And So To Bed

The very last day - left Le Chartres and the Hotel De France in good time, only delayed by an MG V8 owner parking in the drive to take his car's picture in the same place as so many car mags show them. Oh, and a leak from the comedy Italian exotica aka Pip's hotshot Aprilia Tuono, oops. That nearly necessitated a stop for an additional jubilee clip, but the hot engine seemed to close up the gap and things dried up.

The day started cloudy and cool, good riding conditions. Unfortunately the hotel's private fishing was closed or

I'm sure we'd have indulged...

We stopped in Vimoutiers for lunch, it was hard to find a sandwich so we had a cooked lunch instead in a classic French brasserie, filled with working men who'd have been smoking were it not for the EU wide ban. Two omelettes, two bavard grillee, all with chips ;)

Made it to Caen in good time, and basically got waved through with only a few minutes wait before getting into the boat. Jimmy was singled out for the low-flying cables whilst parking his bike, but otherwise very smooth going.

The six hours on the boat were pretty slow-going but we whiled the time away by inventing games, eating and drinking coffee. Some of us had a nap...

Which was a good plan because the boat arrived about 21.15, and then a drive in the dark home. Jim and John got back about 23.00, so a long tiring day - nice to be in one's own bed though!"

Full Circle

The view from the hotel bedroom terrace at 7 am - excellent atmosphere for the last in-France day, reflective, calm... Somewhat overcast at the start too, nice biking weather.

We are very organised now, with the whole destinations and GPS programming thing, not to mention the fag stops ("Is this a one two or three fag stop Jim, just so we know if it's worth taking our gloves off..."). At an early stop (a two fagger) John found some ripe blackberries to supplement our meagre diet, which were welcomed.

Fortunately we found a cafe in Chatelleraut, with ham and cheese baguettes to make sure we were sufficiently fuelled for the labours of the afternoon.

Jim narrowly avoided a collision with an enormous buzzard/kite/bird thing that went to fly across the road but found him in the way, swerving very aerobatically and returning to base unharmed. No picture since we were doing 50 mph at the time!

All too soon we were were back at the Hotel de France, via a very narrow road chosen by the GPS, so narrow in fact that a rural quad bike riding farm person will probably be telling the tale of his lucky escape for years to come, hopefully not forgetting his look of horror and heroic swerve!

We managed to get a bit of eating and drinking in in-between the planning of next year's roles and responsibilities and being dissed by the waiter. Probably a 10 fag stop but who's counting?

Tales Of The Riverbank

So many stories, everywhere you go...

It turns out that the Hotel L'Aygualade has been in the family for three generations, possibly four if the 19 year old at cookery school wants to carry on. Not that la patronne wanted to talk about it but maybe that was the language barrier...

We managed to leave in good time, and it wasn't raining, which was a first for the last couple of days. Hurray.

Here's the pre-lunch trace, great ride with the GPS curvy roads function doing amazing things.

Lunch in Duras, heart of the Dordogne, excellent food, experience only marred by the Brits endlessly discussing their investments at the next tables.

And then progress was made to Riberac, with Pip challenging Jim for top spot only to realise it was lonely up there, but not as lonely as John who was some distance behind! From there it was only half an hour to the Hotel Etang Des Reynats in Chancelade, with a lake in the back garden. Nice view.

And of course Lord Eric Jones, waterrat in chief, rules the waterfront, controlling the supply of remaindered bread to the craven duck population.

Whilst our intrepid motorcycle adventurers tuck into an excellent meal.

Our final tale of the riverbank concerns our waitress, an English girl, resident in France for 11 years, who came not speaking any French because she fancied living in France and learned it in 5 years! She's lived in Paris, Toulouse, Limoges, bloody Bordeaux and now Perigeux, returning to the job she had 8-9 years ago which they have finally given her as a permie. Sweet lass but struggling, we saluted her persistence and determination! And left a €20 tip, as well as a contract on Robin White, who didn't like her speaking English to him and wrote a lengthy email to her management to complain! Hard times.

A Day in the Mountains

A quiet day in the Pyrenees - what do you do??

Get the bikes out, oil the chains...

Sit on James' bike otherwise you won't be seen as appreciating it sufficiently - definitely the best bike he's ever had!

Bugger off to the local town to wait four hours for an omelette and chips or pizza...

Whilst watching the local dog attack passing trucks, not shown in picture. Then either go for a ride up

Col D'Aubisque where your bike has a very close encounter in the mist with a horse...

Or walk to Bielle and take some pictures with your DSLR which is why they're not available for the blog :(. Just imagine some typical 16-19th century French rural houses, a very impressive school house that looks like a chateau and a nifty little river with some twee bridges. Cool.

