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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ABCD Competition Entries and Winner

The ABCD has been and gone, with pictures taken and submitted.

There were a total of 39 submissions, which I thought was a good number. I would like to thank everyone that took part in the competition and submitted a picture.

What especially pleased me was the obvious effort that a lot of people put into this. Some of the pictures were very creative requiring a lot of thought and planning, and some people travelled a long way to get their shots. Others simply went and stood in the road and that was great as well – taking part was what mattered. Blogging is about communicating and we nearly all use pictures to help us do that, so holding a photo competition seemed like an obvious extension of what we do for our blogs.
                   
One of the people that submitted a picture, WooleyBugger, summed it all up for me when he said that through taking part he has found “a whole bunch of fantastic other blogs to catch up with now”.  I absolutely agree with this. By spreading the word about the competition and getting quite a few entries, I think we have all found something new to interest us in other peoples blogs that we didn't know about before, and I am grateful for that.

Of course, it was also a chance to see what some of our blogging friends look like.

I thought it would be a good idea to include all of the pictures that were submitted. They are all below, in no particular order and I have included links back to the persons blog with each picture.

I have chosen my favourite pictures and they are at the bottom of this post. My criteria for choosing my favourites was simple and was no more complicated than which did I like the best! As they say, the judge’s decision is final.

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Here are all of the entries.

This picture is of Geoff James from Coromandel, New Zealand, taken just before a deluge....

This is the entry from Roger Fleming, near Auckland in New Zealand, taken in very high winds....

Richard in Pembrokeshire took a picture of himself on what he calls "my bend"......

Ian Solley reckons there is a tiny part of him reflected in the gauges of his bike.....

This is my own effort, which of course cannot win.....

Despite being affected by the recent storms in Alabama, Eve from Sunny Side Up  managed to get out and take a picture including her green centerline....

Chris Luhman who also goes by the name of "The Stig" put in a picture of himself with his bikes which he uses for Everyday Riding....

Rob Campbell put in a picture of himself and his two sons.....

Doris who will be visiting the Grand Canyon tomorrow sent in this picture of herself ...

Lizzie 'Pepper' Lane submitted a very clever and creative picture....

Steve Williams who rides A Scooter In The Sticks sent a picture of himself prone on the road.  Note the scooter on the side....

This is Linda Lavin standing in front of a tremendous view on  County Route 11 in Bolton Landing, New York....

Taken on Larwood Bridge, this is bluekat who rode over the bridge by bicycle and on horseback as a child....

This is Allen Madding working as a car park attendant at his local church on ABCD....

This is The Kitchen Witch, aka Rhonda in front of the Big Belt Mountains in Montana....

He only learned of the competition on ABCD itself, so D. Brent Miller needs to be congratulated for getting out there and getting his photo done and what a great bend in the road he found....

VStarLady posted a montage of pictures on her blog as part of the ABCD competition....

From Alabama, this is the picture submitted by Lady R....



mq01 went on a ride near Yosemite on Old Priest Grade, which is quite a road!....

D. Ford took this shot  on the road from Laughlin, NV (Bike Week) on the way back to Phoenix, AZ....

PatHenderson went for a May Day ride and stopped outside the Molly Stark House in Dunbarton for her ABCD photo....

The picture Axel submitted was taken on a HOG chapter ride near Camberley in Surrey, UK....

In her quest for the perfect line, Sonja not only found it, but she also found a perfect sky as well....

Linda Sand took this picture of her foot on Interstate 80 as she headed east through Nevada....

The Queen of Zoom took this picture in Pennsylvania on a four day road trip....

helmetorheels chose this location for her ABCD picture because it was the first street she rode her motorcycle solo about one year ago after passing her endorsement test....

What a spectacular background Tucson Bonnie found for this picture....

ToadMama had this picture taken of her when on a visit to New York City - what a terrific pose....

WooleyBugger said he chose this location "because like my Sportster it had been left aside for many years until someone decided to breathe new life into it; it's a work in progress"....

In the ABCD post on his blog, Bobskoot posted a few pictures which were all very good.  I liked the fact that he needed a human shutter release (Mrs Bobskoot) to take the one picture he chose for the competition....

Troubadour sent in both an excellent picture and a very funny comment that went with it, when he said "Cagers just don't understand motorcyclists, let alone motorcyclists parked in the middle of the road taking pictures of their bikes"....

This is charlie6 on the Cache La Poudre Scenic Byway.  Some say he looks like a motorcycle cop in this picture, but I am not so sure....

A very creative picture submitted by 4T8Harley taken just off the Pacific Coast Highway....

Brooke Foster posted a picture from beautiful Sedona, which is where she is currently at on her 140 day road trip....

I had to both laugh at and feel sorry for George F.  He rode 60 miles to the George Washington Bridge in New York to take a particular photo, but when he arrived there, the required centerline was missing, so he added one himself....

One of the very few night shots was posted by Rex Covington and it was very clever to find a light source to illuminate himself and his bike while keeping the dark sky....

682202 has a picture that captures riding a bike on a wet night.  A great picture GAW....

Submitted by Pat, this shot is simple but very clever at the same time....

The picture by motoroz shows him standing at a crossroadsand the posting on his blog explains why....

That concludes the submitted entries.

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As for the winning entries, I found that really hard to judge as there were so many great pictures. My wife Jackie help with selecting the top pictures but it took a long time to eliminate others. For example, LadyR’s picture was a hoot and Tucson Bonnie’s was in a fantastic location. Sonja’s was really sharp with great colours but sadly, none of these made the final shortlist.

I have selected four pictures that shared 4th place and these are......

In equal 4th place, 4T8Harley’s picture of riding around a bend near the Pacific Coast Highway in California. The composition is terrific, as is the way the bike blurs and fades behind the rider. The fact that he is obviously giving it gas going around the bend helps also....



In equal 4th place, Bobskoot’s picture is both great fun and in a great setting. He chose the location well and his size and position in the picture is just right....



In equal 4th place, Raftnn’s black and white picture looking over the raging water is very moody....



In equal 4th place, Steve William’s picture of him laying on the road is brilliantly simple and the yellow of his jacket goes very well with the yellow of the centreline....










In 3rd place, I have selected Rex Covington’s night picture. The way the light from the side highlights the road, Rex himself and his bike while keeping the fading blue sky dark is tremendous....










In 2nd place is G. Wheeler’s night time picture of riding in the rain. It is full of action and speed. The picture just jumps out at you and is deserving of it’s second place....










My favourite picture and the winner of this competition is that by Lizzie ‘Pepper’ Lane. It is one of the most creative pictures submitted and I love the way the bike rider looking back is just out-of-focus, adding to the feeling of distance and remoteness. Pepper and her friend obviously put a lot of thought into this and chose the location well. The final outcome is a great picture that is also funny. Well done Pepper and good luck with your soon to be taken motorbike test....



Pepper, I will contact you about getting the $100 prize to you.


Now a question, do we run this ABCD competition again next year.....?

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