Getting to Croatia – France and into Italy

The ride on day 2 of the trip to Croatia was good, but we had to miss out on one road that we had intended to do. We rode 365 miles on this day and it took a long time, on mainly mountain roads. Early on during the ride, I hit a big milestone, or rather the Leading Ladies did. The bike went over the 40,000 mile mark....

This is Ian, taken at a morning drinks break....

It didn’t take long for us to see the first snow on the Alps. We thought it looked pretty high up and we didn’t even think that it might affect our journey. We were wrong....

Taken high in the mountains somewhere, this is Ian bike, called Richard II. He names all of his bikes after Shakespeare plays....

And the Leading Ladies, in the same place....

A lot of the roads we were on during the morning were very twisty indeed, with many, many, many hairpin bends.....



We were making good time and doing well, until we saw this sign....

We were due to ride the L’Iseran Pass across the Alps as we wanted to see a ski resort called Val-D’Isere on the way. Unfortunately, it was closed and we had to do about a hundred mile detour via the St Bernard Pass. This was no big problem, but it did add a lot of miles, a lot of which were by motorway.

On the top of the St Bernard Pass, we went from France into Italy. This is just on the Italian side....

There was no snow on the roads we were on, but we assume the pass we wanted to use was closed due to snow. The views were spectacular....

The trouble with mountain passes, is there are never any toilets when you want one....

We arrived at our hotel, the old Fiat factory that was used as one of the locations in the film, the Italian Job. I refer to the original and best version of the film, starring Michael Caine. We were so bushed, we ate in the hotel (excellent steaks and a good red wine).

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Road Trip to Croatia

This morning, my friend Ian Solley of 7Ages Custom Motorcycles and I set off for an eight day trip to Croatia in Eastern Europe. We are going to the 20th Harley-Davidson European HOG Rally in Biograd and we have something like 1,600 miles to do across France, Italy and Croatia to get there.

I left home at 0730 for the nearly 500 miles we covered today. I met Ian in Folkestone, at the Channel Tunnel rail terminal, where our bikes and us were loaded onto one of the high-speed trains that travel under the sea to get to France.

This is the view of the rail terminal looking down on the tracks and one train, just before departure....

This is Ian, about to ride his 1970 H-D called Richard II onto the train. You ride along the platform before turning into the train. The opening where the car and guy in the hi-vis vest is actually the train....

Ian’s Richard II and my bike, the Leading Ladies, on the train....

Today’s ride was a very simple one, with the aim being to get through at least half of France (the boring, flat, northern half) as quickly as possible and get to the much more interesting, twisty and mountainous southern half. We therefore blasted down the French motorway network and arrived 495 miles later in Beaune this evening. It was a very long day, but getting that many miles done on day one will make days 2,3 4 and 5 much more interesting as we can take our time on much more stunning roads.

This is Ian, just behind me on the motorway....

Arriving in Beaune, we did nothing more than find a restaurant, drink some excellent local wine and have an early night. It was a shattering day, hence just a short post post! This is the town hall in Beaune that we walked past on our way to/from dinner....

Tomorrow, we ride across the Alps to Turin, in Italy!

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Gorgeous Gorges Galore

If I were to summarise the first part of the ride Jackie and I made on our way to St Tropez, I would have to talk about the world wars, soldiers, battlefields and cemeteries of northern France. The second part of our ride could not have been more different.

Wherever possible, we avoided all main roads and travelled instead on remote roads, through some gorgeous countryside, including the French Alps. We were in no hurry, so were able to limit our ride each day to between 150 and 200 miles, although even these distances were quite a task on some of the roads we were using, where slow speeds were essential.

Take the Combe Laval for example where the road clings to the side of a cliff along one side of its gorge.

If you look carefully you can just about see the road and short tunnel about two thirds up the cliff....

Quite how this road was ever constructed is difficult to work out, but it must have taken a long time. This is a close up of just one of the tunnels where the road is cut through the rock....

The view from the road looking down is stunning....

To appreciate the road even more, we turned around, and did the road again, this time with the video camera fixed to the bike....



Just a short distance further, we started down the other side of the mountain on what is possibly one of the best riding roads in Europe. This is the D76/D518 from Vassieux-En-Vercors to Die. Both the views and the twisty roads are spectacular....

The road snakes down the mountain in a series of dramatic bends, ready to test anyone on a bike....

Arriving at Sisteron, the view of the citadel across the river is a good one....

Many towns have informal cafes and bars serving drinks and food. Finding somewhere to park your bike in the shade is a bonus....

Just before arriving in St Tropez, we rode along the Verdun Gorge, a spectacular canyon....

There is just one place where the Gorge can be crossed and we had enjoyed riding along one side so much, we crossed the bridge and rode back along the opposite bank....

Looking back across the gorge. Note the line of the road about half way up the canyon wall....

Some signs advertise the gorge as the “Grand Canyon”. While not as spectacular as the original in America, this one is pretty good....

More on the HOG rally in St Tropez in my next post.

