Good evening everyone, from a beautifully warm and sunny Brittany.

Had a cracking run across the Vendée, even if the weather got a little petulant at one stage.

Stopped for lunch in Pornic, then crossed the Pont St Nazaire into Brittany, tonight’s hotel is in Auray and has a fantastic restaurant!

I took the opportunity to drop into St Nazaire and pay some more respects.

On 28th March 1942 British Commandos and the Royal Navy attacked and put out of action the lock gates at the port of Saint Nazaire in what has been described as the most incredible and courageous raid ever undertaken by the armed forces of any nation at any point in history. The RAF at that point in the war did not have aircraft or ordnance capable of doing the job

In essence the purpose of the raid was to disable the massive dry dock facilities and deep water dock, so preventing the German battleships Tirpitz and Sharnhorst from using the port as an Atlantic base. The main weapon used was an obsolete destroyer, HMS Campbeltown which was converted to resemble a German vessel, had it’s bow packed with explosives and then rammed into the dock gates. This was backed up with 622 Commandos who attacked pumping stations and other port facilities. Of the attacking force 169 men were killed, 215 became prisoners of war, 228 returned to Britain and 89 bravery decorations were awarded. More details Here.

The simple memorial near to the scene of the raid.

Adjacent is one of the guns from HMS Campbeltown, it’s barrel bent by the explosion that blew the ship and the lock gates apart.

I walked over and I can’t explain why, but I put my hand on that old gun and suddenly realised that I was touching a very, very, real piece of history. It is part of the mosaic like Jeese and Franck from earlier in our trip, that has contributed to the freedom that I have enjoyed this past nine days. I walked away wiping tears from my eyes, so much sacrifice, so much to be grateful for.

Old Nazi U boat pens at St Nazaire, roof is eight metres thick reinforced concrete. That’s why they are still there!

Evil looking thing…

Inside the U boat fortified lock looking out to the main basin.

Old French Navy submarine, Espadon, in the lock, gives you an idea of what it would have been like with U boats being repaired.

The modern lock gate, imagine Campbeltown here…and be grateful.

Dookes

Good morning everyone from a warm if cloudy Niort.

This is quite a busy place, compared to others that we have stayed in the past week or so, but has its charm. Apparently, it’s quite a financial centre, which would explained all the Mercs and big Peugeots!

Niort has some really charming areas and interesting buildings.

The Keep, or Don Jon.

Market hall.

Off to the Vendée now, it’s pretty flat but very historic. It was the birthplace of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who you will remember from history lessons was mother of Richard the Lionheart. The people there have a reputation for making their own mind up on political matters. They told Napoléon to get stuffed amongst other things! Even Karl Marx mentioned the Vendée in his writing regarding revolutionary struggles in various countries, he uses the term “a Vendée” as meaning “a focus of persistent counter-revolutionary activities! So now you know!

Pour la Vendée!

Dookes

When I called at Valence HD they had a couple of old timers that I wanted to share with you.

The front one is a 1956 1200cc Hydra Glide Pan Head. At the back an ex New York City Police, NYPD, 1951 Springer 750cc that has done around half a million kilometres!

Why Pan Head? Look at the rocker covers…

…like two bloody big frying pans! Oh yes, both bikes are kick start and both run!

Then today at Limoges, this very smart knuckle head, look at the cylinder heads people…

Nice eh?

Just goes to prove that old Harley Davidsons never die, they just sit quietly dripping oil waiting for the call!

Dookes

The weather, that is, as we left the B&B the sun came out and I got quite optimistic. Well, for about fifteen miles that is….

Grabbed some motion lotion in Champeix and one or two drops of water began to appear on the screen. St Nectaire was still dry as we stopped for a quick look around, the village is famous for the cheese named after it that is produced around here. Gotta say that the place sort of underwhelmed me, though I did compare notes about the weather with the owner of a souvenir shop, we both thought it was pants! This hotel has certainly seen better days, but has a certain charm, if not fleas as well!

The climb to Col de la Croix Morand was meant to be the last triumphal mountain summit of the trip, but with heavy drizzle and mist it was far from joyous. It seemed that there was just enough water on the road to make it really slippery and not enough to give it a good washing. There were various signs warning that the road was “glissante en temps de pluie”, slippery at times of rain…they were not kidding! So slow safe progress was the name of the game. That’s the biggest difference between a real long distance trip and a couple of hundred miles day out, you gotta do it all again tomorrow and the next day, then the day after that. So prudence is needed more than bravado!
Anyway, we got to the top and clicked off another one. At 1401m, 4598ft, it’s no Galibier, but it is higher than Ben Nevis and you’d think twice about taking a motorbike up there….yeah I know there’s no road!!!!!!

