Simon’s Party (August 21st – later that night)

The main reason I made the trip was to attend a friend’s 40^th birthday.  Simon is a Brit that moved to France with his family and we all like to get together from time to time to do ride-outs into the Normandy country side. 

Simon and his wife spent a lot of prep work in setting up for the party and many friends and local Normandy residents attended the party.  The French people in Normandy have a very friendly relationship to Americans and Brits since they were liberated from German occupation in WWII.  American and British flags fly every where in Normandy right along side the French flag and we are made to feel very welcome.

There was a lot of food but the lamb was prepared by an expert local to the community.

Here it is on the spit.

The band was excellent and played all night.

Here is Simon greeting some of the guests.  The traditional French greeting is customary for all.

Here is a picture of almost the entire group gathered at the tables.  I left around 1:00 am and things were just getting started.  I had not driven my NT700 in the dark before and I had 17 miles to go on narrow, very dark back roads to my hotel.  It was eary but exhilarating.

Simon has two sons and a daughter and while Archy and Conor were out playing with the rest of the kids, Emily was the belle of the ball.  She was having a good time and never fell asleep.

So, that was an excellent three day trip spent in Normandy and I encourage all to visit France one day and enjoy the sites and friendship in the Normandy area.

10-Day Trip down the West Coast of France & into Pyrenees Mountains

The Plan:

I had been considering this trip for a few months.  I wanted to do a trip down the west coast of France and I also wanted to do a trip into the Pyrenees mountains.  After considering both I decided to combine them into one long loop starting and ending at my apartment in Paris.

At the end of this trip when I returned to Paris I had hit a milestone.  I had traveled over 10,000 kilometers since mid April on the Honda NT700.  It has not seemed that I have traveled that far but I guess the odometer does not lie.  Actually, I have not gotten to half the places I want to see yet and barely explored 1/4 of France so there is lots to do in the future. 

Paris to Flers (26 July):

This is the part I always hate about a trip.  After I decide I want to go, the ‘getting out of town’ part is hard for me.  I want to be into the trip already and the first day I always find myself driving through familiar territory so it is not much like a trip yet to me.  After the second day I am ok.  Don’t get me wrong, Paris to Flers is a nice trip on the D-roads after I get to Dreux using N12 but I have done this a dozen times before so I have to get past this to feel like I am off on a new trip.  After Dreux, I head west on D-926 though Aigle and on to Argentan.  From there I take D-924 to Flers.

When I set the GPS, I usually set short hops and tell it to use the ‘shortest distance’ instead of the ‘fastest trip’.  This keeps me on the D-roads I want to travel but it gets kind of strange in towns and villages.  I wind up on the weirdest short cuts through towns and see things you would not normally see on a road trip.  I wish there was a setting for ‘shortest distance except head straight through towns setting’ but there is not and I would start to just ignore the GPS directions in towns except for the fact that I have seen so many interesting things in towns I had originally just planned to zip through.  One really strange thing happened on this trip that you will not believe but I will save this for when I get there. 

Anyway, I did no stops or took any pictures on this leg and made it to the Flers ETAP hotel without issues.  I had previously did all my ETAP reservations on line and had no problems finding stops where I wanted them except for Biarritz where everything was full. This was not a problem, I just changed a loop and stayed in Pau which worked out better for me for the mountain part of this trip.

As for meals, I carry the makings for lunch on the bike which I refresh each day (eat in roadside parks) and buy what I call a ready-meal from the cooler section that I can heat up and eat in the hotel. 

I do this to contain travel costs and can average about 6 Euro a day for food.   I also average about 14 euro a day for fuel so total daily expenditures I can keep at around 20 Euro a day while on the road with ETAP hotels adding another 48 Euro.

Flers to Vannes (27 July):

Here right away things start getting interesting – and remember the ‘something strange’ earlier I mentioned – it happened on this day.  The first town I go through from Flers is Domfront. 

I traveled through the city wall and stopped to take a few pictures as I had not done this before even though I had visited the town before. 

Further on down the road, not sure of exact location I zipped past a small châteaux that was near the side of the road (don’t know what road I was on) and the chateaux was not remarkable except that there was a beautiful clearing across the road that had what looked like Roman statues in the garden.  I had gone about a mile and said to myself, sh*t, am I going to zip past everything or am I going to stop and take pictures which is one of the reasons I am taking this trip.  You know how when you get moving down the road that you just want to keep going.  Anyway, I stopped and went back and parked in front of the garden area and got my camera out. It felt good to get off the bike seat for a few minutes and I needed the rest stop. 

