France Tour 2016 - Day 9 - Berck-sur-Mer to Home

This is the last day's diary for the France Tour, in case you missed it: click here for Day 1 and here for Days 7 & 8.

I hope you've enjoyed my tour diary - please feel free to get in touch or leave any comments :)

Sunday 4th September
Today was always going to be a long day but we got going at 9:30 to head to Calais and the Eurotunnel. We arrived at the tunnel much earlier than the train we were booked on but as they do at the Eurotunnel, they just put us both on an earlier train at 11:50 which was great news for us because it meant we'd get to England two hours earlier than expected which meant we could get home earlier too.

Let's go home!

Bikes all packed up and ready to go, skies were threatening showers

There was a group of 7 bikers on the same train as us who had been up to Belgium too but they stayed there for the week and rode around the Ardenne Forest rather than doing what we did and heading to France. They were all on Suzuki's so my bike blended in nicely but mum's BMW didn't!

My trusty SV650 on the Eurotunnel

Due to the bridge collapse on the M20 near Kent (which we missed by about half an hour on the way down!), we had to take a slightly diverted route home using the A229 before getting back on track and through the Dartford Tunnel.

We got to the Birchanger Green services off the M11 at around 1pm and filled up and had some food and a break with 115 miles left to go.

Diverting slightly from the route we took down to the tunnel, we rode around the edge of Rutland Water to get home and stopped for a drink at Oakham at the Grainstore Brewery where we've been for breakfast a couple of times in the past.

Knowing that we were so close to home, the last leg home passed without incident (apart from a momentary lapse in concentration which meant we rode on the wrong side of the road for about a minute...) and we made it back at 4:30, 3 hours earlier than we expected to.

After unpacking the bikes and putting them away, it was finally time just to relax and try and tell my dad a full week of stories in as short an amount of time as was humanly possible.

Daily miles: 230;
Total miles: 1150.

The whole trip was great fun and although I was, and still am, gutted that we couldn't go to Germany to do the Fairytale Route there, I know that because I'm still recovering even now from my illness at the start of July, we never would've been able to have done it and enjoyed it at the same time. It's still on my list to do though, I'll just have to hope that next time I plan to do it that I'm not ill for at least 2 months beforehand!

Until the next time then guys, ride safe
TFB

France Tour 2016 - Day 3 - Maubeuge to Reims

Check out Day 2 of the tour diary here in case you missed it!

Monday 29th August

Today was another pretty short day in the scheme of things and we managed to get rolling at around 9:30 with waterproofs and rain covers preemptively on as it was looking a bit grey and we had some super light drizzle. Off we set through the French countryside on some fab albeit slightly damp roads. 

The place we were going to stop for a drink... nowhere was open

After around 70 miles, we stopped at a small cafe-bar in the small village of Rouvroy-sur-Audry (D978 if you're interested - it's a great road) which had some Joe Bar pictures outside and other bike-y type things inside including a Repsol Honda mini replica on the shelf so I reckoned it was a good place to stop! A drink and a few wine gums later, we set off again with the majority of the miles already under our belts. 

Joe Bar cartoons? Think we'll be good here!

D978 in the cloudy French countryside

We arrived at the hotel at around 1:30 which is a nice little 2 star in the city centre just around the corner from all the cafes and restaurants. The decor is a bit creepy though...

The bed on the left? Yep, that would be mine

Our running plan then got disrupted slightly as we were going to go out for dinner and then watch the light show at the cathedral but after getting there for 10 and finding a seat, somebody told us that they just googled it and it turned out the show ran every day except for Monday. 

Wandering around Reims before dinner

We've got a day off tomorrow and a champagne tour planned and then we'll probably have a wander around Reims in the afternoon. 

Daily miles: 111;

Total miles done: 511.

France Tour 2016 - Day 2 - Brugge to Maubeuge

If you haven't read Day 1 of the tour diary, click here to catch up!

Sunday 28th August

Today started very leisurely as we (well, mainly me actually) needed a decent sleep and so we ended up leaving Brugge at around 11am. We started off by heading to Ghent on some relatively boring roads but they needed to be done. There was actually a bit of a breeze today so it was a more manageable mid-20s degree heat.

Quick photo stop on the way to Ghent

Riding by the river is always nice

After arriving in Ghent around 12 o'clock, we had a wander around the town and the food market that was happening before having a leisurely lunch by the river. As we walked around the food market, I was approached by a guy who thought I looked Dutch and said it was really cool that I rode a motorbike which was nice.

