categories. Shit and Fantastic.
Shit gets the tent,sleeping bag, that impossible to use liner and disgusting powdered coffee mix.
Fantastic gets the Safesac, camping gas stove, £2 asda saucepan, plastic plate set,snap together cutlery set,instant rice and the li lo and electric pump. Need a chair but too big to strap to bike.
And so on to the next day - on 2 wheels in Germany at last !
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France Day 6

Achieved a long ambition in visiting Rennes Le Chateau today. This is where The Holy Blood + The Holy Grail all started. Got to say that the details in the chapel really are weird and are a conspiracy theorists heaven. An unmarked but plate glass covered tunnel in the floor drew my attention.Turns out that everyone was dynamiting the village trying to find Sauniere's treasure until a by law stopped it.This is one of the last holes. Another odd thing is that Sauniere died penniless in 1922 but afterwards those sneaky Swiss transferred a load of money to his church.
Way too hot at 30 degrees to ride so given up for the day. Tomorrow is day 1 of 2 long runs to get up to the Eifel for Friday night. Planning to get to Beaune, let's see.
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France Day 5

It got cold last night.Tonight its thermals on for bed.A stonking 8 hour ride down today to Alet les Bains with a bit of everything to ride on.Hot at 28 degrees. Scenery down here is Sound of Music meets the Prairies, stunning. Still getting used to the vast size and emptyness of France. If you are non toll routing it like us then fill up every time you can - you can go hours with nothing open.Anyway you can forget internet contacts n stuff. If you want to meet people buy a bike and go off on your own. Last night 3 blokes wandered past whilst I was cooking and invited me for dinner with them and just now Nicky who lives on the site has invited me to coffee in the morning. Funny old game innit !
Not for that reason but I was thinking of staying here 2 nights anyway and then doing a 2 day blast up to the Eifel.
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More day 4

Having lost my tow to Bordeaux with Lost A Spanner of Gabfesters and BBF - he zipped back to UK as his mother is poorly - I realised that the only itinerary I had not planned was to Bordeaux as I knew I would be following LAS. Great news is that asking Tom Tom to go to the original destination but without toll routes Jane served up a great mix of scenic roads to make it a great ride.
Because of the staggering cost of fuel I am riding 1 gear higher than usual and am keeping the speed down to 130 klicks. Also I have taken to filling up the fuel can I had to buy in Portsmouth and lash it on top of everything else. Just as well as France has vast chunks of nothing and when you get there everything is closed. Anyway
Ethel loves it and we are purring across France with a big grin.
Tomorrow is Carcassonne and a reserved pitch at what seems a nice site.
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France day 4

I'm starting to perfect the Gallic shrug. Having got the groceries I rode over to the pumps at Super U where unleaded is a modest Euros 1.35 compered to 1.45 most other places. The woman rushed out of her kiosk yelling I must close now. I said could you not serve those already here like me - no she said pulled a chain across and waved us off !
Later on I arrived at a small town campsite in a local football ground facility. Over rushes bloke - do you want to camp ? Yes. We are not open - the gate is only up because we are playing tonight.
Never mind. Proceeded a bit to an all singing all dancing site and got a pitch. Straightaway snapped the tent porch pole. Up runs bloke. Here's the keys to that mobile home, shower in there because everything else is shut ....
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France day 3

Enjoyed a crass country trundle to the dreaded tourist hell hole that is Le Mont St Michel today. Picknicked behind the supermarket and later cooked up a barbecue on the hotel lawn. Local evening meals at 25 Euros is too steep for us lot.
So that's it for the Gabfest - great fun and socialising. They go home tomorrow and Ethel I start our solo trip. Can't wait - let's go !
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France Day 2

Great cross country ride to St Nazaire this morning. Very hot despite lightweight jacket. Had a Gabfesters sick call this morning a group decided not to join the scenic route but would make their own way. Good. That made it a tight group of 5 for a brisk ride - excellent. Astonishing to stand in the U Boat pens where the original German pen markers are still way up high and steel doors still have German do this do that notices attached inside them - I took a peek to see.
A moving moment was the visit to La Boule cemetery where the commandos and others killed in the raid are buried. Personal interest is that my late father was taken off from St Nazaire with the REME and there are Royal Engineers at rest there too.
We then went off to see the Blockhouse - a monster defensive fort of concrete that was the last place liberated in Brittany as the allies realised it was a pointless slaughter to slog it out for St Nazaire so it was blockaded inland until everything else collapsed around it.
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France end of day 1

Met up with Dave Morris at Le Havre port. He being happy to follow we set off on my carefully planned itinerary.15 minutes and umpteen U turns later we were still trying to leave Le Havre.After discussion we scrapped the scenic route and droned down the autoroute for ages. Upon arrival at La Porte I asked the stereotypical aged French countrywoman which is La Porte to be told they all are ! Taking pot luck I led us down a track at random and lo and behold it was the right one. Nice welcome and tea and cakes with the BBF followed. Ex IOM racer Lost a Spanner then treated us to a quick zip to the Etap in Rennes. All hell broke loose at reception as they insisted that our prepaid bookings were only reservations and we must pay again. I had lenghty discussions with the guy and the Paris office after we had paid twice only to get the news that we were right in the first place and would now get a refund. Very pissed off to have needlessly blown a big hole in my cashcard for this. Ho hum Vive La France. Tomorrow summer jacket and St Nazaire at last.
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France day 1

Bit of a panic this morning with dead Ethel. Out of fuel but fuel light did not go on. Trekked to gas station in winter kit and bought can of fuel. Still dead. Turned out to be damp fuses and away she went. Now on Norman Arrow en route to Le Havre.
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Ethel is ready for Europe - again !

Just 24 hours to go and this year's adventure begins. Like the proud
old lady she is Ethel is standing patiently in the stalls aware from
all the goings on that something big is in the air. She is fuelled up,
all oils checked and good, tyres inflated and just waiting to be
loaded up with luggage. The stuff sack with all the camping gear and
lightweight jacket is ready to go on the back seat and the pannier
liner bags are filled and ready to load. The top box is planned out
for maps and valuables leaving enough room to stash the helmet
securely.
A great tip was to download TYRE for Tom Tom. This free download from
a very friendly Dutchman makes itinerary planning a doddle. Anyone who
has gone backwards and forwards with Tom Tom trying to do this will
know what I mean - the standard waypoints system on Tom Tom is a
fiddly nightmare. With TYRE you twiddle about all you want on Google
Maps until you have want you want, save it and then download to Tom
Tom. Finding the itineraries on Tom Tom is a series of steps but soon
grasped. TYRE explains this on its site somewhere - I had a genius on
hand to help me do it thankfully.
So now I have stored a mainly D route set of itineraries from Le Havre
- Sens de Bretagne ( to meet British bikers France again ) - Rennes,
for 3 nights with the Gabfesters, to visit St Nazaire and who knows
what else - then on to Port St Foy with an ex pat Gabfester -then down
to Carcassone via the Canal du Midi to Val D'Aleth - up via national
parks and D routes to Lyon and Nancy - then over to the Eifel to meet
up with the Flyingbrick rally for 2 nights just down the road from the
Nurburgring and finally a motorway dash through miserable Belgium, yup
rain predicted there as always, to come back through the Chunnel.
Ethel has 63385 miles on the clock and may well put on 2500 more by
the time we are done.
Watch this space for daily updates and on Twitter @quimbling.