Jump to content

Northern Spain to northern France


Lateralus
 Share

Recommended Posts

Well, following a series of unexpected events, we've been invited to my wife's Uncle's place in France this summer, and it looks like I may well be going on the bike!


TL;DR:

1. Going to France; what do?

2. Interested?


I've read plenty of the general advice threads about France and touring, but being the precious and unique snowflake that this trip is, it deserves its own thread. :booty:


The destination is a little west of Limoges in south central France, about halfway between Calais and Bilbao (see where this is going yet?). We're looking to go end of July/early Aug, or end Aug to pick up the bank holiday, and will need a vehicle when we're there. I know it's peak holiday season, but it's the only time we can go.


I wanted to make a tour of it (by car), but Mrs Lat wasn't so keen, and we couldn't find a solution which ticked both our boxes. However, after another couple of rides on the bike this weekend, she's decided she's perfectly happy as a pillion as a functional means of getting from A to B, but isn't interested in long-distance trips or recreational rides.


Then, out of nowhere, she suggested she flies down and gets picked up by her Uncle, whilst I ride down on the bike, which we can both use while we're there! I didn't need asking twice! :D A plan is born...


So that I can have some time in the mountains, I'm keen to get the ferry either there or back between Portsmouth and Bilbao/Santander, with the other leg likely to be the tunnel or Dover-Calais ferry, mainly to keep costs down but at least partly because riding the length of France sounds like quite a cool idea! :mrgreen: The 24hr leg to Spain is looking to be at least £220 for a reclining seat, or £100 more for a cabin, but the brief Dover-Calais leg is only £30. From an initial search, it looks like the optimum trip might be a ferry to Santander on Tues 15th Aug, aiming to get to Limousin by Sunday 20th. Few days with the relatives, exploring the area, then a shorter trip up to Calais (solo again) for a ferry home on Sunday 27th.


Is this a good plan, or am I overlooking lots of good riding and a cheaper trip between the north coast of France and the Limousin area?


If it is a good plan, is there anything in particular I should or should not do?


Finally, if I did stick with this plan, anyone fancy joining me on at least the first leg of the trip for a jaunt around the Pyrenees? Can't offer accommodation for the middle part of my journey (family duties and all that), but could meet up again for the return leg? Just thought I'd throw it out there! :cheers:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done Telford to Torrevieja both on the bike and in the car.

Dover/Calais both times.

On the bike we stopped overnight in Orleans and Perpignon.

In the car we didn't stop at all! :D

You haven't mentioned tolls! They're expensive! but massively quicker.

Enjoy! I'd do it again tomorrow if I could 8-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You haven't mentioned tolls! They're expensive!

 

Toll from Calais to Limoges.. Or vice versa is €25.30 according to Michelin. You can likely do it cheaper than that... And not pay too much of a time penalty.


Ferry is cheaper than the tunnel... I would probably want to break the journey with an overnight stay.. So, for instance going: you have a 200 mile ride to the port. And then on the other side another 400+ so, maybe a cheap room near Dover... Early start, crossing, then all day to get to Limoges.


600 miles is by any measure a slog... Not something I would want to do in a single day.


You might like to look at motorail rather than the spanish ferry... Paris to Biarritz, Toulouse or narbonne. Weigh up the pros and cons compared to the ferry. I'm not up on how it compares price wise. In France it's called Autotrain. Your bike is loaded on a transport train in Paris... And you travel on a standard train - this means you could travel with your wife. I know of people who prefer this way of covering fairly large distances with spouses.. though the rail network that carries bikes is steadily shrinking.


I have route maps for the Pyrenees. French and Spanish sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done this several times, both riding through France and taking the ferry to Santander and continuing on into Spain and Portugal.


If just going to Limoges, I'd just ride down through France, but if you really want to see some of the Pyrenees which are spectacular, then the Santander ferry is a good plan.


I'd say 600 is absolute max mileage for a day, but you'd need to be sitting on the autoroute, and what's the point in that?


So 500 miles is doable if you are on your own, and you just knock out 150 miles, or 2 hours on motorway, then spend the rest of your day at your leisure doing the other 350 miles. I find this results in a full day of between 12 and 14 hours.


Nottingham to Limoges is 660 miles so if you split that into two 330 mile days, with a Ibis Budget at 25 or 30 euros half way somewhere, you have potential for a really nice couple of days, with little need to use motorways except to get around major cities.


The key IMO to making it enjoyable is don't turn it into a endurance test, take your time. I stop every hour whether I need to or not. It makes an 8 hour ride which is painful in anybody's book, into 8 separate 1 hour rides, which is enjoyable and easy. Take on plenty of fluids, eat regularly.


I also take a few stops through the day to see towns I pass though, and I stop at least an hour to have lunch in a town square bistro somewhere.