I was in the process of taking pictures when the châteaux owner and his wife came out and asked what I was doing.  He asked me ‘Why was I taking pictures?”.  I told him that I was doing it because the statues were unusual and beautiful.  He warmed up to me at that point and invited me back to the châteaux for a drink.  We chatted and he showed me more Roman ruins on his property as well as his restoration projects.



The family dog bounded up and dutifully dropped a yellow golf ball at my feet and we play ‘chase the ball’ for a few minutes while we walked the grounds.  I did not take a picture of it.

Athena, this Roman statue was over 2000 years old.

A stone dog guarded the gate.

This lovely statuette was in a hidden garden.

The statues were indeed Roman.  One of Bacchus, one of Athena and another which lay in ruins which he said was hit by lightening.  I took several pictures and he provided me with his email address for me to send copies back to him.  All-in-all a nice rest stop and further warning to me to not just zip past things but stop and enjoy the sights that are presented on the road.

A strange incident…

Now comes the ‘really strange’ thing that I told you about earlier.  I don’t expect many of you to believe this but I swear it is the absolute truth.  This was the result of the GPS taking me on a twisted route through a small village (don’t remember the name).  The GPS took me off the main route through town and I came across a small picturesque bridge at an intersection with an old house and small garden located along the stream.  I pulled up the road and stopped.  I got the camera out and walked back to the bridge and started looking for the best angles for pictures when I saw this flower box on top of the Wall with two birds sitting next to it.  Perfect, I thought.  I raised the camera to my eye and framed the shot, however, the birds must have flown away as they were missing when I looked through the view finder.  I took the camera from my eye and looked at the flower box again and saw that the birds were still there in the same exact location next to the flowers.  Strange.  I put the camera to my eye again and to my amazement the birds were missing in the view finder.  I switched from eye to camera and back again a dozen times and it was clear that I could see the birds with my own eyes but when I looked through the camera they were clearly missing.  Next I tried to look through the view finder with the right eye and kept the left one open.  I could see the birds with my open left eye and not through the right eye and the view finder.

I have no explanation for this and I present the exact picture I took where I clearly saw the birds – except you can’t see them.

This was turning out to be the start of a pretty interesting trip and I was only in to my second day.

I continued by traveling south through Mayenne and Laval and then headed west as I reached Château-Gontier.   Somewhere along the way I passed a field of sunflowers.  I rested my butt and took a few pics.

I felt like I was finally on my way as I got closer to the coast.  I stopped at Châteaubriant near the châteaux for another brief rest and took a few pictures.

I did not buy a steak here at the restaurant.

At this stop, I reviewed the map and the time and made a slight alteration to my travel route.  I had intended to head west into the peninsula to Port Navalo south of Vannes but I saw that the ETAP hotel was north of Vannes so I decided to head into the northern peninsula to Locmariaquer.  

As I said the weather was great on the trip and I took some pictures of the beautiful sandy beach. 

Vannes to La Rochelle (28 July):

The intent for the west coast part of the trip was to follow mostly coastal roads south.  To make each day trip I selected a few coastal areas I definitely wanted to pass through but found that staying on the coast all the way was either not entirely possible or if it was it would have had high tourist traffic which I wanted to avoid. 

My first destination for the day was a small island called Noirmoutier-en-I’lle about 160 km south of Vannes.   There were two entrances/exits to the island and I was going to use both.  I arrived at the one that was actually a low water causeway that was covered with 5 feet of water at high tide.  Luckily, I had arrived at low tide. 

I stopped to assess the route and saw that the causeway was well defined but bumper to bumper cars for several miles and also it was very wet and slippery within 100 meters starting the journey.  I had seriously given consideration to forgetting it when I saw a BMW moto pull up and head across.   As he disappeared into the causeway I said – what the heck – so headed out.  Then I did what bikes do best and skipped around all the cars for several miles till I got to the island.  Yes, it was wet and slippery but I figured nothing ventured nothing gained.  Stopped at another point warning that this would be submersed at high tide and took a picture of what I had just crossed.   

There were hundreds of parked cars along the causeway as I drove by and many people out in the flats with shovels and baskets, I suppose gathering ‘fruits-de-mer’.

After getting on the island, I drove around a bit and took a picture of the local châteaux.

I left the island over a normal bridge and thought back that the wet causeway was the more interesting and better part of the trip.  I had driven a few miles into one of the next towns and noted that there was salt water and sand all over the lower part of my bike so I stopped at a convenient roadside pressure-wash station and hosed it off to prevent corrosion.

La Rochelle to Libourne (29 July):

Next destination for the day was Les Sables-d’Olonne.  I drove into the town just to check it out and saw that it was a tourist town.  I got some cash at a local ATM and quickly headed south.  I stopped at the beaches and took a few pics.

I was getting disappointed that there did not appear to be any well defined coastal roads that were not tourist routes and then discovered exactly what I was looking for south of Royan.  I followed a great D-road coastal system (starting off on D-145) from Royan down to near Bourg that provided me with views of the sea, countryside. lowlands and bluffs with narry a car to be seen.  In fact, in order to do this, after D-145, I had to ignore my GPS all the way.  It kept trying to get me on a D-route further from the coast and every time it told me to turn left, I turned right or went straight on.  These roads were not in the GPS nor on the map. 

I came across a slue at low tide near Maubert and decided to give my butt a rest.  I got off and took some pics and then saw a very beautiful girl walking in the distance and she seemed to be steering her way right to me.  In fact, that is what she did.  How pleasant.  She was a college student and wanted me to help her fill out a questionnaire concerning the use and preservation of the slue area as a natural resource.  So for the next 10 minutes we got to play 20 questions and she wrote down what I told her.  A nice rest stop for sure.  This coastal area is an area that is worthy of much more exploration on a future trip.

Here you see the slue at low tide.  All the boats are stuck in the mud but the ducks are still happy.

I saw some more sunflowers.  I told them all a joke but they just turned their backs to me.

Libourne to Pau (30 July):

My coastal trip was coming to an end and the Pyrenees mountains were my next destination.  I left the coast in preference for some nice roads outlined in my book – ‘Best Rides – Motorcycle Atlas of France’ and plotted a course to Pau.  This took me inland then south.  I don’t know what the area is like if I had followed coastal roads from Bordeaux to Biarritz so I guess I will have to leave that for another day.

The great weather continues.  What can I say – every day is sunny with some clouds and temperatures to the mid 70’s.  It could not have been better riding weather.  As soon as I got into the Pyrenees foothills I knew I was going to like this leg of the journey.  You have to see and drive it to appreciate it.  I took pictures so hopefully it will stimulate some of you to give them a try.

Anyway, before I get ahead of myself, I have to tell you about another interesting stop in wine country south of Bordeaux.  I am driving through some pretty country on highway D-118 (I think) near Bodus, when all of a sudden I see off into the grape vines the tall walls of an ancient medieval castle standing tall in the grape field.

Bordeaux country where grapes are everywhere.

There were no signs for this and it was not a tourist stop.  I found what looked like a road that would lead up to it but it was rather steep and gravely and with a full travel load on my bike I thought it best not to make the attempt.  I drove 100 meters further on and found a farm road that wound out into the grape vineyard. 

I followed it to a point where I could see the wall and parked to walk over to it for a closer inspection.

As I got closer, I could hear a tink-tink-tink sounds from a hammer hitting stone coming from within the castle walls.  As I got closer I cold see what looked like college students using hammers and chisels tapping on stone blocks.  I thought that was intriguing.  They were forming flat surfaces on stones for what I supposed was a college class designed to show students how stones were formed before being used for castle walls.  I introduced myself to the students and took some pictures of the area as well as them working.  It was another interesting rest stop while on the road. 

Here are two co-eds and an Afghan student tinkering away.  I think they were going to restore the castle one stone at a time.

I find that the stops can be as interesting as traveling the roads.  The combination of them both makes for very interesting trips.

I was getting hungry so I jaunted off the GPS route at the nearest small town and stopped at the village square.  I parked under a tree and got my lunch fixins’ out and had a nice rest.  When lying back under the tree I saw that they had trained the sycamore trees to provide for the shade of the square.  I see a lot of sycamore trees on the trips and many interesting ways they use them.  Many provide Grand Allees along the routes into and out of towns and some are trimmed square but I had never seen them trained to provide a trellis of shade overhead. 

Driving along I saw this view as I crossed a bridge in a small town.

Continuing along I started into the foot hills and right away I knew this was going to be glorious. 

Finally, I reached Pau and unpacked all my gear.  I had been hearing my front brake scratch from time to time and did not fancy heading up into the mountains with them sounding like that so I headed out to get my evening ready-meal, a full petrol tank and stopped at the local Honda dealer for a look-see at my brakes.  They installed new front brake pads in about 20 minutes and I drove off feeling much better.  In under an hour, I had gotten my food, gas and new brakes installed.  I was ready for the mountains.