Lucky to be having three holidays this summer;
Drive the missus and twins to her home town in Czech Republic by way of a leisurely week's drive, for the second year running via Switzerland as we enjoyed it so much last year. After a few days with family at our Czech destination, I will take the train alone to Prague and fly home leaving the missus, the twins, a laptop with webcam, and (yikes) the V70 behind at her parent's house.
A month after returning from Prague, I'll fly back out, take the train to collect wife, babies, and car, attend a family wedding, and then we'll have a week's leisurely drive home via friends near Brussels.
In between these two holidays however I will take part in a Boy's Biking Holiday to France; it's this holiday that I'd appreciate some help with, please.
This time, for the first time (there have been two great group biking holidays before), none of us will have wives or girlfriends as pillions which (a) makes it possible to more easily rack up the miles, and (b) makes it easier to take tents for camping, so we will, for fun. We'll be riding in June so hopefully decent weather (In any case NOTHING can be as wet as when we rode to the Scottish Highlands, and we still enjoyed that!) and camp sites won't need booking.
Unanimous destination decision was the Millau Bridge which viamichelin.com confirms to be just under 600 miles from Boulogne avoiding motorways and via a direct route. We don't necessarily want a direct route though; we want a biking-enjoyable route that also takes in some places of interest. If time permits, but perhaps "pushing it" in light of my next comment, we may continue on to Montpellier as we'll be most of the way there come Millau.
Much though we love riding, we don't want to spend all day every day on the bikes and some leisurely lunches, relaxing dinners, and cold beers at the end of a day's riding would be good, as well as some sightseeing en-route. A few press-on days are fine. Bikes are my Hornet 600 on which I've already done a lot of touring so know I can ride all day without getting too achey, cruise comfortably at ninety if there are miles to make, and consume sweepies with abandon, a ZX7 used every day in lieu of a car so the owner won't baulk at anything, an SP2 (that has already been ridden all over Western Europe on a camping holiday before anyone says it can't tour!), and the touring warpship, a Blackbird with three piece drum kit on the back. (Guess who's carrying most of the gear?!)
We take a breakfast time Speedferries crossing from Dover, departing Boulogne homeward bound at tea time on our sixth day.
Route suggestions, please, especially from bikers in the Backroom who have ridden this approximate route before.
Many thanks!
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Can't give you any suggestions but can say I am blinking jealous!
Must be a good feeling to have that to look forward to for the next 6 months.
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Yes, I must admit it's a good feeling and whilst I don't like wishing my life away, I hope the arrival of June doesn't drag!
I've done some more research since last posting, and found www.bestbikingroads.com has some useful info. Search on Find a Route / Europe / Millau Bridge, for example. Even some video such as this of riding along the Tarn Gorge: www.bestbikingroads.com/./movie/692_001_TarnGorge....g
Tonight I'll search on other potential parts of the journey.
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After all that it seems the linked .mpg file has some odd encoding and none of my players will play it, even when opened from within them rather than clicking the link and allowing the computer to decide what to do. The only way I can get it to work is to run it from the button on the website that displays after entering the search parameter I described.
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Sounds fabulous. Nothing helpful to say except wishes for a great time and a request for a full report when you get back.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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There's a lot to be said for going thro' Millau and looking up at the bridge rather than going over it where you don't actually see much;the road down from Clermont-Ferrand to Montpellier passes thro' some spectacular scenery.
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I don't want to hijack SjB's thread, but if he doesn't mind me butting in . . .
I am planning to visit the Millau Bridge on holiday this year myself.
My question, however, is "where does one go to get the best view of the bridge?"
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We went over the Millau viaduc in 2005 - absolutely spectacular. Sorry, our route was from Cherbourg so I can't really help on going via Boulogne. Remembering my Dover/Calais days, you should be in for a treat riding over the Massif Central via Clermont Ferrand. Looking at the map for the sort of direction you'd have to take, there's Compiegne where the armastice was signed, Fontainblue with its palace and forest, and Briare on the Loire would be worth a look - it has Mr Eiffel's second masterpiece, an aquaduct still carrying boat traffic. Never got to look at Montpelier - we were washed out by the late summer storms and run out of town by the gendarmes! Avignon would be in striking distance though and that's got to be worth a day.
Just south of Millau (minutes down the A75, which is toll-free apart for the viaduct) is a mediaeval town called La Couvertoirade - one of the old Knights Templar's strongholds. Well worth a visit. Also, to the east of Millau, if you visit the "Chaos de Montpellier-le-Vieux" which is a rocky canyon which only the French would love, you can drop down towards Millau on the D991, which affords some tempting views across the town to the viaduct.
HTH
--
Terry
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I should also say that you should turn off the A75 for 10 mins. to see the Garabit bridge(signposted);also by Eiffel.
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Excellent choice of destination.
