| Pyrenees Trip 2007 |
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 The South of France (around Perpignan) has always been my favourite holiday destination. The last time I was there I vowed to bring my bike with me the next time because of the excellent biking roads in the mountains. Well this year I did exactly that and it was all that I hoped it would be ... and more!Read on and find out how much fun can be had on a bike - especially at the places I visited on the way and on the way back - like Route Napolean and the Millau Bridge. We haven't been to France on holiday for a few years - the closest I got to it was a couple of years ago when I went on an organised bike trip to the Barcelona area of Spain. While there I did a day trip into France (see the story here). Ever since I've wanted to go back with my bike and stay on the French side of the Pyrenees. My daughter, Claire, is studying French at "A" Level and so our holiday this year really needed to be a place that would allow her to practice - so it worked out perfectly - a combined family and biking holiday in France!!  The plan was that the family would fly down from Stansted to Carcassonne and use a hire car to get to our holiday home in Canet Plage. I would ride down (after I'd dropped them at the airport) and join them for two weeks in the sun and sea. We found a nice little place on the internet (Welcome Cottages) and before we knew it, it was time to pack and leave.I dropped the family (and Claire's friend Emily) at Stansted Airport on the Saturday. I then had a day to myself to prepare for the ride down on Sunday evening. Everybody (including myself) always underestimates the distances in France and how far it is from North to South. I planned to do it in two days but, as you'll see, I wasn't taking a straight forward route down there and that left a lot of riding to do! Day One: The Route Down to Grenoble (650 miles)  After a lot of debating about when to catch the ferry, I decided I would get the Sunday evening ferry. My reasoning was that I could sleep through the night as the ferry made its way to Dieppe and be fresh for my ride after we docked early Monday morning (and this gave me all day to get to Grenoble). Well that was the plan!I left home about 8.45pm to ride to Newhaven in Sussex. It was a beautiful, dry and sunny evening (which was a change after all the rain we'd had up until then) and I arrived in Newhaven with plenty of time to spare - even after negotiating the roadworks on the M1 (where it is being widened) and the notorious M25. The ferry left at 1.30am.  The ferry was lovely - and this was the problem! I didn't book a cabin thinking there would be plenty of bench seats to curl up on, but to my dismay it was all bucket seats, recliner chairs with arms and posh restaurants - not how I remembered my last cross-channel ferries!! By the time we docked in Dieppe at 6.30am I was bleary-eyed to say the least. Luckily it was a lovely bracing morning, with the sun trying to shine and the roads clear and dry - I was soon awake with the excitement of the impending journey and the cool air on my face. I arrived in the outskirts of Paris in time to join the morning rush hour and, in the confusion, ended up going the "wrong way round" the peripherique (clockwise instead of anti-clockwise). But it didn't matter and I managed to scythe through the traffic with all the other bikes and pop out on the motorway to Lyon.  I arrived at my hotel at about 5pm - slightly earlier than expected, but I was starting to get fed up with the ride by then and needed to get there (probably had something to do with being tired from the sleepless ferry crossing!). The hotel was easy to find and they let me park my bike by the front door so the receptionist could keep an eye on it. I needn't have worried because the hotel was in a very quite district well outside of Grenoble. I had pre-booked it through Logis de France. A simple but adequate hotel.The next morning - after a very basic "help yourself from the stuff laid out on the side" type breakfast, I was soon on my way to find the start of the Route Napoleon (N85). Day Two (Part One): The Route Napoleon (180 miles)   This road had been written up in RiDE magazine as Europe's No.1 Road for bikers (October 2005 pp.22-28). So I had to give it a try! Maybe I set my expectations too high, but I didn't rate this road as highly as the magazine did (see comments by other people here and here). Yes, it's a good road with beautiful scenery and some sections that are a delight to ride - but there were also quite a few boring stretches and a fair amount of traffic. I filmed the whole route, but it didn't start to get interesting until the last section from Digne-les-Bains to Grasse. I'm glad I've done it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they happen to be going that way anyway. I have posted a film I took of the latter part of the route here . There are some good "view points" just before Grasse and it was at one of these I met two bikers on their Hogs. One had come up from Italy and was touring Europe and the other had come down from Germany. Both of them had 'done' the N85 before. We chatted for a bit before I set off for the ride down into Cannes. Day Two (Part Two): Cannes to Canet Plage (270 miles)  I arrived in Cannes about 2pm and did the obligatory ride along the quayside to look at all the boats! Then it was time to set off for Perpiganan. To get there at a reasonable time I had to use motorways, but this turned out to be quite pleasant as there's lots to see as you travel along the coast. I expected to arrive at the holiday home at about 7pm - what I forgot was that my bike clock was still on English time!! I managed to go sailing past the junction I was supposed to get off at and, if it wasn't for the fact that I nearly found myself crossing into Spain, I might have carried on even further than the two junctions too far! Still, it was a beautiful evening as I rode back the 40km! What I also didn't notice was that I was running low on petrol too.  You know that way when you come off the motorway you always think that it's only going to be a little way to go? Well it was a good 20kms and I was riding on fumes for most of it and didn't see a single petrol station! I arrive about 8.30pm French time and was absolutely exhiliarated. I had done the 1100 miles from home and enjoyed every moiment of it - and the holiday was only just starting. The Pyrenees had been clearly visible on the latter part of my journey and they were inviting me to come and ride them!Day Four: St. Chinian Rideout (190 miles)  Day three was a day of rest, but I was soon out on the bike again on Day Four as the girls headed for the beach (yuk!). I decided to go and try another suggested biking route. This was another route recommended by RiDE Magazine. I had to take a motorway blast up the coast to Beziers first and then pick up the N112 to St. Chinian where the route started. It is a circular route made up of short segments. The first bit was St. Chinian to Cessenon-sur-Orb on the D20, which was only 10kms! (Click the play button below to see the film - it is just under 6mins long). This wasn't a bad ride - I got behind a Frenchman in his car who obviously knew the road well and gave me a run for my money! Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!  The second section was from Cessenon-sur-Orb, where I turned North, onto the main part of the ride to Roquebrun on the D14 (Click play below to see film - about 6mins long) Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115! From there I continued on the D14 to its junction with the D908 at Tarassac (Click play below to see film - 12mins long). This part of the route was about 25kms. Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!  Finally, turning left at Tarassac onto the D908 back to St. Chinian for a cool Orangina in the shade of the Plane trees by the church. RiDE describe this as "one of the best biking roads in Christendom". This is the only bit of footage I have lost!!!! :-( But I do have the start of it (10 mins long).These roads were certainly better than the N85 above, but in places they had poor surfaces and on the D908 there were frequent oil warning signs (cynically I think they were put there to slow down bikes because I didn't see any oil on the roads!). But these roads still didn't match the ones I'd experienced a few years back in Spain (more about that later). In fact, I think I enjoyed the ride home along the D36/D13 back to Narbonne more exciting and that was almost dead straight! The lesson I learned from these trips was that there are loads of roads out there to enjoy and so don't rely on what others say - just go explore! Your perception of a good road will be different to someone else's. Day Seven: Spain Rideout (210 miles) Having been disappointed by some of the roads I'd tried, I decided the best course of action was to go back to what I know - the roads in Spain!! Since my last ride out, we spent the intervening days visiting cav  es and other tourist attractions. By day seven (this day) I felt I'd earned a ride out. The weather forecast was a bit confused to say the least but I thought I'd be riding into better weather anyway!On my organised biking trip to Spain a few years back (see the story here) I had ridden an outstanding road from Jaca to Cardona - the N260. This was a fabulous, twisting road with near perfect surface and visibility and - best of all - no traffic! Although it would be a long ride to get to this road, I figured that if I got onto it at the eastern end it would be as good!  So I left Perpignan on the N116 heading out to the border at Puigcerda, passing the Grotte des Canelettes (caves) we'd visited a few days ago at Villefranche-de-Conflent. The roads were dry but the sky was overcast and threatening. I was soon over the border and into Spain, stopping at a Repsol service station for fuel before heading South on the E9 to Berga, where I planned to pick up the good road East. I arrived in Berga and it was scorching - so things looked good for my ride East - or so I thought! A quick look at the map and I was on my way to join the C26 to Ripoll and biking heaven.  I found the start of the C26 easily - and it looked promising! Brand new tarmac (maybe a bit too new!) brought back great memories of my previous ride in this area. I was soon disappointed. After just two minutes the new tarmac ran out and the road became very rough with gravel and stones all over the place! I kept going, hoping that around the next corner the new tarmac would reappear - but it never did. The road did improve a bit towards the end but every so often it would be patched with new tarmac, which didn't instil much confidence to ride fast. It also took away any hope that one day the Spanish might finish re-surfacing this road and it'll be worth another visit. Oh well.... I have put together a series of films of this road in sections so you don't have to watch the whole thing to get a feel for it! Each film opens in a new window. Part One: Berga to Vilada Part Two: Vilada to Borreda Part Three: Borreda to Les Llosses Part Four: Coming into Ripoll  You may have noticed from the videos that the weather was beginning to change from sunny to overcast and even quite cloudy in the distance! I knew I might have to ride through some showers at some point on this day out - especially in France (which is why I came to Spain for my ride!), but I had no idea what was in store for me! As I rode back over the Pyrenees from Ripoll to Prats de Mollo on the D115, the heavens opened. I have never experienced that amount of rain in my life and it was relentless - not just a short hard burst - it went on for hours. So much so that it was too wet to stop and put the camera on - I daren't open the camera bag because I feared the water would damage the recorder - so I don't have any film of the ride. I even had trouble filling up with petrol at a little roadside pump (the French attendant couldn't stop laughing or believing I would ride in such weather, when the French had long since given up and retired to various cafes along the way! Such was the force of the rain that the road was strewn with bolders and covered with rivers of gravel that were being washed off the moutains - gave me a few hairy moments! I was absolutely soaking wet and starting to feel cold as I slowly made my way down the other side of the Pyrenees to Ceret where it was marginally warmer. This route over the moutains would have been a superb ride in the dry - [mental note to self: go back another dryer day!] By the time I arrived back at the holiday cottage I was beginning to dry out and nobody would believe what I'd been through! Day Nine: Cerbere Rideout (210 miles) Today was going to be my last ride out before the trip home, so I decided to visit an old favourite haunt of mine - the small coastal village of Cerbere on the France/Spain border. This area was a regular holidaying destination for  us when we were small; it is also a delightful part of France.After a quick trip into Perpignan to get our traveller's cheque changed at the Post Office (don't take traveller's cheques to France - there's hardly anywhere that will change them for you now), I headed off on the N114 to the very Southern corner of France. The weather was perfect. It took about an hour and as you go further South, the road gets smaller and more twisty. The route South is much improved with a new dual carriageway taking you most of the way before it goes back into single carriageway after Collioure. There was quite a lot of traffic on my trip and I probably wasn't as bold with my over-taking as I could've been (well it's a long way from home to be scraped off the tarmac!). Consequently I was overtaken by a car and a motorbike at one point! I have edited the footage down to 20 mins or so. (Click here to see the film in a new window). The Ride Home: Canet to Orleans (455 miles) The holiday was soon over and it was time to ride home (while the family flew!). I'd planned a stopover in Orleans and my route took me over the Millau Bridge. {Click on the play button below to see a two and a half minute video of crossing the bridge}. Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115! Did you see Top Gear? Check out where I'm going next year by clicking play below (thanks to Scotty for the footage). Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!
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