Finally after house moves and other crisis I have had time to sort out a report on the France trip, I did a total of 2200 miles in eleven days taking three days to get out and two days to get back! Going from Hull East Yorkshire to Annecy in the French Alps.
As I was visiting my daughter who is working out there and camping I was carrying sleeping bag and spare helmet and water proofs for her, hence the vast amount of luggage, actually the bike handled it well and I finally got strapping it down to a fine art. The other benefit was a brilliant back rest!!
The bike ran fantastic with just a couple of screws vibrating loose except for that heart stopping moment on the way back just out side Wolverhampton in Heavy rain after 460 miles and 2 to go and as I pulled off the motorway and everything died, but I switched everything off switched it back on and away she went again so answers on a postcard please (I am convinced I picked up some bad fuel at Luton as well)
As this was my first trip abroad and solo I decided to do about 300 miles a day and booked some Logis de France hotels through the internet the first one in Calais as I got off the ferry at 7pm all I can say we have no idea about hotels and food in this country!! I had bed breakfast and an amazing meal and half bottle of wine for 70 euros.
The journey down to Dover was straight forward with just the major road works around Dartford being a pain, the ferry is very straight forward thought the crews just give you a strap to fasten the bike down with and you have to ask for help if you need it.
This was also where the sat nav came in as navigating around strange French towns became a doddle, my advise for them tho is to keep them absolutely dry otherwise they do very strange things
The journey there and back was on Payages as it would have taken too long otherwise, the roads are good with plenty of stopping area the fuel stops tell you how long it is to the next one but I tended to fill up every 80 or a hundred miles, as the most I got out of a tank before reserve was 115.
The food service area are very clean and well kept with lots of vending machines and sandwiches, it is all quite expensive but by this time I didn’t care.
The French attitude to bikers (and especially triumphs) is brilliant they like the idea of a British biker on a British bike (its why they buy French cars) other bikers coming towards you give you the ok sign and if you let one by the stick their right leg out as thanks (took me a while to figure that one), cars move out of the way and you build a growing hatred of kids on scooters or trikes riding the things at full tilt
. However some French drivers especially on some of the mountain passes are lucky to be alive.
Word of warning about the police there are a number of camera and speed traps set up and rumour has it they are on commission. And being French they are painted to merge in with the countryside not stand out.
After all the motorway driving the alps were amazing its what the bike was made for and all I could think of was the Italian job, luckily though no encounters with JCB’s in any road tunnels. However the temperature can change rapidly from 31 degrees to anything down from that I rode in my fabrics but after three days they were not very pleasant and went straight in the wash when I got back.
And of course after looking at the map I had to make the pilgrimage and yes I think Triumph should include the flower bed on the 08 model after all you get a vase on a beetle. Sadly the town is very dull
Other exciting things while there was white water rafting and a cable car trip to the top of mont blanc which is breath taking.
I also persuaded my daughter to ride pillion and she took to it like a duck to water (much to my ex wifes horror!!!)
The journey back saw the first really bad rain and you definitely need to bag everything up and I would advise on putting passports etc in sandwich bags if in your pockets because everything got wet.
The high points of the trip were the scenry and the roads the food and the friendliness of the people, the down side was my sore ****** just at the base of the spine, my next investment will be a new saddle so any suggestions???
My daughter is moving to Paris in September for a year and although parking a car is impossible I can stick the bike on the pavement in front of her flat so over the next few months I will be making quite a few trips. But it has wetted my appetite for more longer rides as it was relatively simple. So watch this space
