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Day 1
The first day, as with any trip to France involved getting up almost before we went to bed so that we could catch the early morning ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg. So that's the reason we were heading down the M40 at 04:00 in the pouring rain.
After meeting up with Ray at the M4/A43 services we refuelled and headed south towards Portsmouth. With the rain running down our necks and our heads full of the promise of foreign lands and hopefully warmer weather, oh what fools are we?
After boarding the super duper speedy P&O ferry and making sure our bikes were strapped down securely for the 2 ½ hour trip the next obvious thought on our minds was food (well when I say `our minds' I obviously don't include Bonzo in that statement, trust me I don't think anyone knows what going on in that head of his...
After filling our bellies with the best of the bacon, sausage and baked beans that P & O had to offer we had the option to either watch the in-boat movie (Dead poet's society with no sound, just subtitles) or try and catch up on those precious missed hours of sleep that we had missed, wasn't a hard choice really?
When we arrived in France we were happy to see that the sun had decided to make an appearance so it was on to the bikes and a nice steady trip south past Rennes and then through Redon to what was to be our base for the next few days, a place affectionately called `Bob's gaff in France' (lucky bugger)
After dropping off our excess baggage (No not Bonzo, our luggage) we headed in to Redon and stopped at Chez Judith, a nice little bar run by ex-pats and Moto Guzzi owners Judith and Chris. After filling up our bellies once again we headed back to Bob's place to drain a few cans of Kronenberg 1664 and do what men do best, talk complete and utter bollox.
Day 2
After waking up to a dawn chorus of Bonzo and Chinny's flatulence in A minor
We quickly finished off an excellent full English breakfast courtesy of Bob we headed west to St. Nazaire and spent the morning aboard an a decommissioned French submarine that's now open to the public. It's amazing how up to 64 men lived aboard on of these things for months at a time and even more amazing when there are only 2 toilets! (Back to Bonzo again)
St. Nazaire is an amazing place, steeped in history and stories about the submarine base are central to it, if you're ever in the area I suggest sending some time here you will not be disappointed.
It's doesn't matter from what direction you approach St. Nazaire you will be unable not to notice the amazing bridge across the estuary joining St. Nazaire and Minin. The bridge has to be at least 2.5 miles long and towers above the Loire estuary below. Obviously we had to ride across it. twice!
The afternoon was spent at La Baule, looking out on to the Bay of Biscay. Known as having Europe's most beautiful beach La Baule certainly has a high proportion of Europe's most beautiful women to match, much to Bonzo's delight!
Unfortunately by the time we had parked the bikes, the sky turned dark and yet again is proceeded to pour down so we sought refuge under the cover of a local cafe where we did what men do almost as good as talk bollox, we watched all the lovely ladies walk past, soaked to the skin in just their tee shirts...Mmmmmm
Day 3
The start of day 3 was pretty much the same as day 2, but with the added aroma of last night's pizza! Again after another one of Bob's splendid breakfasts we decided a bit of sight seeing was in order, also because it was quite warm and dry, a visit to the beach was called for.
We ended up at Quiberon, located at the end of a 14 kilometre peninsula jutting (always a nice word) out in to the Atlantic Ocean. It's a very strange feeling travelling down a road and you can see the sea on your left and right.
Before we went in to the town for lunch and letching we headed on to D186, this is a nice coast road that follows the west side of the peninsula, here we stopped and admired the view. It was a typical postcard scene with the waves crashing down on to the jagged rocks below.
We spent quite a bit of time here enjoying the scenery and it was nice to take time out and relax for an hour. Obviously this meant that we had gone without food or worse still Ray had gone without coffee for over an hour, an almost unheard situation!
We headed in to Quiberon to find a cafe and have a wander around.
Quiberon turned out to be a very busy place, we eventually found some ware to park the bikes and even more importantly some ware we could eat, drink and admire ladies.
Clearly with access to food and drink (non alcoholic) and plenty of eye candy it was difficult to leave the cafe at Quiberon, so we didn't!
Day 4
Today was our last day because we had to be at Cherbourg in the afternoon to catch the ferry home, Now there is a custom with these trips to France (well so it seems) that on the last day while travelling north to catch the ferry you have to stop at Le Mont-Saint Michel.
This is a lovely place to visit, I can only describe it as looking like Sleeping Beauty's castle, well worth a visit.
After spending a few hours at Le Mont-Saint Michel we headed north to Cherbourg and the ferry home.
A special thanks must go to Bob for acting as guide and host for this trip and only one question remains, When are we off again?
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