MooN

If you go to Jax shack in the dordogne, gimme a shout...

the problem with getting to Brittany from here is that the autoroute adds so many miles that any time benefit is completely lost. I go via autoroute in the car cos its just so easy, cruise control etc etc but its still around 7 hours. The non autoroute way by bike will be around the same time frame with less kilometers and not 45€ of péage...

Who's planning what for the coming summer riding wise? Any epic road trips in the planniing stages? I know Pedro was looking at a northern ride into Germany... The French, in their inimitable way, have maintained the practice of having what the uk call a bank holiday, on the actual day the date falls rather than on the nearest Monday. Though this sometimes give a random day off in the middle of the week, it will sometimes, when coupled with one of the "movable feasts" of the Christian calender, generate a ridiculously long wekend. It is then, a national sport, to spot these occurences and calculate how to get the most time off for the least number of days "paid Holiday". I have always said that you ca't get anything done in France in the month of may and 2024 is a blinder 1st of may ( labour day) is a wednesday so a day off mid week 8th of May ( V.E.Day) is rather obviously, a wednesday. 9th of May ( ascension) so another public holiday 11th and 12th are saturday and sunday, which means that if I book friday 10th May off from work I'll have 5 days off for a single day's leave from work. That's got to be bike time right? So, planning with a couple of mates,a Britanny trip for that looong weekend in May. Auxerre to probably St Brieuc on day 1 which will be bollox boring as far as Rennes but we can do without using the Autoroute. about 6 to 7 hrs riding I reckon. St Brieuc to Le Conquet along the coast on day 2 much less distance but very minor roads so much slower. Day 3 from Le Conquet to Lorient, along the coast but cutting across the odd peninsula to avoid the worst of the holiday traffic and pausing to visit the Standing stones at Carnac and the tomb of Bernard Moitessier at Le Bono on the way round. Day 4 from Lorient to somewhere like St Brévin les Pins again along the coast and day 5 from there home will be a simple but long days ride west via Nantes, Tours and Vierzon, crossing the Loire at Bonny sur Loire and thus home. should be about 2000km over the 5 days and I don't know if I'm physically capable of it. Gonna try tho cos its not going to get any easier with time First night is now sorted and the following are coming together, so... Bring it on!

yeah but there's 5 of us, which means two hotel rooms for 5 nights and car is still the cheapest way for us despite the bloody crossing costing 160€ each way. it,s also doable in a day's drive for us from here. less so from where you are.

that,s why I wont buy anything Nissan. Renault are shit, crooked money, govt backed, dishonest, rip offs.

oh what a pile of shyte! I thought they enlu had those in France... 45km/h max and no licence... 38tonne semis obliged to overtake the bloody things on the narrow N roads causing all sorts of mayhem, drivers usually completely pissed or so moronic as to be incapable of passing a driving test. I HATE them!

we wanted to visit my parents for Christmas, Mum's 92 now and Alzheimers is getting steadily worse, but there is just no way we can afford accomodation in the area for 5 of us at that time of year (last year at nearly 2000€ for 5 days nearly killed us) so we're not doing anything for Christmas but are saving for a uk visit in feb when we can have the same accomodation for five days for just over 800€...

I love how they declare this a win for the uk tourist industry...

My grandfather had a copy of that painting hanging over the staircase in their house when I was a kid. never knew it was Dali.

shit weather here at the moment, been hammering with rain and blowing a bloody hooligan since wednesday evening. I had planned on going toTroyes on wednesday ( bank holiday) but it would have been foolish to be out on a bike in what they forcast for the evening and I coulsn't have got home before the eastern edge of the depression reached us so I cancelled. Still blowing hard today so no riding either. hoping it will have blown through by tomorrow so i dont have to spent the entire weekend inside.

Why does this not surprise me?

I did manage to get out for a couple of hundred km this afternoon, I rode the back roads up north as far as Nanteau sur Lunain ( long story...) had a coffee in the local boulangerie / café and a chat with the owner and then took the route nationale home. Weather was shit, windy with rain showers. I got the first rain shower about an hour into the ride and though my gear is water proof the temps dropped with the arrival of the rain so I pulled over at a bus shelter to add the thermal liner to my jacket. Heated grips and new winter gloves bought in Dijon last week, made the rest of the day positively bearable. Great wee bus stop, complete with free library!

Blimey Pete, if i could afford a van…

Probably cos im a complete arse off road so i ride reeeeeally slowly…

I have a stunningly interesting and exciting weekend planned if you must know. This morning I have defrosted the fridge !

he said "mate"...

yea, we're just not telling you about it.

I haven't submitted anything to BOTM for a while cos all the rules about size and shape and post production and when and where and how and who meant that you basically have to take a photo specifically with that in mind. I don't. This one happens to be the right shape, I don't have photoshop and I don't think I made any adjustements to this one before saving it.

Hi Dany, welcome in, I'm sur Pedro's has warned you about some of us. ( it's all true...)

Im rather proud of myself this evening, finished a long term project restoring a “Louis Philippe” wardrobe ( 1840 ish) that belonged to wifes grandfather and had been left to fester in an outhouse. I’m not a cabinet maker or restorer but i reckoned i could make it useable again and possibly nice looking even. The photos are probably fkin hooge, sorry, no access to poota just mow. Ikea are shit compared to this, the whole thing gous from flat pack to fully operational in about an hour, all held together with just 6 wooden pins on top of this achievement, i managed to diagnose and repair the 12v socket on the tiger ( im crap at electrics and hate it but got away with this one

I was about to sign up one od my ex girlfriends for that new tv reality show. I thought she’d be ideal then i found out it was actually called FACT HUNT.

what you have failed to realise is that nobody gives a shit what anybody in the uk thinks.

Why pick on me? Theres Bobo Neleg too, and Saul… an clive’s daughter allegedly… the 17th septemberists… today “Motorcycle Riders” facebook page, tomorrow The World !

Due to drop into the 20’s at the end of the week here. Yay!

spent the morning today trying to drop the temperature inside the house. Then shut all the shutters cos it was 38 in the street outside and buggered off to spend the afternoon at a friends house who's got a pool... I was planning on cycling in to work tomorrow morning but they're forcasting 38 to 40 c for the afternoon and I aint cycling home in that!