We're back, anyhow we survived with little incident except a failure of a headlamp bulb 
The trip was a chum and I, through France into Spain and the back via Bilbao.
I was on the trusty
and he on his Victory Vegas 8 Ball 
, anyhow it was great!
Living on the Isle of Wight we're nice and convienant for the Ferry Port at Portsmouth (which happens to be the centre of the modern world
). So, 8pm saw us crossing the Solent for Portsmouth, before getting onto the LD lines Ferry to Le Havre, Normandy. What a bargain - £92 for a cabin each, two bikes and two passengers (one-way). Consider we had just paid £56 to get of the Isle of Wight.
It was remarkable light as we left Portsmouth aboard the LD Lines ship, so much so the Spinnaker Tower looked good in the setting sun.
We settled at the bar for a couple of beers before the early rise that faced us the next morning. Le Havre at 6am (English time) was equally bright.
Getting off the ferry we got into thick mist which cleared to a great morning, for about 10 minutes
Eventually the mist disappeared and we headed down through France, Lisieux, Alencon, Le Mans, Poitiers stopping for lunch at the picturesque Bellac (Avoid the D62 from Poitiers, it's full of lorries, lorries, lorries....)
After a great lunch, south towards the Motocamp close to Gourdon
http://www.motocamp.com/motocamp.nsf --- We couldn't find it though so we stopped at Anglars. We were first offered the floor of a very friendly local before deciding to stay at the Red Horse, a great place on the D12.
If your in that area, they were a very friendly bunch, we watched the European Cup final with some Stella and some sort of meat dish with something before taking a dunk in their pool and retiring to a small chalet in the grounds all for 60 Euros.
We followed the D6 down to Mountaban where we took breakfast (bought from the local Supermarket) in a park.
After breakfast we headed using the A66 and N20 to Foix at the foot of the Andorran Pyrenees. This is a great place when it's sunny. I've been here when skiing in Andorra and it was COLD and not so buzzing.
Lunch at Foix and then off to Andorra and the fantastic E9
Pt 2 to follow
Piers
