Loire  Valley Trip – June 13 to 17 2010

This Trip was planned based on something I had seen earlier.  When traveling south to Oradour-sur-Glane on a previous trip we had stopped for the night in Durtal which was located on the Loire River in the valley.  It was beautiful country to travel through and since I had wanted to see some châteauxs in the Loire Valley, I decided to go ahead and plan that for this trip.  I asked Roy if he would like to join me and he readily agreed.

Here is a picture from a stop we did overlooking the Loire River...

ETAP hotels…

This trip, however, was going to be a little different.  On the earlier trip, we had camped out and I had found that with what I had to carry for myself that I would not be able to carry additional camping gear for a passenger.  This meant that when my friend Ray joined me from the states we would have to use hotels for our lodging.  I wanted to trial the ETAP hotels as they appeared in a lot of locations I wanted to travel too, were relatively cheap at around 48 euro a night and the general room was built for 2 to 3 people. 

Typical ETAP Hotel outside...

I went ahead and paid extra for the morning breakfast ($4.95 euro) which was quite sufficient with toast, jam, milk, juice, yogurt, coffee, cereal and an assortment of breads.  This was good enough to get us off on a good start and cheaper and easier than if we had stopped someplace later. 

The hotel itself was very clean and had a high-quality control standard that I recognized in all the details of the hotel itself.  Clean reception area, clean breakfast area and clean rooms were the norm.

The rooms themselves were quite small.  Here is Roy after we just arrived still in his moto gear.

More on the order of a dorm room for a university.  The bed arrangement always included an upper bunk bed.  The bed below was either two singles side-by-side or a double.  There was one window, a small desk area and one basic chair.  There was a good TV with lots of channels and a hookup for a media player.  Also, there was a shower and toilette available in the room as built-in modules.  All in all, while we could have spent three times the money and gotten a larger room at another hotel, the end result would have been the same. i.e., a comfortable nights sleep.  As Roy and I were to share hotel costs, this would provide us on our trips with a hotel room and breakfast for about 25 euro a night.  Well within our budget.  We were very satisfied with the room though it would not suit a lot of people we knew because of the austerity and size. 

The Route…

The route was planned so that we would head directly south of Paris to Etampes using the N20 (National route) to move us out of the Paris area as quickly as possible. 

See here for the complete travel circuit :  http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117019998953112070184.00048bc1faa5eccf37286&ll=48.480204,0.648193&spn=2.811163,5.712891&z=7 

From Etampes on (30 miles outside of Paris), we planned to travel on District Roads all the rest of the way.  Ray and I knew from our previous trip that doing this takes us about 2.5 times longer to get anywhere but the benefit is that you travel on great country roads and see a lot of sights; which is the point of traveling on a motorcycle.  For comparison, a trip on an Auto-Route that would normally take 2 hours would take us 5 hours using D-route roads.  When we averaged out all our trip distances per day, we traveled on an average of about 25 miles in one hour of being on the road even though we were usually traveling around 50 mph when on the D-roads.  These roads take you through a lot of small villages where the speed drops down to under 30 so time is lost but interesting sights abound.  This travel plan is exactly what Roy and I liked to do and we enjoyed the pace.  We usually got up each morning around 7:30 to 8:00 am and had breakfast.  We were on the road by 9:00 am.  At around 3 pm each day we were done for the day and headed to a gas stop to top off our tanks and pick up our evening meals.  

Containing Costs:

Filling our tanks usually cost us each day around 18 to 20 Euro.  For food, we bought fresh inexpensive ready meals from the grocery store.  We took these back to the hotel room where we heated them up on our small portable camp burner and ate them from our mess kits.  Total dinner costs were held to about 6 euro a night.  We also bought sliced ham, bread and cheese for our lunch and made sandwiches on a picnic benches or along side the river for lunch.  Total cost for a lunch was around 3 Euro. 

