On the Road Again!

Leaving home at about 0708 in lashing down rain doesn't fill one with enthusiasm for a near on 350 mile ride to the first overnight stop. I had opted for the Triumph Steve McQueen ISDT replica jacket with my usual green Bikers Australia chino jeans. Fill waterproofs over the top. I have three pairs of waterproof gloves and two non waterproof pairs! All in the left pannier!  The first pair lasted until we were on the train. My hands wouldn't go back in them! Scratch Belstaff leather and hipora.  Did I say it was lashing down? We set off on the A16. I fuelled up at Auchun Calais. Scratch £100 worth of Alpine Star Goretex gloves. Couldn't get my hands in them. The lining sticking to the minutest damp.  Cue the old Akito Mercury gloves my brother was ditching and I had taken. Went on okay and with careful management they lasted another 300 miles. By that I mean at the lunch stop drying each hand under the hot air blower in the loo and then putting each one one separately!!...

I have cancelled the Première Classe hotel in Joué de Tours and the Campanile in Bayonne in favour of Neill's choice of a pair of Kyriad Hotels. His Kyriads are a Chambray-les-Tours and Orthez.

In blog-time it's not that long since I made the first post. I have been working on this in reality for the best part of two weeks though! So where are we at the moment? Day 1 - Shuttle or Ferry to Calais. Overnight - Tours Première Classe Day 2 - Tours to Bayonne. Overnight - Bayonne Première Classe Day 3 - Bayonne to Morella. Overnight - Morella El Cid Day 4 - Morella to Motorland Aragón to Morella. Overnight Morella El Cid Day 5 - Plan A - Morella to Motorland Aragón to Morella. Overnight Morella El Cid            - Plan B - Morella to Motorland Aragón to Lleida. Overnight TBC Day 6 - Lleida to Cahors. Overnight Cahors Campanile Day 7 - Cahors to Chartres. Overnight Chartres Hôtel Inn Design Resto Novo Day 8 - Chartres to Shuttle or Ferry - Overnight Home. There are a few ends to tie up but this looks like this could be the final plan. If the weather is still nice and warm, hot even, I might get to wear my bandana again!  Without anyone laughing! It...

I have been looking at the non-toll route to the El Cid hotel that will get me/us there on the Friday afternoon.  Having decided on Option 1, ride both ways, I now have to decide how long to take and how long Claire will suffer me being away.  I was looking at a week away or in reality 8 days - two overnights out, three at the GP end, and then two nights back.  If Neill comes along he might want to take longer and that will need some debate. I have booked the hotels in twin bedded rooms but if it is a solo trip, then I will see about changing to a double room and have a big bed just for me.... It's pretty much the same route I took way back in the 80's when I rode with my ex-partner to Biarritz for a week in a villa owned by a colleague at Reuters. We wanted to avoid the toll motorways and what was then called the N10 went all the way from the outskirts of Paris (where we got lost near Versailles) to the Spanish border. Back then I was on the Kettle aka Suzi Triplo. I hav...