The Dolomite mountain range in Northern Italy has featured on my bucket list of rides for many years and looking again at the road routes, wonderful mountainous scenery in my tour books and the possibility of another adventure with Rob, we agreed to start to plan a ride through the region in the summer. We both selected a time when the mountain passes are warm enough to be fully open, yet before school holidays to give us best chance of good weather with quieter roads, and fits in with both family and work commitments.
I'm usually happy to plot a route through Europe and research hotels to include safe bike parking, but this year I have been way too busy with work so didn't feel I could do it justice in my spare time. Clearly, with more miles to cover we would need more days than last years ride, this would mean more research and planning. Rob sent me details of organised tour options and one tour company had an interesting alternative. Ride With Us offer a 'self-guided' option providing routes and arranging channel tunnel crossings with GPX route files, pre-planned door to door between good quality hotels.
I contacted Slavica at Ride With Us who reassured me the hotels they use offer secure bike parking, however, with a long ride to Folkestone and then on to the Champagne region via Germany this might mean a tiring three days of 200-250 miles early on in the trip so I asked Slavica to add in an extra day and change the route a little to take us out through the Vosges in Eastern France. Considering the cost of past tours, the readjusted 12 night tour would be a very competitive option, and neither of us would have to sit in front of a computer plotting routes and searching hotels. All hotels included breakfast 8 of them with evening meals too, so both agreed the tour and routes were ideal. A week or so later we were downloading the itinerary and loading GPX files on to our GPS's. It was so good to have routes, itinerary and hotels sorted weeks in advance with minimum fuss leaving us to simply look forward to riding off to Folkestone on the 21st of June.
This latest adventure started with a hot but pleasant ride through the Cotswolds, our preferred route south stopping for a great breakfast and chat at 'Pat's Baps' just outside Moreton-in-Marsh, amusing ourselves with the antics of the Barber Shop owner next door who had taped off his front car park and regularly came out to stop bikers from parking near his shop. It’s a shame most bikers nowadays are old and bald and not needing his services. The M25 was blocked as usual near Heathrow so splitting up for 30 minutes or so while filtering through stationary traffic up to Clackett Lane services and then rejoining up again to refuel and grab a drink. So, a night stay in Folkestone at the Holiday Inn and we were ready to cross into France in the morning.
While eating breakfast the sky went dark with a storm brewing and a huge downpour just as we left for the terminal but thankfully our crossing was on time and before long we were riding a sunny but cool A26 peage motorway in Northern France. As far as motorways go this is a pleasant experience with a quick stop for coffee at one of the services and a chat to a guy on an African Twin DCT who was off to ride the Stelvio we then continued on for a short time and paid our toll North of Saint Quentin around lunchtime. While riding through the city I noticed this railway carriage set out as a dining car so I quickly turned in parked up and found an amazing buffet spread as we entered. It was a perfect lunch, sitting in the carriage eating quality food with a variety of salad options and the luggage rack serving as a helmet store. If you are out this way I can highly recommend a stop at the Crocodile Restaurant in Saint Quentin.
Later afternoon on the Route de Epirnay we came across the Military Cemetry 'Allemands' near Marfau with row upon row of black crosses overlooking the valley. Well worth a stop, quite poignant really, being used to seeing British, French and Canadian cemetery's on past tours, never stopping to take a look at one of the thousands of German cemeteries. It was getting quite hot now, so I swapped jackets for my lightweight cooler mesh and we both grabbed a drink and soon after continued through the Champagne region passing through some pretty well-kept villages linked by twisty country roads. A nice change from the straight roads further north, only stopping briefly down a 'chalky' limestone lane between the vines for a look across the valley and the Marne river.