So, for a two person trip sharing hotel costs, our daily motorcycle trip costs were (per person):

Hotel = 25 Euro

Fuel = 18 Euro

Lunch = 3 Euro

Dinner = 6 Euro

Incidentals, drinks, any admission tickets we might need usually averaged around 10 Euro a day.  Grand total was around 62 to 65 Euro a day. 

Exploring the Loire Valley…

After we reached Etampes, we headed south on D-721, through Pithiviers (D-921) and past Orleans.  From there we headed south-east along the Loire River to our final destination of Sancere for the first night.  Here is one along a lake we passed as we headed for the valley.

We followed the valley for long distances mostly on the top of the river levee road.  We passed two large nuclear facilities located on the river on the way.  By the time we got to Sancere it was around 3:00 pm and we were both tired.  We found the ETAP hotel and unloaded our stuff.  Then we followed our trip plan of heading to a local petrol station that was attached to a super market and filled up our tanks.  Next, we bought our ready-meals and beer and headed back to the hotel to settle in for the night.  I think Rambo was playing on the TV so we went to sleep watching Rambo in French.

Cheverney…

The next day we had breakfast and picked out two châteauxs to visit for pictures, Cheverney and Chambord which were west of our location about 120 km.   We had been told that Cheverney, though a smaller châteaux built in the typical Louis XIII style, was very well appointed inside including elaborate tapestries so we bought tickets and toured each of the rooms.  The châteaux was built in 1625 and took 9 years to complete.  It is essentially a one family home designed to be lived in and still has it’s original decorations.  Furniture and rooms had vivid colors and a collection of period furnishings that spanned from Louis XIV to the Napoleonic Empire.  We were surprised how nice each room was and the fact that they were quite homey and comfortable.  Even today you would be quite comfortable living in the house.

I took a lot of pictures there.

The Châteaux...

                                                                   Beautiful woodwork...

A bedroom...

Desk and writing area...

The dining room....

War Room...

This is a Châteaux that should not be missed.  In addition there were a couple of hundred hounds used on the hunts kept on the grounds.  

Chambord…

The next châteaux we visited was about 30 km away and one of the most famous châteaux s in the Loire Valley – Chambord.  The châteaux is huge and intricate with a forest of towers, elegant bellcotes and decorated chimneys.  This Châteaux is as famous as the Pyramids in Egypt and much mystery still surrounds it’s construction and real purpose. 

Built by François I in 1539, the last great monarch of the medieval period and the first great French sovereign of modern times he wanted the building to reflect to the rest of Europe his power and majesty.  Chambord was a showcase of royal prestige. 

With our motorcycles, it was easy to find a parking place denied to cars but easily accessible  for motos, near to where we could easily walk in to the châteaux grounds to take our pictures.  We had not planned go in side and were content to take time walking the grounds and taking outside pictures. 

The Chambord Châteaux...

A closer look...

When done, we drove toward Tours using the levee road and stopped in some grass and had our lunch along the river.  Traveling the D-roads provides great views of the country-side and very little to no traffic to contend with.  You get a real feel for the countryside along with the smells of woods and ferns, wild onion, purple lavender and many different types of flowers.  In some places the wild red poppies stretched for as far as the eye could see. 

When we reached Tours we drove into the city and were totally unimpressed.  We quickly found our way out again and hit the road for the hotel.  We thought that we might be ending the day early but by the time we found a station to get gas and food, and then get back to the hotel, it was in the afternoon so we settled in again for the next night.  

Saumer…

I was about châteaux’ed-out from the trip and we still had another day of travel to go before we planned to go back home.  I discussed with Roy the possibility to head to Saumer for our final stop and from there head home the next day.  He agreed, so the next morning we headed west toward Saumer.  The further we went west the more beautiful the countryside.  We passed several towns with châteauxs and took pictures of them from a far vantage point.  This trip was never about entering every châteaux we saw but exploring the Loire Valley and viewing the châteaux as we passed by. 

