Touring France and Spain

Matt Le Tissue

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has any tips on touring southern France and northern Spain by Bike?
I ride a Honda Deauville 650 and am planning a 2 (or more) week trip next year.
Any advice, tips or warnings gratefully received, especially about ferry routes or places to see or indeed avoid.
Thanks in advance
Terry

goldie fish

How are you getting there?
Not being funny, if you are gonna motorway it south it is quite a long haul. 8 hours roughly(non stop) from Le Harve to Tolouse for example. A full day on the motorway realistically, which isn't much fun. Tolls on the autoroute are paid by distance, so you won't get hit with the bill until you leave them.
There are plans to do a ferry from Cork to Northern Spain, but it isnt expected to launch till next summer. Brittany ferries go to Spain from Portsmouth though.(santander I think)
I saw somewhere that there is a company that will ship your bike for you, and you can fly down to meet it.
There are a few rugby lads I know who bike south for the HC games, but recently have done it in stages.

Matt Le Tissue

Still in the planning stage, but I was thinking of Rosslare to Wales then Plymouth to Santander and then leisrely thru Spain and back up thru France and home roscoff ro rosslare.
Or
Cork or Rosslare to Roscoff then down the west coast stopping Bordeaux and Bayonne then northern Spain and back up thru france.

The roads I was thinking of would be more sightseeing than motorway, perhaps using Mways only to avoid Cities I'm not planning on visiting.

goldie fish

If it were me I'd ferry to santander. You can do Cork-swansea too. Depends where you are starting from of course, but arriving in Swansea means you are on the UK motorway network already, unlike Fishguard, which is slow A Roads until Cardiff.
I will warn you about france though, the place is so nice to drive you'll spend all your time on the backroads, and not make as much headway as you'd like to. Keep that in mind for your return.
Also, Don't speed through small towns. Gendermerie will stop, and hold onto you until you pay up.

Matt Le Tissue

Cheers:)

goldie fish

No worries. Put up 2000k in a week in belgium last year, and didn't go far from the Flemish end.

Irlandski

Good ole Deauville, clocked up 45K miles on mine in Europe over the last 4 years - it never missed a beat!
My opinion is Roslare/Cork to Cherbourg/Roscoff then eat motorway to get to your destination!

Another good money saving idea (ive done it once or twice) is to ride it out and get a mate to ride it home. That way its half the cost and you don't have to retrace your steps the whole way home.

goldie fish

Co inky dink... I also have a deauville.....