And so it was that four intrepid bikers set forth for a weekend riding the roads of Normandy. Easily accessible by ferry via Dieppe (and also Caen and Cherbourg), Normandy (in my view) boasts some of the best roads in Northern Europe. It's also very picturesque, has lots of quaint villages and towns, the food and wine is excellent and, perhaps most importantly for a biking trip, there is very little traffic. Is it any wonder that so many Brits visit and settle there? Personally, I love the place and it's in my top three places to settle when we eventually set free from this overcrowded island of ours.
France is roughly five times the size of the UK so there will always be some necessity to use the motorways but my rule of thumb for biking in France is to plan routes based around the local "D" roads. And rather than stay in impersonal hotels, we booked a couple of nights at a biker-friendly B&B in the mid-Normandy countryside ("La Motte" at Viray - run by the excellent Bill & Carol Smith) so we were well placed for all that Normandy has to offer. Staying there was also interesting for me given my ambition to own and run a biker-friendly guest house in either France or Spain in the future - more of which in a future piece....
This was just a quick jaunt over the Channel and we only had one full day either side of the toing and froing to Dieppe for the ferry. Nevertheless, we had a great route planned for the Saturday, taking us down to the south of Brittany at Saint-Nazaire. Unfortunately, on the ride down to Viray, one of our number (Hutch) picked up a puncture just to the east of Caen. This was still some 90-odd miles short of our destination and, being on a Friday evening, there was no way of getting it repaired until the morning. So the stricken bike was left where it was and Brittany was out of the window. The best laid plans and all that....but at least it gives us an excuse to go back.
This is where the more personal touch of private B&Bs and guest houses offers an advantage over hotels. Being a former bike mechanic as well as a keen biker himself, Bill (the B&B owner) is pretty handy with the spanners and, above and beyond the call of duty, even put himself out to run Hutch back up to Caen in the car (with the rest of us following on the bikes) in order to get the wheel sorted. By we were back on the road. A hastily revised route saw us take in Flers, Cagny, Aunay sur Obon, Granville, Avranches, then round to view Mont St. Michel and finishing with a dinner stop at St. Hilaire du Harcourt (and the biggest bowl of chips - sorry, frites - I've ever been served!). A twisty route was then plotted for the ride back to Dieppe on the Sunday - though this was delayed a little by Hutch's bike developing a battery charging problem. Bloody KTMs.....just take a match to it Hutch!
Among the highlights of a brilliant weekend's riding were the magnificent Pont de Normandie which spans the Seine estuary at Honfleur and a 100mph sweeping right-hander on the approach to Caen, which was billiard table smooth and had me "woop-wooping" inside the helmet! It just had to be attacked. That said, we were taking the majority of bends at 80-90mph, such is the quality of Normandy's roads.
So, all in all - and despite the reliability problems from Hutch's bike - a very enjoyable trip in my favourite part of France. Some more photos of the weekend can be found on the Box Hill or Bust Facebook page.
And now we plan our next trip, for September or thereabouts, in either Northern Spain or the Loire region of France. Should be a cracker.....
No comments:
Post a Comment