When we got to Saumer, we had a coffee and found the local Tourist office to pick up maps. 

A view of the town with Châteaux from the middle of the bridge...

A closer look...

Musee des Blindes…

Roy told be about a museum located there that had the largest collection of armored artillery vehicles in the world from WWII.  We both definitely wanted to see that so we located the museum and bought tickets.  I think we spent several hours there as there were armored tanks and vehicles everywhere.  Represented there were the American, German, French, Russian and all other allied force vehicles.  It was very informative.  

The first picture is a map of the landing beaches found in Normandy for US and allied forces.

A German Panzer...

A row of allied tanks...

A Russian tank...

A Duck...

A Land-Mine Destroyer...

Battle Damage...

A Crazy Idea...

First engines used in Sherman Tanks (Aircraft engine)...

My first bike at age 15, like this one, a Triumph Tiger Cub outfitted for war - bought from Judy Fish's family.

There were too many tanks and army vehicles to include in the Blog.  Anyone visiting France interested in seeing all of this and much more should visit Saumer.

Saumer itself, is a beautiful small town situated directly on the Loire River.  Though only there for a short time we both thought that it merited further exploration on future visits.  In fact, Roy took his wife in the car to Saumer about a week after we returned for a longer visit. 

In Saumer, we were close to Durtal which was a camp site stop we did on our last trip.  As the roads from Durtal back to Normandy were some of the best D-roads we had traveled we decided to head toward Durtal and take that same route back to Montbray.  I could have gone back to Paris from there but that would have been twice the distance if I compared the distance to Ray’s house so I asked if he minded me traveling with him back to Normandy to spend the night and do a fresh start to Paris the next day.  Ray graciously agreed. 

All in all this was a 5 day trip and we had a lot of fun on the road.  The ETAP hotel worked out perfectly and proved that it did indeed provide for a low cost alternative to camping.  The best benefit being that we traveled with far less stuff packed on the bikes.  

A Long and Varied Moto Trip (May 24th to May 30th)

(Click on any picture to see full size.)  With the early spring weather finally turning sunny for a few days it was time to plan a trip on the motorcycle. This trip was to be my first that would take several days and require the use of my camping gear.  Coincident to the planning, a new member of Bike Club France forum had just made an exceptional offer to members i.e., that of free camping at his Classic Bike Camping site located in South Western France in a small town called Puyclavaud, which you won’t find on any map but essentially west of Limoges about 40 miles.  John, the owner and lover of classic bikes, owns a beautiful big house in the country and about 4 acres of land (his back yard). John is located about 35 miles from Oradour-sur-Glane which was one of my planned travel locations so this seemed like a perfect time to make the trip south to visit the site.

Roy, my friend in Normandy, wanted to make the trip with me so I headed out to Roy’s house on Monday the 24^th.   The free camping days were offered for the 27^th to 30^th so we decided to do a little bit of local riding before we headed out for the camp site. 

On Tuesday, May 25^th, we headed to the coast to the town of Bayeux located about 7 km from the coast.  It is an attractive town with a reasonably well-preserved centre dating back to Medieval times, and a renowned cathedral, the Cathedrale Notre Dame, dating in part from 1077.  However the town actually dates back to the 1^st century B.C. with Roman origins.  The city was largely destroyed during the Viking Raids of the late 800s and later rebuilt in the 10^th century.  Besides the cathedral the town is most famous for the Bayeux tapestry, made to commemorate events in the Norman Conquest of England in1066. The tapestry was made by Reine Mathilde, wife of William the Conqueror,  We did not see this on this visit nor did I take pictures but I will head back this summer to check it out.  I had a nice regional lunch beside the Notre Dame Cathedral of Galettes filled with regional meats, mushrooms, apples and a typical Normandy cream sauce.   Very tasty.

