The Euro Itch that had to be scratched

Thanks

Ive had that small stove for around 15 years, luckily the CV300 catridges are still being made.

Following this, thank you for the report and great photos.

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Day 11 Tournus to Varennes Vauzelles

The rain eased off through the night and as it was so warm by the time the morning came the tent and ground was dry.
We packed up and left the site without breakfast, we decided we'd get some on the hoof today.
Along the route we found a bakery so stopped for pastries to keep us going until lunch



Headed in the direction of Nevers which was our original destination.



And we arrived early afternoon, time for a coffee before checking into our pre-booked hotel.





A pretty town and i wished we'd found a decent priced hotel here but we had to move on a couple of miles to Varennes.

We stayed at Europe Hotel, basic but clean and cheap - http://www.europehotel58.com/

After we'd checked in we headed out for some food on the bike.
Came across a Pat au Pain baguette/coffee shop which we decided to try out.
Some nice baguettes and coffee later we headed back to the hotel after a bit of a ride around town for an early night.







Now as we were getting closer and closer to our last day the scenery was changing and most of the time were in travel mode and not tourist mode just riding to a destination with not much to see.

Day 12 Varennes Vauzelles to Chateaudun

After a decent nights sleep we awoke the next morning, packed and opted to pay the extra for a breakfast at the hotel, nothing special but a bit better than cakes

We opted for a bit of motorway to eat some miles up but no sooner had we had a few miles under our belt it started to rain heavily, i kept going as the gps was routing us off the motorway after another 2 miles.

When we did eventually get off we pulled over to suit up as it looked like there wasnt going to be a let up.



We found a Chateau that the photographer wanted a few snaps of so i obeyed and rode around it.





We passed through quite a few nice villages on the way, running alongside the Loire river and eventually got into Chateaudun, headed for the hotel and checked in -

http://www.hotelstmichel.net/

A very old fashioned hotel run by two old dears, muddled through check in with a mix of Frenchglish

Headed out to the town as we'd seen a lot of impressive architecture on the skyline on the way in and as we'd made good time we had a few hours of daylight left to have a good stroll.





There were some seriously old buildings here and the town seemed to have forgotten all the history around them as some the older buildings just seemed to be left to decay further with no protection around them.



This building seemed the oldest and was right on the side of a main road again with no protection whatosever.



I suspect that had it been here in the UK it would be covered in spray paint and the rotting away original couple of hundred year old door knocker would be long gone and various other vandal activities exacted on it.

The same could be said of the main attraction of the town, the Chateau itself, a beautiful huge building but unfortunately a hefty price was required to enter the gates.
It was overgrown and inhabited by hundreds of pigeons that were adding plenty of height to some of the parapets by way of huge crap piles under the roosting areas.
A shame and they badly needed a few hawks or marksmen around to keep the pigeon population in check.



We spotted signs for Grottes du Foulon, a huge history soaked sub-terranean network of caves under the town - http://www.grottesdufoulon.sitew.com/#Visite_Horaires_Tarifs.A

and decided we'd go in for a visit, quite impressive to hear the young girl who was guiding the tour reel off the history of these far reaching caverns.
Trouble is as we were the only english speakers on the tour we had to stand there waiting for her to finish reeling off the memorised script in French before everyone would then turn and stare at us while she reeled it off again in English just for us

The end of the tour came and we headed back up the hill into the square for food.





We found a French Chinese restaurant and decided we'd like something a little more familiar to eat
Tired from the fair amount of walking we'd done, we retired well aware that tomorrow was to be our last full day of the trip in Europe

Day 13 Chateaudun to Honfleur
Well aware that this was our last day, we woke, packed up and checked out of the hotel.
Decided on a coffee in the square just as a market was setting up.



Straight forward run up to the coast and found some little gems along the way.












We arrived at Honfleur and decided to have a brief ride around before finding our pre-booked hotel.



http://www.lemhotelhonfleur.com/



A nice hotel and not far from the harbour which is where it all seemed to be happening.

Checked in and took a stroll down town







After what seemed like hours of walking round trying to decide where to eat we stopped at a little waterside restaurant.



Some form of seafood was inevitable



More strolling around town before retiring for the night ready for a short run in the morning to the ferry port so we had chance for a lie in.

Honfleur is a beautiful little town and we look forward to returning some day.

Day 14 Honfleur to Wales

This was it, the last day of the trip, it had seemed a long time ago that we'd set off to start our trip but were still sad to see the end of it coming, i was missing the kids too (but shh dont tell them that)
We'd done it, we'd got this far on our first solo tour and it was a good one.

One final hotel bill later



We decided against the high priced hotel breakfast and also wanted to spend a last hour or so at the harbour, we sat with a coffee and croissant quieter than previous mornings where the talks were of the day ahead.







We managed to pull ourselves away from harbour life to begin the short but unwelcome journey to the ferry port at Le Havre.

Very windy on this bridge and it just started to rain lightly, a fitting end journey to match the mood





We arrived, checked in and queued for the Ferry, it landed and unloaded its passengers from the UK that included quite a few bikes.
We looked on enviously as they were just about to start their trip.

Bit of a rough crossing and we had to resort to the travel sickess tablets for the first time ever.



The crossing seemed to drag on forever, when we eventually landed it was an uneventful disembarkment and we were soon on the road homeward bound straight into Friday afternoon rush hour traffic though we were lucky to have a police bike in front filtering through but soon got bored of following him at the illuminated signs 40mph limit so picked up the pace slightly.

Home in not too bad a time and got on with the task of disassembling two weeks worth of luggage from the bike.

If there was an honours list or a thanks list for bike tours then mine would go something like this it.

1.
To my wife for being an excellent pillion and just letting me get on with planning things my way, for being a top photographer as always capturing these treasured memories for us to reflect on in the future and for being so adaptable especially on the camping front as she'd only ever camped twice before, for allowing me to ride those fantastic roads how they should be ridden without (much) complaint.

2.
The bike, the vehicle that dragged us across Europe fully loaded with not so much as a hiccup, despite the seat not being the most comfortable seat for touring it was a very small complaint in an otherwise faultless machine.



3.
The Peaklife GPS, thank the lord for China is all i will say, this little gem worked faultlessly after what i thought was a faulty battery turned out to be a faulty charge lead, for the price you really cannot fault it and the routes panned out as i'd hoped.

Next years tour is already booked back with the good old group of friends that we popped our euro tour cherry with in 2011.

Spain 2014 here we come!!!!!!!