Homage to Catalonia!

In his book Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell said "I have the most evil memories of Spain, but I have very few bad memories of Spaniards." Obviously he wasn't riding a motorbike through the Pyrenees, because both were great!

An early start, well for us, left about 9.30, but got up about 7, the sun wasn't over the mountains yet and no sign of the swifts of yesterday.

We headed into Spain, narrowly avoiding an international incident when we missed the Stop sign at the Spanish customs - "Don't you have those in England?" The cheeky policeman asked... A €50 note and everyone was happy - NOT.

It's Donna's birthday today, so on a fag stop we made her an impromptu card :)

Riding through the Pyrenees was fascinating - views at every turn, and there were lots of those - and a lot cooler than in the valleys, for which we were grateful. Still very arid though.

Lunch in Seira, nice people, it seems

they have concerts and dances here sometimes - maybe we should come back! Good ham and cheese rolls too.

Made it into the French side, after some exhilarating and occasionally butt-clenching moments (log truck anyone? Would you like Land Rover with that head-on, sir?!), where things were a lot greener, possibly because it was already raining and coming on for more, with dark clouds and a huge temperature drop. The contrast with Spain was very striking, including even more farm animals wandering in the road... Reached the Hotel L'Aygualade as it started to thunder, so missed the monster storm - hurray. Excellent gaff with huge garage and biker owner, who pissed James off by dissing his bike in favour of Pip's - no pleasing some people! Food was pretty nice though.

Goodnight, sleep tight, here again tomorrow night, so local adventure to be had!

AndoR&Ra For The Day

Today started with Taiji and fags on the balcony, with a great view and a ringside seat for the aerobatics of the swifts, lit by the rising sun. 

No biking today, other than a lengthy stroll past all the bike and bike accessory shops just down the road - highlights included an original Fireblade, Duke 1198, an MV Brutale with a blue seat and a 125 road race bike with very sweet tiny slicks on it.

We then spent a lot time in the town square, impersonating old farts, at least, we think we were impersonating them...

Then onto lunch - more time sitting in a square but with food this time. Then a

Long walk through town window shopping - offended the posh watch shop lady who dashed out to clean our nose prints off the windows...

After much research, involving a number of beers in a handy bar, we discovered that the promised restaurant to which the guys wanted to go was shut on Sunday eve - boo. Le Talla if you ever get there. And further, most places didn't open until 8.30.... So we ended up having excellent tapas and wine in a bar, most enjoyable and a new experience for Pip and Vince.

 

And so back to another lovely moonrise viewed from the balcony. Off on our travels again tomorrow!

A Long Day

We left the Hotel De M... In reasonable time, a route planned involving lots of twiddly roads most of the way to Andorra. But it's a long way, even longer with twiddles. The lady patronne, who recalled the guys from their visit last year, was effusive in her thanks for Jim's gift of 10€ from his change for the grandson, who was a sweetheart last night, entranced by the proper motos parked outside, and she wished us "bonne route" and a good holiday.

Lunch was pretty successful, after some hours of twiddling enjoyably - omelettes, salads, things like that- oh and lots of water, incredibly hot today. Various young men were eating or arrived, clearly known to the proprietor, and were wished bonne route as they left. 

Although we'd intended to go twiddly all the way, time was running out, so we jumped on the autoroute to save time and consume less energy. Seemed like cheating but otherwise we'd have arrived really late and utterly knackered. It is a holiday after all!

Arrived at the Hotell Bellpi, one of those urban hotels with a skinny lift but also room balconies :). Headed out and ended up at a nice little place eating paella...

And watching the moon rise over Andorra !!

See? A balcony view!

Goin' South...

A long day today, over 230 miles on twisty D roads as we headed from the overcast North with its occasional rain spots to the "proper biking holiday" France of the South!

Our tardy start didn't help, with Vince and Pip doing an excellent impersonation of drunken slags...

But at least we had the foresight to use Vince's excellent map of France to pick some target towns en route for our raid on the rural twisters before heading out.

An enforced stop turned out to be a pro cycle race, with rolling road closures...

A break an impressive 5+ minutes up...

A full complement of World

Tour teams including Cav's Etixx-Quickstep...

And the Sky boys, complete with Jag team car!

Donzenac, not a new heartburn drug but our destination, was reached about 19.30, where the excellent lady patron sorted the meal to arrive shortly after our much-needed showers - hurray!! Hot work today but good bendy fun.

The evening idled away in smalltalk and moonlight- excellent. And so to bed - Andorra tomorrow!