After Bayeux, we headed to Arromanches-sur-Bains on the coast of Normandy in the heart of the WWII D-Day landing area designated Gold Beach which was one of the British landing areas.  At Arromanches-sur-Bains, located 100 meters above the ocean, you can look out and see what remains of the mobile metal and concrete retaining wall components that were floated into location by boats, filled with water and allowed to sink to create a protective harbor for offloading allied military supplies and materials.  

Many of these protective wall sections used to create the “Mulberry harbors”, still exist off the Normandy coast and can be viewed from the cliffs. 


Longues-sur-mer - German gun bunkers.

Below is a wide view of several bunkers.

After our brief stopover, we headed to Longues-sur-mer to visit WWII German Bunkers built in the first few months of 1944 by the Germans.  These fortified bunkers house big guns (150-mm) pointed out to sea including a range-finder bunker to locate and help lock in on allied boats approaching the coast.  The Germans suspected this area as a potential landing site so built these heavily fortified bunkers to try to stall any landing.  It turned out that they were lucky enough to be positioned to fire on both Omaha Beach (American landing) and Gold Beach (British landing).  The bunkers are so well fortified that they still remain in essential the same condition they were built in the 1940’s.  The gun bunkers are pock marked where shells had hit them and the guns are a little rusted but still in place poised to fire as they were in the 1940s.  In the last picture you can see the imprint of a German hob-nailed boot.

On to Point-Du-Hoc...

Next we headed to Point-du-Hoc where Rangers climbed the 100 meter high cliffs to attain a stronghold for allied troops.  With perpendicular sides jutting out into the Channel, it looks down on Utah Beach to the left and Omaha Beach to the right.  


The Allied bombardment of Pointe-du-Hoc had begun weeks before D-Day. Heavy bombers from the U.S. Eighth Air Force and British Bomber Command had repeatedly plastered the area, with a climax coming before dawn on June 6.  The many craters left by the exploding bombs, some 20 feet deep, still dot the landscape and can be seen today.  It presents a strange landscape that is essentially unchanged for 70 years.

After walking around the craters, we decided to head back to Roy’s house. It had been a long day but the historical sites we saw will forever will remain in my mind.  

Durtal Camp in the Loire Valley...

On Wednesday, the morning of May 26^th, we packed our bikes with tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, cloths, food, GPS and other various bits and pieces and headed south.  We had a trip of about 180 miles to travel on our first leg.  Roy made the trip plan and since we were both heading off on a long trip, something I had not done since 1968 and Roy had never done, we decided to break each day’s travel into chunks of no more than around 200 to 250 miles long.  The shorter run of 180 miles the first day got us a taste of what was to come. 

Our first camping stop was in the small village of Durtal located on the banks of the Loire river.  Our tents were literally 10 feet from the bank of the river.  A beautiful camp site with virtually no one there this time of the year.  The camp site was cheep at about 6 Euro each for the night.  We had our selection of sites and picked one that suited our needs and close to the showers and bathrooms.  We both unpacked and pitched our tents.  Parking the bikes was in the grass next to the tents so we had brought jam lids to put under our kick stands so they did not sink into the ground.  We did not want to wake up to bikes falling on our tents.  I had not set this tent up since I used it in 2004 when I lived in Paris and had taken a small camping trip to Normandy on my Honda Shadow.  It went up without a hitch.  The air mattress I had was perfect for the tent and provided a very comfortable nights sleep.  I still had my sleeping bag also from 2004 and it was perfect for the weather.  A blow up pillow which Fran had made a nice soft cover for worked great as my pillow.  We were both tired and a light rain came and went so we settled in for a while.  Later, as it does not get dark until around 10-pm, I went out to take a few pictures in the village which was picturesquely situated on the river.  For dinner, we did not go out so we had ham and cheese sandwiches which materials we had brought along with us.  Light meals were the norm this week as I am still working on reducing my weight plus we worked at controlling our budget for expenses.  (I weighed myself when I got back from the trip and find I have lost 14 pounds since I arrived on April 10^th.  So, a good start.)

Classic-Bike-Camp...