Stopped for a pee in Bourboule, which must have more tacky souvenir shops than Torbay, Paignton and Dawlish Warren put together! Found a pretentious Café whose name made me smile, but didn’t fancy paying their prices for a coffee, so we hit the road.

At this point I executed plan B. I had intended to head cross-country to Limoges but with the weather slowing us down and no sign of any really nice improvement, I dropped onto the A89 Péage and gave Harley her head. I think she appreciated it! Once you get those Milwaukee twins at the right revs they’ll hold it all day and sing you a wonderful song as they do it…and that just happens to be at around the speed limit of 130Km on the French Autoroutes, give or take 10Km…well ok we took em, sometimes!

Regular followers know I like big impressive engineering, goes with the territory I suppose, but I really like big engineering made beautiful. This is one of those, Viaduc du Chavanon, opened in 2000 with a main span of 300m…it’s a beaut, a real modern take on a suspension bridge. Well done Les Français, you have shown the world yet again that engineering can be functional and beautiful at the same time, just like the Victorians did!

Well spotted that I didn’t take the picture, you can’t actually get a good shot from the nearby service area. My mate Fabien took it and let me use it. Thanks Fab!

After blasting the A89, we then crossed onto the old A20 up to Limoges. You certainly can tell that the two roads were built decades apart and that the ’89 is privately run, they really are worlds apart, but hey, it mile munches!

Couldn’t resist popping into Limoges Harley Davidson for a nose around and a free coffee to boot! Très gentille. Harley had a quick chat with some new friends as well.

We next took the Rocade Nord and hooked onto the N141, which gave me a very pleasant surprise. This used to be a bit of a pig of a road, some bits dual, some falling apart, but now it’s all super new dual for all the miles we needed, until we turned off for the D948 and 148 all the way to Niort, our stop tonight. Gotta to say I turned into street fighter mode on these roads, wow, did I have some fun, old devil, eh?

Really ok hotel tonight, got of to a good start with the receptionist complimenting me on my French, head swelling time, but made me feel pretty good…I think she probably took pity on an old geezer!

View from the room tonight, a bit different.

Today’s mileage: 300 (on the button)
Trip total: 2015

Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name…

Dookes

Maintenant j’ ai pris un excellent petit déjeunera avec la charmante hôtesse des chambres et deux Roscovites de passage au Sud de France. Je suis très content, et aussi la pluie à fini et le soleil a retourner!

http://lepanorama43.free.fr/

Nous aurons peut-être la chance?

Dookes

Good morning everyone, as they say in these parts, il fait pleut, it’s raining! Which is a bit of a pain, never mind it’s only water!

This was the view from the B&B last night.

Now looks very similar, just diluted!

Of to breakfast now!

Dookes

Bonsoir mes amis, ce soir nous sommes en Auvergne.

Had a generally cracking day racing through the different geography and geology of southern mid France and yes, we did dodge the rain!

From Gap we set off East with our first target Col De Cabre on the very edge of the South Eastern Alps. The Col at 1180m is quite unlike any other that we have visited so far this trip, it’s very nondescript and lies in a break of thick mixed forest. It marks the boundary between the Haut Alpes and Drôme Departments and is very near the source of the River Drôme.

There’s not much there, a Café, car park and a couple of signs!

From the Col the road drops down into the gorge of the River Drôme. This is limestone country and the passage of the river has cut some amazing landscape features. At Le Claps the most incredible debris field almost blocks the valley, it was caused by a small earthquake in 1442 that brought down part if the mountainside. For a few centuries a lake developed behind the fall, but post the French Revolution the area was drained.

When the railway line from Valence to Briançon was constructed at the beginning of the twentieth century the site caused a major problem that was overcome with a viaduct 244m long and 44m high, pretty impressive.

Beyond here the valley opens out with fertile fields, though in one or two places geology wins and squeezes in. There are fields of lavender, groves of walnut trees and if course vineyards, it is France ya know! The villages take on a Mediterranean feel and almost defy modernisation, there is a very special sense of place in the air.

This is Pontaix.

We crossed and said goodby to the Drôme at Crest, then made the quick sprint to Valence, the City that my friend Sandra calls home. Hey Prof, gotta say its one of the trickiest places I’ve ever driven around! Very few road signs and it’s as if the main centre is some kind of secret that you Valenciennes don’t want to share with us outsiders! Once I got in I didn’t exactly get lost, but couldn’t get out!

