First weekend away - France

[jonzi]

Ah France, how lovely your roads and wet your skies (on Sunday anyway)

So I decided to take the tunnel over to Calais and then see where I ended up.

The first night I ended up in a Ibis hotel as riding down to Folkestone after work on Friday, the heavens opened up and I got drenched. For some reason I didn't take any thing waterproof and had on my leathers. So the plan to camp for two nights was put on hold so I could turn the heating up in the hotel room to dry my self and attempt to dry my leathers.

Woke up early, and thought I had better get a map or something. First petrol station was self service. No map. I then didn't see one for ages. So spent most of the day using google maps on my iphone. My bill will be huge.

Around midday I decided I had had enough of stopping every 5 minutes to find out where I am and decided to buy a satnav for my phone. It was life changing! I could now happily be told which way to go and enjoy the roads much more.

I got caught up in a ride out with a group of crazy French. Lots of horn tooting and blocking roundabouts off so the group could stay together. fun times.

I decided to call it a day after 6 hours on the bike. I got half as far as I wanted but still was a good day.

Woke up Sunday to rain. Awesome. Weather.com lied to me. decided to stay in bed longer (another hotel, why did I lug all that camping gear around?) and see if it clears up. It didn't

Decided to take the motorway back to Calais and dry out before the train. I got drenched again. Service station plastic gloves under leather gloves don't help a huge amount at keeping warm.

So besides the rain and getting lost, I had a great weekend.

Lessons learnt:

Don't take camping gear if you ain't gonna camp
Take a map or satnav
Take waterproof clothes.

The one picture I took

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5322/7439194908_48539ee607.jpg

Musty, you should have come then I could have blamed some one else for getting me lost!

[neilo]

If it's any consolation, it was wet in Wales too, although not constantly...

[Musty]

Musty, you should have come then I could have blamed some one else for getting me lost!

Haha, I'm free the next few weekends if you want to give it another go? I mostly spent the weekend having my drinks stolen by a scary drunk hobo woman with a beard thicker than mine.

Sounds like a good first trip though, especially joining in on that ride out. Shame about the weather, the camping idea could have worked out well.

[J.P]

Sounds like you had an eventful first trip into France, well done you. NEVER forget your waterproof's :)

And being prepared with a map or sat nav is always the best so you have some idea of area or route, at which point you can change your mind on the fly.

[LVC]

Northern France = same weather as South UK (often worse).

You should've headed down to see me, we had great weather this weekend ;)

[Thirdway]

You will look back on that as a proper adventure, it's rare that perfection is memorable, but you always remember than difficult trips and have a great laugh.

Well done by the way, it takes a bit of bravery to go riding on your own for a few days, even when it's not the other side of the world.

Yes, satnav and map.
Wet weather gear and always 2 pairs of gloves ( because, if you lose a glove somewhere you can still ride ).
Don't bother with a tent, it's almost cheaper to use an ibis.

[39sl]

Agree with your views on France and the roads.

I took my first proper ride abroad a couple of weekends ago and landed into france via overnight ferry to Saint Malo then headed cross country on A and B roads to La Rochelle...took my 7 hours but was fantastic ride all the way.... will never forget that day...best days riding I have ever had :)
Next day from La Rochelle to Tours which was again another day of fantastic roads, tiny villages and sweeping roads like I have never found in UK.
Next day headed to Le Mans to meet friends for the 24 hour then sunday afternoon headed up to Caen along some ok roads.
Took waterproofs and only needed them in UK on way down south and bought Tom Tom rider which was a fantastic bit of kit....cant recommend it highly enough.
Hotels whilst riding around and camping with mates in Le Mans.
I will certainly go again...this time ferry to Santander and work my East then North over maybe a week.... hope to do it this year but more likely next as running out of time.

[Samba123]

I did my first trip abroad last week but I got the sat nav before going and planned a few stops, I took the tunnel, first went to Dinant in Belgium, then on to German, Austrai, Switzerland and ended up at Lake Como. I too had some rain but the roads made it worth it just stay off the motorways unless you need to clock up some miles to go somewhere. Half way down
down France or Germany seems to be far enough to escape our crap weather.