I rode there a couple of summers ago. I travelled cross country from Albi on the D999. That is definitely out of your way if you?re coming direct from the UK. But if you have spare time, the D999 is a brilliant biking road. Swoopy, fast, hardly any traffic and wonderful scenery. (As ever in France, watch for les flic in villages, who will hide behind trees / parked cars / anything to trap you).
Heading east along the D999 towards Millau also has the advantage that you travel along a valley, wondering where the bridge is. Then you turn a corner and find it filling the valley ahead of you - a breathtaking sight. The D999 will also lead you to the visitor centre, which is directly under the bridge. Stand at the base of one of the pillars and look up - guaranteed to make you dizzy.
If you have time to stay a while, in addition to the recommendation from terryb above, I?d also suggest you ride up the Gordes du Tarn route, D907, heading east out of Millau. Spectacular. If you saw the Top Gear feature where they took supercars to the bridge, I?m sure they filmed some of the scenes on this road. The D907 is not a fast road though - it is very twisty and bumpy.
A couple of other comments.
First - speed. Not sure when you last rode in France. I?ve been every summer for the past six years - in my experience there has is a very real change in attitude from their police on speeding. Five years ago I can remember being waved to overtake a marked cop car by the copper driving it, despite me being already above the limit. But last summer we (three bikes in convoy) were chased by a police helicopter, despite us being in totally empty countryside with not another person, village or vehicle in sight. (Luckily I noticed the heli in time to slow down - very unnerving. We dropped down to the limit but he still flew above us for 15km). At least French drivers still flash other road users to warn you if there is a trap ahead.
Second. Speedferries. I have not used them, but I have mates who have. I know that car users think they are great, but my pals didn?t find them bike friendly. The issue being that they only carry a small number of bikes (three? five?) per sailing. My mate arrived early for his return. Even though the vessel itself was half empty, they wouldn?t let him change to the earlier crossing because they had already taken their fixed limit of bikes.
Hope you have a great trip
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Many thanks all for the wishes, and terryb and rcspeirs for the detail; plenty for me to get my teeth in to, and I assume the D907 Gordes du Tarn route is the same one in the video link posted above especially given the comment about being twisty and bumpy; if it is this road, looks like it'll be great! One of my hobbies is photography so seeing the bridge is something I relish.
When did I last ride in France? In the searing (and then some) heat of summer 2001, to the Loire Valley. Fantastic - actually awesome - fun, and yes, no speeding whatsoever in towns or villages but at times some very serious progress was made on the fast, empty, sweeping, roads. Usual pack riding rules (nine bikes, eleven people) and everybody with brain in gear made it a real pleasure. Even my missus on the pillion commented on how refreshing it was after Home Counties congestion and UK officialdom attitude to speed. In the same vein as already written, whenever we came to a car, invariably it would move over and we'd be waved past. Interesting therefore to see your comment on changed times, thanks!
Stayed at www.chateau-saintpaterne.com/ where we were made extremely welcome, with our owner-hosts setting the scene by welcoming us off our bikes, hot and very sweaty, at the end of their gravel driveway with a silver tray of cold lemonades and beers. On commenting how nice it was as bikers not only to recieve this treatment but also for the way we were treated throughout, the response was "why not?!" The location is apparently popular with those heading to racing at Le Mans, so sports bikes and cars and their owners are frequent visitors. As well as superb cuisine (owner Charles-Henri de Valbray is a chef), the chateau has well kept considerable grounds and a lovely outdoor swimming pool to relax in, too. A week after arriving home, a parcel arrived in the post; the silk balaclava I'd left behind and assumed I'd lost at a service station or somesuch. Sure, things change with time, but on my experience, highly recommended.
On the subject of Speedferries, thanks for the tip but we are okay; I have used them many times with the car - they are my preferred cross channel operator- and because of this usage I knew that the majority of the vehicle deck is all of a kilter, and bikes are limited to one location. Because I wanted as tour organizer to ensure we all get on the same crossing, before booking I called them to ask how many bikes were already booked. I learned that they can take eight bikes per crossing and on the two crossings in question, none were already booked. With reasonable haste to complete four bookings (even the telephone assistants can't book multiple vehicles at the same time so we saved the £40 and did it ourselves) we were sorted!
Thanks again!
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Reviving another thread I found when I was looking for something else, mainly because there are few better things to discuss than travelling in southern France.
Can't offer much (any) bike-specific advice, but I'll second the recommendation of the Gorges du Tarn. There are guided punt trips on the river, which is a good way to see wildlife and other sights you won't get from the road.
And if you're continuing south of Millau, I had one of the best dinners I've ever eaten at the Mas de Clergues at Octon, off the main road from Lodeve to Clermont l'Herault. (It has rooms too.) Nothing fancy, just tingly-fresh seafood starters, wood-grilled meat from local animals and wine from their own vines. The service was spot-on too, as was the little lounge where we did our best to converse on science, politics and philosophy with our fellow guests over coffee afterwards. That was in 2000 - before the bridge was built, and I'd love to go back to see it - but it still seems to be there. I hope it's still as good.
Bonne route!
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