Whilst near Valence I dropped in on the local Harley dealership for a coffee and nose round. Bike pics in separate report!

Then crossed over the Rhône and wondered when the water that we rode through by the glacier on the Furka pass would get to Valence? The river here is about 300m wide, it was about three last time I saw it upstream!

Great thrash up to Lamastre, Eastern terminus of the Chemin de Fer Du Vivarais and Sandra’s Granny’s birthplace as well! The Vivarais (CFV), nicknamed The Mastrou, is now a tourist railway, the metre gauge line is 33km long and runs between Tournon, in the Rhône Valley, and Lamastre. Originally part of a much bigger network, the original line ran a further 19 kilometres to Le Cheylard. In recent years trains have been suspended, but a lot of infrastructure and other works have been undertaken, it is planned to reopen later this year, can’t wait, it’s steam! Pics in separate post eh? The country up to Lamastre is lovely and the road famous for its motorcycling fatalities, gulp!

Lemastre to Le Puy should have been easy…but…first off, six miles of road with new loose chippings, joy, not! You always know when it’s bad, cos even the French slow down. Next a diversion, the road was closed and that put another twenty miles on the schedule.

The best thing about Le Puy, in my view, is the by-pass which got us on the N102 quickly. The traffic gods smiled on us today and we breezed swiftly to our overnight, a B&B in the hills above Vieille Brioude, a charming little place with a stunning 19th century arch bridge, which it a rebuild of a much old structure that unfortunately collapsed! Looks good to me though.

…and that’s it for today!

Today’s mileage: 239
Trip Total: 1715

Bloody long one coming up tomorrow, with a little encouragement from you guys we should do it!

Do you remember me, on the street of dreams?

Dookes

I forgot to mention yesterday two bits of drama on Col D’Iz.

Going up we got to the section known as Casse Désert and found big road works, part of the road had literally disappeared. There was a system of traffic control in place, a couple of chaps waving their arms almost randomly.

We caught up a Belgium registered motor home as we were waved through. Just after that I put in an overtake on the mobile shed, near to the Coppi monument and I noticed a bit of excitement by the side of the road. A cyclist had just fallen over the edge! Fortunately he seemed to be OK and was climbing back up to the road, but he must have been about four metres down the mountainside, luck guy!

Later on, when descending towards Briancon I found another motor home. This time just below a hairpin, on its roof in the woods! There were a few people about already, so I didn’t stop, pictures would have been in poor taste. About twenty minutes later, as I approached Briancon, the Gendarmes and Pompiers (fire brigade) went past at high speed up the mountain!

Made my later slip in Galibier tunnel seem tame!

Maintenant, juste en train de déjeuner à Valence!

Dookes

This morning, halfway between Gap and Valence it occurred to me that there was one nationality that I omitted from my people comments. Yep you guessed it…the Brits!

There are a number of occasions that I wish Harley had a James Bond revolving number plate, with a French registration, cos sometimes my compatriots make me cringe!

Take yesterday on Col du Galibier. The summit is on a blind hairpin, but as you approach it’s obvious that you are at the top…plus there are always loads of people about. Then up drives Billy Brit in his VW Combi, he’s related to Cupid Stunt by the way! Anyway Billy roars up, going way too fast and then starts hitting his horn whilst people have to dive out of the way. Then he stops, Mrs Billy leans out of the window, takes a picture of the summit sign and they roar off. Lots of shaking of heads from those of us standing around and various disparaging comments about Les Anglais! I point to Le drap au Pays de Galles on Harley and smiles return!

Then this morning on a nice quick bit of road we find another “member” of Billy’s family, driving a big motor home with four, yes four GB stickers on the back. It was a 90km section of road, Billy was doing about 70km and mostly straddling the centre white line, making it very difficult for people to overtake, despite the road being nice and wide. What was even worse was that as I prepared to overtake, Billy, who I believe has no father, blocked me, not once, not twice, but three times… remember that at that point he had no idea that I was another Brit! I gave him the traditional British two finger salute when I got past, he knew then!

No wonder the rest of Europe and the world hate us!!!!!!

Today’s rant over!

Dookes

Good morning to everyone.

Up early this morning. There’s a weather front passing over the part of France that we are riding through today, so I think we will get some miles under our belt before the rain starts!

Hotel was ok, very typical French logis roadhouse type of place. Breakfast was good, croissants fab, there is a boulangerie next door!

View from the room.

Now off into the Drôme!

Dookes