I'll stick together a route I'd recommend and post it shortly

Edited by Anonymous
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Get petrol when you see it, not when you need it. Many of the petrol stations on these D roads, were in the towns and villages. Many of those towns and villages have had bypass built around them, so either you don't pass the petrol station and don't realise it's there, or it's not there anymore, gone out of business due to lack of passing traffic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the help all, and for those route/planning suggestions in particular Baloo. Will look into it further and see where I get. Main issue is that the Pyrenees leg will add ~£200 in ferry costs, plus food, drink and accommodation for the extra time I'll spend away, so there's a chance it may be cut to save on money. :( However, if I can keep it on the agenda, what's a reasonable amount of time to allow for Limoges - Santander, including a bit of time for fun in the mountains?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's 400 miles or so from Santander to Limoges, so totally doable in a day if you knock out an hour or so on motorway, but not really doable if your going to put mountain roads into that which drop your average speed down to about 30mph at best.


Then your problem there is the ferry arrives in the middle of the day, so you only have the afternoon/evening to play with. So if you really want to enjoy the Pyrenees you are looking at 2 or possibly 3 days.


Satander to the French/Spanish border at San Sebastian is fairly mountainous though, so you could plan a nice mountain route across towards San Sebastian/Pamplona, but I don't know those roads myself. Then go St Jean de Luz, Marmande, Bergerac, Perigueux, Limoges. Would be a LONG day though and if you're taking the trouble of a ferry to Santander, it's real a shame to miss the Pyrenees.


A good 2 day option is ride to somewhere like Jaca from the ferry. The next day spend the day in the Pyrenees. The Pic Du Midi is well worth a visit. Then drop down to Foix, have dinner, then Autoroute past Toulouse to Limoges which will take you about 4 hours and get you to your wife in time for bed! :wink: Not that you'll have strength for much! :D


3 days, you could do the same but stay in Tarbes on your second night, take a nice route like Auch, Condom, Castaljaloux, Marmande, Bergerac, Perigueux, Limoges in time for dinner. :thumb:


The live webcam at the Pic Du Midi http://picdumidi.com/en/live/webcam AMAZING !!!!


If you're catholic you may want a visit to Lourdes, the basilica is like a Disney castle, but the rest of the place is horrible, a religious equivalent of Blackpool, so just ride in, see the Basilica and visit the cave, ride out.

Edited by Anonymous
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 weeks :lol:

 

You joke, but by the time you add riding to Portsmouth or Plymouth, 24 hours on the ferry, 2 or 3 days to do the Pyrenees, and the 2 days to ride home from Limoges, you are adding an extra week to the trip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PS: I am writing all this as someone who does this stuff at least every other year, and if I'm not doing France/Spain/Portugal I'm doing Scotland or Ireland, so every year I have at least one long trip. I'm used to knocking out 500 miles on a 12-14 hour day, day after day. There's not much time for hanging about and some riders would really struggle with it, especially if they have been hanging about and find themselves at 11pm and they still have 100 miles to do before they can get to bed.


Don't want you do anything like this then go "Feckin' hell, why did I listen to that Baloo bloke? This is torture".


You've got to look after yourself and the bike/equipment, regular breaks, the right refreshments, the right clothing, and don't hang about, but also take it easy and ride smooth, not ride balls out fast, so you are not getting fatigued and brain frazzled. If you wear contact lenses like I do I find it best to take them out and let the soak in solution for an hour at lunch and put my glasses back on, refreshes the lenses and gives your eyes a rest. Wear the right underwear so you're not getting monkey butt, I use Under Armour compression fit boxer shorts. It's all the little things like that which make a difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Things I would not like to do again:

1. Sit on a ferry for anything over an hour

2. Ride on autopistas/peages/motorways

3. Compete for some imaginary endurance medal by riding 500miles+ in a day

4. Go caravanning with Jimmy Saville


If I were riding to Limoges I'd go by minor roads, linger in small towns for lunch, take early evenings and drink pastis in market squares, and definitely stop overnight in Tours. I love Tours. I would catch the Chunnel, make it a 2 or 3 day trip and camp because it packs up small and light.


But you are not me, you are you. Do what you want to do and enjoy the experience. :thumb:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you choose the Northern France option take a look at a small seaside town called Etretat is a great little town with lots of bars, hotels and restaurants. Take a look around on street view and you'll see what I mean.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@49.7081287,0.2039077,3a,75y,242.47h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdEzX_YuL6qEalGfuFxVJWQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en


I am leading a small group to France in a couple of weeks time and Etretat is one of our stops for the night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some great tips here, thanks guys.

 

Things I would not like to do again:

1. Sit on a ferry for anything over an hour

2. Ride on autopistas/peages/motorways

3. Compete for some imaginary endurance medal by riding 500miles+ in a day

4. Go caravanning with Jimmy Saville


If I were riding to Limoges I'd go by minor roads, linger in small towns for lunch, take early evenings and drink pastis in market squares, and definitely stop overnight in Tours. I love Tours. I would catch the Chunnel, make it a 2 or 3 day trip and camp because it packs up small and light.


But you are not me, you are you. Do what you want to do and enjoy the experience. :thumb:

1. I quite like ferries, so no problem with a 24hr crossing.

2. Agreed, not interested in a tour of Europe's motorways.

3. Furthest I've gone so far is 200 miles in a day, but I don't really have a concept of what a "reasonable" distance is to aim for.

4. I think I've missed my opportunity for Jim to fix it for me.


I have thought a bit about camping, but it's the amount of extra stuff I'd need to take, even if I ate out, which concerns me really. Plus, if I'm doing relatively big days in the saddle, a hot shower and a comfy bed seems very attractive!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like my creature comforts after a day in the saddle


Been able to walk around your room naked and have a decent shower is a must :lol:


Breakfast in European hotels is always a winner too 8-)


If you want to get somewhere then hitting the motorways are a good way to get some distance you can easily cover 250 miles a day with a mixture of motorways and back roads


Every time we have gone away we will do motorway for about 100 - 150 miles then come off and enjoy the rest of the ride to get to our first destination after that we usually do around 150 - 200 miles a day at a leisurely pace


We also went away for ten days with only one hotel booked for the first night :shock: we had no plan and went where we wanted and just picked up hotels when we had enough for the day


I would plan your route carefully and book your hotels and make it a holiday rather than a ride to a destination its all good and well clocking the miles but crap if you are missing all the scenery


more importantly make sure your bike is in tip top shape, you have the correct insurance cover (bike and travel) breakdown cover etc etc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 hours on the Santander ferry is quite easy to pass TBH. The Pont Aven and the Cap Finistere are cruise ferries, they are not like your normal Dover Calais cross channel.


You board at lunchtime. If you booked a airline seat not a cabin, they are on the top floor next to the swimming pool, I go straight there after boarding and nab a couple of duvets and a pillow from the cupboards at the back of the room. Make myself a bed on the floor at the front of the room, and dump my luggage on it to reserve my space. So much nicer and easier to sleep flat out on the floor than in one of those airline seats, where you will find some other smelly snoring bugger sleeping in the footwell in front of your seat.


Then onto deck and there's enough to see for a couple of hours as you track the south coast, then if the weather's good you can settle down on deck in a deck chair with a book. As you cross over the channel towards the Jersey whales or dolphins might make an appearance which is good entertainment for a while.


Then dinner, book the restaurant, it's pretty good food.


After dinner head for the bar and there's an evening cabaret entertainment on, but I always head for the pile of leathers and helmets in the corner and join the other bikers for beer and chat which I have known last into the early hours, then end up riding into Spain and Portugal in a group ride the next day.


You can sleep on a sofa in the bar, but you won't get peace until 2am, by 3am there's a cleaner running around with a hoover, and by 6am they are preparing for breakfast and you are awoken by the sound of crockery. I found my makeshift bed in the airline seats room much more conducive to sleep.


Coffee, breakfast, gather all your stuff together, read your book for another couple of hours, and it's time to disembark in Santander.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Camping massively reduces your daily mileage, because you need to be at the campsite by 7pm ish latest to pitch in daylight and then get some food. In the morning you waste an hour just breaking camp and reloading the bike. For what motels cost in France, like IBIS budget, Campanile, etc, it's just not worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...able to walk around ... naked ... is a must

Most French campsites are quite accommodating.

 


Whatever turns you on :shock:

It saves cleaning and drying clothes when I wake up in a ditch surrounded by empty bottles of cheap wine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is really helpful stuff guys, much appreciated and keep it coming!


So then, current outline plan:

Tues 15th Aug - 17.15 sailing from Portsmouth with an airline seat booked. Parents live near Newbury, so can easily head there Monday night and have a leisurely start to the trip.

Weds 16th - arrive Santander 18.15, then ride to Pamplona or somewhere. Stay in cheap hotel/Airbnb. Longish ride for the evening, but I'll have done nothing else all day and it would be good to finish up near the mountains.

Thurs 17th - Sun 20th - explore the Pyrenees and make way to Limousin region.

Sun 20th - Thurs 24th - explore local area with wife, do nice family stuff.

Fri 25th - Mon 28th - make way home via Chunnel or Calais-Dover ferry, hopefully with 2 overnight stops in France and very possibly aiming to get home on the Sunday evening, leaving all day bank holiday Monday to recover.


It'll only leave me with 2 days' annual leave until Christmas, but for a decent tour I think I can cope with that!


Will look at route planning in more detail over the coming weeks, assuming this is the plan which proceeds, and can put a deposit on the ferry imminently. I like the idea of stopping when I've had enough and chancing it on the accommodation, but to keep costs down I think pre-booking is the only option.


No-one else fancy joining in? :mrgreen:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We did 500 miles a day on motorways/toll roads,

it is a bit of a drag but there's a strange sort of masochistic pleasure in it, I would do it again :lol:


we stayed in Formule1's, a bit too basic for me I wouldn't use them again (they're quite cheap though).


It also depends what you're going to do when you get there and how long before you ride back.


We did 3 days bike, 9 days pool/bar/pool/bar :cheers: , 3 days bike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Welcome to The Motorbike Forum.

    Sign in or register an account to join in.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy Guidelines We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Please Sign In or Sign Up