South of france

[Hawk]

Any body been to Beziers and Provence, I am planning a ride there next year and have been told by one of me mates to stay away from Beziers during July and August as its too hot, big, expensive, crowded. But Gorges du Verdon should be the place to go instead, as its nicer and cooler.

Is this true please?

[numb bits]

Can't realy help with ya question,but im going to france as well next year with a group of friends in May (endish) you never know we might see ya

[jack]

Hawk, I went for 3 weeks at the start of August and believe me the weather spoiled it, it was hot, Hot, DAMNED HOT, from the mid 30s to 40+deg, OK if you like riding half naked into a flame thrower.
We toke the Shuttle as this was the cheapest way at that time of year (£108 return). The trip through France was Arrass, St Quentin, Reims, Troyes, Auxerre, Nevers, Clermont and the beautiful City of le Puy, which is a breathtaking place to see, from here on the scenery is fantastic but not that much before, except for the Ardeche region. On to Montpellier and then the beautiful walled city of Carcassone, where they filmed Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, then the Pyrenees and Andorra (some great duty free shopping here) OH and stopped at a place called Ax le Thermes, where you can bath your aching feet in 78deg hot water spring, then down on to Spain.
From there we toke the N11 to Saragossa....what a road, full of conveys of trucks, hundreds of them, very few cars, the heat was unbelievable as we where out in the planes...the flatland. As we overtoke the convoys at high speed the heat would hit you like Dante's inferno, at times the heat would nearly sweep you of the bike....this went on for mile after mile, the road ahead would become invisible due to the heat haze.
Saragossa back to the Pyrenees to lourdes and up to Paris, almost 3000 miles

The Pyrenees are a must do before you go tits up and the French roads and drivers are incredible.
Would I do it again.....NOT IN AUGUST

[Hawk]

Thanks very much Jack for that, I'll deffo bear that in mind.

Route is Calais, down the Peage to Dijon (stopover) in the A.M head for Grenoble then take N85 to Castlelane and the Gorges du Verdon.

Frig Beziers.


How does that sound??


OI BA, go the last week in June mate.

[jack]

Sounds like you plan to do a few Motorway miles Hawk, we tried to keep off them as much as possible but maybe yours is the way to go. I think we tried to see to much in to little time. We could only manage 250 to 300 miles a day, the heat was that bad.
I'm planning a ride through France and Spain myself for next year if anyone is interested, taking in a Villa in Spain for a few days.

[Hawk]

At this moment in time there are 13 of us, guess more will drop out. But we wanted to do about 100 miles and then rest, do that about 4 times and we should be 1/2 way down.
We are not youngsters and our comfort zone at 90 mph is approx 100 miles, any more and my arse and wrist is killing me, and we don't want to go too fast (over 100) coz thats uncomfortable for our pilly-ons.
I know its Peage and boring but the N85 will more than reward us on the 2nd day----I hope!! LOL.
1 of the group has chrones, another early MS, and 1 bike is a hornet, so we are just keeping in the comfory zone.

Now if it was just me and George Doors going then it would be 120-130 for about 200 miles and then rest.