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Lost In Translation

Jackie and I were surprised by Chablis. Yes, we knew it is where the wine comes from, but we had pictured a small quiet town, surrounded by vineyards.

Yes, it was small. Yes, it was surrounded by vineyards, but quiet, absolutely not. Many towns and villages in rural France seem completely deserted, with just barking dogs and the occasional car driver breaking the silence.

We rolled into Chablis looking for somewhere to get a drink as it was hot on the bike and the morning ride had been a long one. It was Sunday and an important day in France. Many of the war memorials throughout much of France were decorated with the Tricolour, the French flag, as part of the celebration of VE day. In Chablis we saw the end of a formal celebration, with a brass band playing and the mayor dress in his best suit. A crowd had gathered and we cut the engine of the bike as early as possible to not disturb the proceedings, but the service ended just as we got off the bike. By the time I grabbed the camera the people were dispersing, so I took a picture of the memorial instead....

Suspecting the town would be quiet, the huge Sunday market came as a complete surprise. It was a bustling, seething mass of stalls selling everything the rural French might want or need. There was lots of cheese. We found a bar and gulped our drinks pretty quickly a chatted to some English people who had a house close by, with their two dogs. One of the dogs had a passion for eating bread and the other, a Labradoodle, was very cute (Jackie's words).

The vineyards are plentiful and stretch as far as the eye can see. Long low strands of wire, with ancient vines clinging row after row on the slopes. These are some of the most famous grapes in the world and go to produce some of the best wines...

Overall, the countryside is green and lush. White Charolais cattle lie under the trees to keep cool while their calf’s enjoy the sunshine. The back roads are winding and sometimes narrow with few cars. Every biker waves to every other biker, irrespective of make or style of bike. Some of the roads are spectacular....

How about this for a spiral staircase....

Sometimes, you look at something and just cannot work it out. Faced with part of a wall, arches and high columns, with a road running through it, this one had Jackie and I stumped....

We saw a menu this evening that just led us to believe something got lost in translation. We have no idea what Frog Cream is, but some images come to mind that are not great....

We have two more days on the road before we get to St Tropez. Vive La France!

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France and France, in France

Jackie and I decided to go to St Tropez in southern France for the 5th Harley-Davidson Euro Festival. This is a relatively small rally held in the French Riviera each May and about 6,000 people go each year. We have been before and really like it. This is a short video (not mine but one I found on the web) of last year’s rally....




We left the UK on Friday morning and headed south to catch the ferry from Dover to the French port of Calais. On the way, we discovered the brake light on the back of the Leading Ladies wasn’t working, so we diverted to Canterbury where I knew there was a Harley-Davidson dealer. However, the H-D dealer was no more, but had changed into a Victory and Suzuki dealership, but they still worked on Harleys as well and luckily for us, still carried a few parts. With Jackie looking at the pink helmets for sale, I bought a replacement bulb and fitted it, but that wasn’t the problem – it looked as if the fitting that held the bulb had failed, so on the forecourt of the dealership I set about trying to fix it. One of the mechanics walked by and said that he thought they might still have one of those fittings and he appeared a few minutes later with the small part that meant we could get back on the road, heading for the ship.

The delay to fix the light meant we missed the ferry we were meant to be on, but managed to get on the next one. With a crossing time of just 90 minutes on a very calm English Channel, there is barely time to grab something to eat before the coast of France comes into view and soon, we were rolling along on the French roads. Having arrived in France quite late in the afternoon, we stopped for the night in the city of Arras. We had travelled 197 miles on the bike, plus about 20 miles in the ferry.

Day 2 of the trip was about travelling down through northern France, avoiding the motorways. This took us through many of the regions that had seen battles during World Wars I and II, and we passed many military cemeteries. We saw French, British, American and Australian cemeteries, all kept in immaculate condition.

On VE day, it seemed appropriate to be visiting war cemeteries.

This is one of the British cemeteries, at Feuchy....


























One of the headstones....

A huge cross at another British cemetery....


























A beautiful setting at the same cemetery....

It isn’t until you see the sheer numbers of headstones that it really sinks in just how many soldiers lost their lives in Northern France....


























We went to see the Somme American Cemetery....


























Inside the memorial building, the sun was refracting through a glass cross causing rainbow colours on the wall of names....





















The crosses marking the graves of the American Soldiers....

An impressive French gateway. I am struggling to remember where this was....





















We saw a couple of tanks at the roadside....

The kings of France used to be crowned at the Roman Catholic cathedral of Reims....

There was a terrific reflection of the cathedral in an adjacent media library....

In the afternoon, we were pulled over by the police who were stopping all motorbikes on the road we were on. They were checking for stolen bikes and were being very thorough, looking at frame and engine numbers to ensure the bikes were genuinely owned. As soon as they realised we were not on a French registered bike, they let us leave with a smile and a handshake.

We stayed the night in Troyes, still in northern France, having ridden 210 miles on day 2. The weather remained wonderfully sunny and hot all day.

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