The next morning we had about 250 miles to go and this would be at our planned destination of Classic-Bike-Camp.  I should note that this trip was planned using almost exclusively D-routes (District routes) which are essentially country roads, sometimes only one lane wide, cutting through the French country side.  These roads are beautiful and you really get to see the rural side of France which is considerable as France is predominantly a rural country.  At times we used the N-routes (National routes) that allowed better time but at no time did we use the Auto-routes which are all toll roads. 

We arrived at Classic-Bike-Camp around 2:30 pm that day (5 ½ hours on the road).  Both Ray and I liked the timing - arrive at our camps in the early afternoons, set up camp and relax from the days travel.  This worked out perfectly for us and we never got too tired or wasted for the next days travel. 

The camp site was fantastic.  John and Helena own a large French country house and has about 4 acres (his back yard) for camping.  John, 60 and retired, is a motorcycle enthusiast and decided to build the camp ground for bikers to enjoy their stay in the area.  We were made to feel right at home and set up camp.  John showed us around the area which included tables and chairs, a pool, covered cooking area with stove, fridge, pots, pans, towels, sink and just about everything else you might need to have a comfortable stay.  Also, large bathrooms with showers and also towels, soap, etc…  Roy and I commented that if we had forgotten anything in packing for our trip, it was all located here for our use.  Great hospitality.  I believe that John did this just to have somebody stop by on bikes he can talk too.  His house is a mansion and he also has one in the UK.  Later, he took us to his shop where we works on his bikes,  He showed us three Triumphs he had restored including one Triumph Tiger cub which was an exact duplicate of my first bike I had bought in 1964 from Judy Fish’s dad.  I bought this while I was still in high school with no drivers license and took it into my basement, took every nut and bolt apart with the help of Bernie who helped prep it to be painted and put it back together in perfect timing for my new driving license.  It had a flakey electrical system and leaked oil but I loved that bike and it was the start of a long love affair with motorcycles.  I thought it was very apropos that on this trip I get to see my first bike again. 

That night, we had another great night’s sleep.  Funny, but the birds there sang all night including a cuckoo that I could hear off in the distance.  John let us park the bikes under cover that night and he told us that he would provide us with a bar-b-que the next day when we returned from our visit to Oradour-sur-Glane.

Below is a view of the countryside near our tent.

The next morning we had breakfast bars and Roy had brought a small cooker so had water for tea.  We checked the bikes out and everything was good, ready for another day.  This day was primarily the reason for the trip.  

Oradour-Sur-Glane...

A short 35 mile trip brought us to our destination.  Oradour-sur-Glane, was in 1944, a thriving community with restaurants, trolley and train station and has a sad and tragic history relating to WWII.  On the 10^th of June, 1944, German troops began to filter into the town.  The residents did not know what this meant and had not been touched by the war up to this point.  They were hospitable and tried to be helpful to the Germans but were quickly rebuffed.  Women and children were separated into one group and herded into the church.  The men were put into several groups and locked up in large warehouses in the town.  At that point no one knew what was going to happen.  Visitors to the town were stopped at the towns edge and if they lived there were allowed to pass. If not the were turned back.  At an appointed time and what was to be the key signal, a hand grenade was tossed into the church.  The explosion was the common signal to begin the massacre.  Machine guns had been placed around the warehouses and the church and at the sound of the explosion, all guns opened fire.  In addition, the church was set on fire.  Only a handful of people survived that day to tell their tale.  All the rest of the residents of the town were killed. 

The attack was carried out by soldiers of the Der Führer Regiment of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division Das Reich. On that day they killed a total of 642 men, women and children without giving any reasons for their actions.  The town was then looted and every building, set on fire.  To this day there is no universally accepted explanation for the massacre. 