A flower market that was on in the city

Relaxing by the food market with a drink

Overlooking the river before heading down to eat

2 and a half hours later, we finally set off from Ghent and headed south towards Mons and the French border. After spotting some old American army trucks, we decided to stop in Mons and had an ice cream in the square whilst listening to the brass band that was playing. 

The square was really busy with pretty much all of the cafes and bars looking rammed but the rest of Mons seemed a bit dead. As we hadn't really got any plans of where to stay this evening, we decided to carry on with our planned route and headed back to the bikes. As we were putting our gear back on at the bikes, two blokes drove past in their car and the passenger felt the need to shout "wow, nice bike!!!" out of the window as they turned into the car park. He then ran over to quickly talk to us as girls on bikes are great.... I've never had anyone really mention the fact I'm a female biker before but today it got mentioned twice by people who seemed to go out of their way to do so. Maybe it's a European thing. 

From Mons, we headed into the beautiful countryside and the national parks on the border between Belgium and France heading towards Roisin which is a tiny little village in the countryside which holds no real interest apart from the fact that Róisín happens to be one of our family members' names and we thought we had to go and have a selfie by the sign!

Selfie!

My one complaint about Belgium, as lovely as it is, has to be the road surface. They seem to be huge fans of concrete roads which make any bumps much harsher than they probably should be and they can make for some loud riding too. I can't fault much else though! 

You could tell when we arrived in France by the change in building style although we were unsure for a while as to whether we'd crossed the border or not because Ath has all of their signs in French but the cars were Belgian and the only flags that were around were the purple, white and yellow ones of Ath.

Eventually we arrived in Maubeuge at around 6:30 and we decided it was easiest to stay in the Campanile there which was basic as expected but had everything we needed. Overall today, we only did about 100 miles but it took us 7 and a half hours to do so!

Parked up at the Campanile

The plan for tomorrow is to head to Reims where we are staying for two nights as it would be rude not to go champagne tasting in the champagne region!

Daily miles: 122;

Total miles done: 400.

Kickback Motorbike Show - Stoneleigh

Hi all!

So for a last ride out before I head back to uni (for those who don't know, I have nowhere to store my bike at uni so I can only ride it when I'm back home), I headed to Stoneleigh with 3 others to have some breakfast followed by a wander around the Kickback Motorbike Show on Sunday.

In the past, the Kickback Show has been larger but on the same weekend it was on, there was a show in Paris and if you had a choice between Paris and Coventry, which one would you choose? Some people like Down and Out Cafe Racers and Triumph were missing but it was still nice to go to and the weather was absolutely gorgeous so I can't complain!

The route we took was quite a nice one despite only being about 35 miles long! Firstly we followed the A511 before taking the A447 through Ibstock and Stapleton. We then went on to the A47/A5 to Hinckley and rode past the Triumph factory which bizarrely is only signposted as "Motorcycle factory" on one sign, there are no "Home of Triumph" signs anywhere!
After leaving the A5 which is a nice, flowing road, we joined Fosse Road (B4455) which is a Roman road so is pretty straight but flows well apart from the two crossroads you pass over which are indicated by giant signs with a checker board background you can spot miles off (but I guess it's no bad thing if it stops accidents).
We then diverted off Fosse Road and headed through Wolston towards Stoneleigh and the National Agriculture Centre where the show was being held.

If you are ever in that area, the cafe at the NAC does a really lovely breakfast and the staff there are also super friendly! My bacon sandwich and hot chocolate went down a treat as did the rocky road I had.

After breakfast, we entered the show and had a look around. There were some lovely custom bikes at the show and also some of the first skinny Kevlar-lined jeans I had seen which are next on my wish list.

An old Triumph done in a very popular green colour

There were quite a few Honda C90s at the show but I thought this one was the best

I loved the detailing on this otherwise really simple, clean cafe racer

Possibly my favourite bike at show, this matte blue finish looked gorgeous

This old FTR 223 Street Tracker was finished with a funky headlight with the indicators to match

Once we'd finished walking around the show we had a look at some of the bikes other people had come on, unsurprisingly, there were lots of choppers! We then headed back home via the same route making for a fab 70 odd mile ride out with beautiful weather. A lovely goodbye ride to my bike for 2 and a half months.

I will try and post whilst I'm back at uni but it will be exam season so bare with me!

As always, until next time - ride safe
TFB