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!

Breakfast in Sarthe

What is it about holiday breakfast? Have something you usually don't, enjoy the difference and be happy- especially as it's not actually raining at the moment!

We don't look very happy do we! Too much concentration on the picture-making. Good small French town view though! 

So, big mofo cafe pour moi, avec des fruit et un croissant grand et confiture orange ameres - Bon Maman naturellement!

Tales of L'Hotel de France

It appears that many of the old time Le Mans competitors used to stay here, in fact looking at the bar wall with pictures of those who did, it's basically a list of the guys you remember and lots more! The garage the bikes are parked in was used for competition cars, fettled there and then driven to the circuit. Cool.

Jacky Ickx and Graham Hill

A partial track of today's efforts - didn't turn on the GPS recording until late!

After some hours of unrelenting rain, here we are at the Hotel de France, where Jim and John are ensconced in the Jacky Ickx room, Vince and Pip in the Graham Hill. Who will be fastest to the bar is yet to be determined...

The new Streetguard suit has leaked under the armpits, which is very boring indeed, not yet sure if it's user error with the pit zips and flaps, or a suit problem.  Some discussion with Mr BMW to be had...

Dissed and Recovered...

On the ferry, six hours to go, so time for a spot of something. Went to the Deauville restaurant, only to be informed it was closed, and to be redirected to the self-service restaurant! Jim took some offence at this, and said so as we walked away, on the basis that it implied bikers shouldn't be expecting at-table service.

However, a few minutes later the diss perpetrator came up to him and apologised profusely - good call!! Respect...

Waiting for Pip

Left at 5.45, as promised. Now we're waiting for Pip...

The Clothing Dilemma

I've had a custom made Crowtree 2 piece leather suit since 2003, supplemented by a 30? year old Rukka all-in-one waterproof, which is also windproof and virtually airtight. Yeah, they've done me well in that time, but in hot weather, the leathers are really a bit much. This trip is in the height of summer, and to be honest I've never been in 30-40 deg on a trip. So, maybe time to lash out on some new kit...

Looked at the BMW range at Alton Bahnstormer and like it - expensive! However, it turns out that I'm a size 46, which is not a well-stocked size in the UK. So I purchased an Alpinestars Drystar suit online, which arrived today - too big. Boo. What now? And with less than 48 hours to go? Nothing for it but to...

Phone around to see what dealers have! Called Park Lane - very helpful, they have a Streetguard 4 grey jacket, no trousers, and the summer suit, which I don't want since it's not versatile enough. North Oxford - also helpful, I got a guided tour of their clothes stash cupboard, and they have a Streetguard 3, jacket and trousers, for £750 reduced from £1125. Sounds good. Also some Tourshell trousers in 46, in case that makes more sense. So I'll definitely roll up at their place tomorrow morning, they open at 8 if I can make it that early (extremely unlikely!).

Preparation - Four days to go

I've been on quite a few on-road bike trips over the years, but recently just once a year, with Jim and a couple of other guys. For those, I've basically made sure the bike was in reasonable nick, chucked some stuff into the panniers and headed off. I've then found out there were various equipment-based annoying things, which I've promptly forgotten about on arrival home, until I've saddled up for the next year's trip! So this year, I'm trying to address these before I set off.

Which means helmet testing!

I've now found the bit of helmet that presses on the back of my head, and I'm trying to ease it off and sit around for an hour or so to see if I've relieved the pressure. Otherwise, I need to take the damn  thing off every 30 minutes, which is a bit annoying, not to say painful. >Sigh< It required the use of a pencil to shove up the back of the hat until I could reach the painful bit, then take the hat off and push the liner in a bit at the required spot. Not sure if it's made enough difference yet.

Then there's the helmet strap, the edge of which catches my adam's apple slightly, especially when it's hot and everything swells up. I've taken off the gaffer tape which is not very helpful, and am now trying out some soft Jen-provided material, prior to hopefully making a tube of it to go around the strap. Hurray.

And I suppose I should fit the iPhone holder to the handlebars and check the USB charging cable.