Another Bank Holiday trip - French Alps

May is bookended by Bank / public holidays in the UK so with some pre-planning and booking of accommodation my youngest son Mark and I got on out motorbikes and headed off to do some of the Routes des grandes Alpes south of Annecy, France. The plan was:
Day 1, Thursday: ride to Folkestone and get through the Channel Tunnel then ride the peage to Troyes for an overnight
Day 2, Friday: stay off the peage and use country roads to ride as direct a route as possible to Annecy
Day 3, Saturday: into the Alps, Col de Roselend, through Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Val D'Isére to hotel in Termignon
Day 4, Sunday: Termignon to Barcelonette via Col du Galibier and Col d'Izoard
Day 5, Monday: Barcelonette to Dijon via Pérouges staying off the peage toll roads
Day 6, Tuesday: Hit the peage, high speed cruising back to Calais, through the tunnel and back home via Staines for Mark and then on to Derby for me.

Things sort of went to plan, except I forgot to put the lid back on my automatic chain oiler after filling it up so had to fabricate a temporary cover using gaffer tape, and, my bike wouldn't start to get off the train in Calais - eventually traced to the kill switch (which I never use).

Somewhere in France at a service station, our bikes and Mark stood by his.

The peage toll roads are boring but the countryside is vast, rolling and rural so taking the time to have a good look around while riding can be rewarding but the trip is still boring. We stuck to the 130kmph speed limit as it gave us a good blend of fuel economy / speed / distance. Planned stops at intervals of around 220kms/130 miles meant we stayed sane and not too sore in the sitting down area.

Troyes has some interesting street 'furniture' demonstrated by Mark.

Troyes is quaint and the hotel quirky. The choice of where to eat was good, especially if you can understand french and french quisine. Main course in one cafe, crepes for desert in another and a good walk round the town between courses.

Lake Annecy.

Day 2 saw the sat nav pass up on it's duties and refuse to show us the route I had loaded so we just stuck in our destination and let it do it's own thing. The result wasn't far different from the planned route and we did cross a reservoir on a high bridge which was awesome. Annecy is beautiful even if parking at the Ibis is only by public car park or unsecured in a courtyard outside the front door of the hotel, otherwise fabulous. Pleanty to see, views of and across the lake and more.

Just to prove I was there on the trip.

Heading in the right direction despite a recalcitrant sat nav.

Day 3 started with The Cormet de Roselend as a gentle start to proceedings and a baguette lunch in Bourg-Saint-Maurice was pleasant. All went fine as far as Val D'Isére where "Route Barrée" stopped further progress. So we back tracked looking for an alternative route, whiuch is when the sat nav decided to freeze. Eventually (after 2 more "Route Barrée" signs) we decided to try Col de Madeline but after 45 kms that too was "Route Barrée" just 9km short of the Col itself. By now we were at risk of running out of day light so decided to go up to Albertville and jump on the peage, which we did, but missed our turn-off so had to go down to the next exit, get off and back on again - what a faff! But with sat nav still frozen we made it to Termignon, found the hotel, got a quick bite to eat and hit the sack. What should have been a gentle day had become our longest day with highest mileage and a big disappointment not being able to do the Col de l'Iseran.

What a view...

At the top of the Cormet de Roselend.

At the top of the Col du Galibier.

Sunday started dull grey but heading south the sat nav came back to life (sort of) as we picked up the D902 and proceeded over the Col du Télégraphe and the Col du Galibier, doing the tunnel 200 metres from the summit where the pass was still closed by snow. Down into Briancon where we had a McDonalds 'lunch' before moving out to ride the Col d'Izoard where our stop was enhanced by some crazy French historic car owners (a group of about 20 cars) and their antics. We also got buzzed by a police helicopter (twice) before we commenced our descent to the D900 at St Paul. These are fabulous biking roads and arriving at Jausiers we had to decide on whether we rode the Col de la Bonette - deciding not to after our long day the previous day and knowing we had a long day ahead the next day. Sensible yes, but still a disappointment. Barcelonnette was sort of cute, not very big but friendly. We had to wait for places to open up to get an evening meal but enjoyed ourselves at The 7 Portes where we ate well.

Yes, there is snow up here.

At the top of the Col d'Izoard.

First stop on the way home.

Starting our journey home on Monday, heading for Pérouges near Lyon we stayed off the peage and skirted round Grenoble where we hit our first brief shower. Pérouges is a very commercialised Medieval walled village, worth an hour wandering round but not much more. Fortunately bikes park for free so the visit cost us only a snack we bought there. Resorting to sat nav and peage we blasted up to Dijon for our last pre-booked hotel stop. On the way we hit a heavy shower that tested our riding gear but after 20 kms we rode back into sunshine and dried out before arriving at our destination the difficult to find Kyriad Hotel Dijon Gare on the Rue Docteur Albert Remy. Happily we were to park in their underground car park (also pre-booked) and get everythin goff the bikes and into our room before the heavens opened for the night. We elected for a short walk to La Scala where we ate well before retiring for the night.

Mark points out a feature of the medieval architecture.

Tuesday started with glorious sunshine to lift our spirits. Sat nav had some trouble with satelite reception so leaving Dijon proved tiresome but we made it out to the peage and commenced our return to Calais. I had planned regular breaks and calculated that we should arrive with 20-30 minutes to spare, and so it proved. Back on British soil and the M20/M25 run to Staines saw the worst traffic we'd seen since doing that stretch on the outbound trip. A quick cuppa at Mark's place and then I hit the road for the final leg back to Derby. Mark had done over 1700 miles and my final tally was just shy of 2050 miles.

Now looking forward to Canada... but that will be driving, not riding, through the Rockies.