The French decided to leave the town exactly as it was left by the Germans in June of 1944 and the entire town is a memorial to this day as to what happened there.  It is free to be visited.  I had heard the story several times but was not prepared for what I saw there.  It had been a beautiful and thriving town.  Not a small village, it encompasses many square blocks of what is left of once thriving businesses.  Shops of every kind were present and several corner restaurants existed for the pleasure of the residents.  The town had a rail line for an electric city trolley and a rail station for local trains that came through the town from outside the region.  Many cars were present indicating a thriving  and well off community.   All of this came to an abrupt end on June 10^th, 1944. 

The car to the left was the village doctor's.

The church bell was melted into a pile of bronze in the church.





Roy and I had parked our bikes in a parking area and went through a central access area.  It opened directly into the town.  As we walked the streets we could see the devastation that had occurred.  Every street and every building had evidence of great destruction.  

The devistation is everywhere.

The church where all the women and children died.

When we had had enough, we headed back to camp where John was to prepare a bar-b-que.  Roy and myself plus one man and wife who were bikers but had traveled in a camper van were presented at the picnic table with wine, beer, hamburgers and sausages cooked on the grill.  After a long day, it was really tasty and especially after our light meals earlier in the week.  Later in the evening, John invited us all into his house and showed it off.  Many antiquities were from local sales which he and his wife loved to attend.  We had coffee and good conversation, swapping stories but mainly listening to John’s tales which were endless and fascinating.  We were all growing really tired but it was hard to say good night.  

St. Nazaire, The Last Stop Before Heading Back...

The next day we headed over to St. Nazaire on the western coast of France a trip of about another 220 miles.  We were to meet another friend, Simon who had just driven down from Montbray that day on his motorcycle.  Simon shared my tent and Roy said that it was really loud from our snoring.  Besides the great beaches, which we did not visit as we were anxious to get on the road, we stopped at the German fortified submarine pens in the harbor. 

We got there just as the main reception area opened for a restored WWII submarine housed there.   Roy had already seen this so Simon and I bought tickets, picked up our listening devices and headed down the steps into the submarine.  

You are not prepared for how small it is on the inside.  When you see WWII movies with shots inside submarines, you get a feeling of it being much larger.  Not so.  Narrow halls, short doors, cramped spaces and dual purpose areas are everywhere.  Even the bunks are designed for only 1/3 of the crew.  Three shifts rotate through each bed, each day.  While told not too, I snuck some pictures inside.  Simon kept complaining I was going to get us in trouble but no one seemed to notice.  With the exception of only 2 other people we had the entire submarine to ourselves.

 

After the sub visit, we got lunch at Mc Do and headed back to Montbray, another couple of hundred miles.  We were eager to get home after being out so long.  Simon quickly peeled off from both of us and our slow poke speeds and we did not see him till later that day back in Montbray.  Roy and I observe speed limits and are not ones to scrape the pegs on the turns.  Simon, who is 20 years younger than us, calls us two old farts and can’t stand our mundane riding skills.  We like to take it easy and enjoy the countryside which is one of the main reasons for our trip.

Once again Roy and Sylvia let me crash in their spare bedroom for which I was very grateful.  They have a fine bed to sleep on.  If I spend any more time there I feel like I should pay rent.  All in all, Roy and I traveled about 820 miles together.  I can add to that about another 300 for my trip from Paris to Montbray and back to Paris plus the day trip to the coast we did on the 25^th.  

This is the first of several trips through France this year as I have said before the chief reason for my being here.  Three months this year is too short a period for all the travel I want to do so it was necessary to go whole hog and get a Visa.  In fact, I do not anticipate I will be able to get to all potential locations this year, hence my return to France next spring.  Eventually, I would like to get to Switzerland, northern Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Scotland.  That will take some time if I do it at a leisurely pace so I am looking forward to many more years of motorcycle travel through European country.

That’s it for now.  I am resting in Paris for a week.  Next week too as weather looks iffy.  Next Friday I will attend the Eagle Scouts award program at the Embassy with Scott Dunlap and his son.  Will plan on another trip to the Loire Valley the following week.