It was an evening arrival at the four star Hotel Renard in Chalons en Champagne having covered around 215 miles from Calais. We checked in, unloaded panniers and my room seemed to include access to another via the interconnecting door too and I did worry I'd find some stranger wandering around in his underwear in the middle of the night. I kept the door shut just in case! Good quality hotel and interesting to see the pictures of the hotel dating back to the 19th century, ideally situated in the centre of town with easy access to the underground car park for the bikes too, accessible via key card. Sitting outside with a few beers at a very nice restaurant next door and later enjoying a meal of fish and chips, it was good to discuss the days ride and look forward to the next leg down into the Vosges.
Over breakfast we discussed todays route aiming for a 9.30 depart, it's good to get the bikes packed and ready before sitting down to breakfast and having both pre-loaded all of the routes files all we had to do was select todays route and check both of our GPS units were showing similar mileage before checking out of the hotel and riding off, remembering to drop the garage key card off too of course! I do prefer to work in miles on the GPS, since I can relate it easily to a 70 mile staged rest stop. For some reason I can't convert to kilometres that easily while riding so it's useful to at least check the distances are similar and we are following the same route in case we get split up so we are at least on a similar path with a chance to regroup en-route.
Our morning ride took us through ‘big sky’ French countryside with ripening wheat fields and later passing through towns and villages on the N4 to Saint Dizier where I seem to recall both running a little low on fuel before finding a petrol station on the outskirts of the town. Soon after revealed an amazing river plateau and then a long climb up through a forested area (Foret Domaniale Du Vau) commenting over the intercom how incredibly pretty and diverse this part of France is, before dropping down for even more of a fantastic view of countryside ahead of us near a series of wind turbines. Most of the roads were great too, good quality surface and those long sweeper bends you could just hold the throttle open and lean in nice but then it changed to a real bumpy surface through the valley, so I did change my GS settings to Enduro mode to soften the suspension for a while.
By chance I spotted a small a cafe by the side of the road near a town called Vaudeville le Haut so both stopped and pulled up right outside hoping for some lunch. Neither translating very well with the owner, a lady stepped in and suggested we should try the 'tart'. It turned out to be some kind of plum tart and for me was a little too 'tart', but Rob seemed to be enjoying it along with his americano. While trying to escape the sun and find shade both of us left soon after on to the D3 north of Neufchateau getting some relief of airflow after changing into my mesh jacket, and then along the Route de Epinal before joining on to the Route de Colmar. Very pretty twisty country roads, with very few vehicles on the road, both in agreement the ride couldn't have been any better not knowing it would continue for the rest of the afternoon.
By early afternoon we were now in the Vosges mountain region in Grand Est. The area once part of Germany consists of gentle peaks draped in fir and beech trees. I was really looking forward to riding the Col du Sclucht pass with Rob this time, having travelled through here on a few occasions the last in 2018 with our friend Steve, but alas we came across a road block .. the first of our trip so far! This meant our GPS's started to encounter a bit of confusion after following the diversion and I was fearful it may re-route us and miss the pass entirely. Pulling off the road somewhere between Route de Houx and Route de Laveline I checked where the diversion was heading and thankfully discovered it would rejoin the route just after Geradmer. The Schluct was fun, winding up and over and then through some dense forest, I did mistakenly lead us along a few of sections twice, yet both of us were enjoying the ride it didn't really matter with plenty of other bikers out enjoying the afternoon too. It was great to encounter the first pass of our trip eventually coasting down the mountain into Munster to locate the Hotel Verte Vallee on the outskirts of the town.
180 rewarding miles and our first impression of the hotel didn't disappoint, a nice private parking spot round the back out of the way too. On entering my room I discovered a pair of spa slippers and gown on the bed and as I unpacked the bike realised there is a nice indoor pool and sauna. Perfect to cool down after the afternoon ride, a really nice hotel and after a quick swim it was getting quite late so we walked in to town for a good meal and drinks at a nearby restaurant. With todays ride through some great countryside across our first mountain pass and staying in Munster with it's very German architecture, we both agreed an excellent day and both of us were well on the way to the Dolomites now, heading across the border in to Germany and Switzerland tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment