Italy and France, no bike though

So a visit back to my roots (again) with my sister and brother in law, a first visit to her birthplace since she left for Scotland's weather and food several decades ago. We flew to Nice with Easyjet (nice flight, no problems) picked up our what was to be crap hire car (Nissan Juke, just don't, handles like a nervous blancmange and difficult to judge the size of the thing, not good on narrow Italian roads) and headed to Italia. We were staying with one of our distant cousins Bruno in his most excellent B&B and quickly settled in. Up to the village once again to be treated like a local by the staff in Rio Barberia, It really is amazing the welcome we get here, the fact my sister was like the prodigal returning made the welcome even more special. The week was spent visiting, eating, drinking and soaking up the history. A bit of time sunbathing (not much) and showing Laura and Peter how to have a telly free week of adventure, I'm sure they loved it really and sorry about taking you up the road to Steva's house Laura, pity you had the coat over your head and were screaming, there really is a nice view. The fantastic bit about this part of the country is you can easily flit between the chic of the Cote Azure and the rural beauty of Italy, the difference is tangible, people on one side of the border trying to live a nice "normal" life whilst the French side at this point is full of rich people wondering how to get richer. Monaco is a case in point, visited, adored but really its full of tax dodging luvvies and crooks of gigantic proportion, probably as many gangsters and crooks as a overcrowded Brazilian prison. Anyhoo the photos tell a better story..........

A selfie overlooking Monaco (honest) 

Pre dinner drinks in the yard, our shit hire car in the background

Plenty greenery

Chances are my grandad had a hand in this at some point being the local blacksmith

Laura and Peter at one of the entries to the village

Narrow streets we played in as kids

View from the Cemetery

This path leads from the village over the mountains to France, this is as far as we got (about 300 yards)

Nice view of Rocchetta Nervina

The famous bridge and castle in Dolceaqua

Laura on the balcony of our Grandfathers house where she was born

Sanremo beach, like St Andrews but without the golf and rain

We visited Steva so I could at least get one bike picture

I though it was funny

Finale Borgo, nice town

Steva and Fiona, Rock and Roll

Ready for a walk

The view from the back road to Ventimiglia Dolceaqua below the Med in the distance

Harbour in Menton, not as pretentious as Monaco

For Bert to drool over

Menton towards Italy, 5km along the road the migrants who survived the crossing from North Africa are trying to escape from Italy, sad that the EU is doing nothing to help Italy

Menton with a Queen Vic statue, she must have "taken the air" here

Italy 1000M

Wonderful evening with our extended family, wild boar cooked by Luigi, excellent

Monaco, tradesman's entry

Spend spend on tacky souvenirs 

The palace doesn't look so grand in the rain

What percentage of the population are crooks or exploiting poorer taxpayers?

This is where soon to be Mr Green is hiding, if he sold this he could help the BHS pensioners a bit

Nice, nice but not so much in the rain

  

Scottish Classic club Autumn meet

A cloudy but dry start to the day and quite warm for this time of year which was good. Our run two up to St Fillans on the T3 Guzzi was enjoyable, dry roads and not too many lunatics. I like St Fillans, looking out over or riding along the side of Loch Earn always reminds me of Mandello looking over Lago Di Como (well apart from the people, the architecture and the weather) An excellent turn out and a superb mix of bikes, once again I met up with many people I hadn't seen in years which was great but with the numbers there it was a bit like speed dating, a paragraph then move on to the next friend, maybe we should think about an overnight meeting but then again I suppose when the drink kicks in nobody remembers who they spoke to anyway. Good turnout from the Tay Valley NOC which was great and a special mention for Don on his Dr John Daytona, last seen him on this bike in 2002 so I'm glad he managed to remove it from his house, one of only 20 imported to the UK! Also worth a mention was the Matchless Silver Hawk, a 26 degree V 4 build between 1930-34 , rarer than hens teeth. The one great thing about the day was that ALL the bikes were ridden there, no trailer Queens and that in my opinion is how it should be!

My T3 in exalted  company

Rare beast

Loch Earn

Derek Wilkies RGS BSA

A brace indeed of desirable BSA's

Fraser's Lightning, pretty

Cooking Matchy

Nice Rig

Shiny Velo

Singles seemed to be in today

Tony's take on a Falcone Nuovo

More BSA's

Rarer than an Aberdonian buying a round of drinks, Matchless Silver Hawk

Single Vincent

Shiny 650ss

Original T150 Trident

Sandy's Cammy Norton

Me like very much but I still have the mental scars from clutch pain when I had its fiercer brother the Jota

Blokes and Girls looking at bikes

What Sundays are for!

Jake, grupenfuhrer of the Falcone forum shadows us back home (sorry it's blurred Jake, taking live shots from the back of a T3 isn't easy :-)

Indian 4

I had to post this to show how sweet the bike runs, enjoy

Town Yetholm Norton meeting

So the annual meeting starring the mighty Tay Valley, Edinburgh and Northumbria branches has come around again so it must be September, unbelievable its been a year since the last one. We set off after work on Friday only to be confronted with rain, wind and crazy traffic on the Edinburgh bypass. Not a great start to the weekend however we got to Kelso and it dried out a bit and then even got our tent up dry!
Unfortunately the pub wasn't dry (in an alcoholic sense) and this meant we partook of copious amounts meaning Saturday was a bit fuzzy. Great to see everyone again, I had been secretly lusting after a Falcone recently (maybe just a phase) and Bert nephew Ian turned up on a mint example, Bert turned up on his "Indian Four" a masterpiece of engineering, I've seen it through the various stages and am very impressed by the workmanship. The fact it ran like a watch (a Swiss one rather than a dodgy rip off) made it all the more impressive. Toon and his pal from Belgium turned up on the Saturday after a week travelling around Scotland so it was great to see some younger guys along (not that any of us are older!!!)
Fantastic weekend with great company and old motorbikes, whats not to like.  

Guzzi's at rest, Fi was on the V11

A brace of Mk3 commandos

Alan, up from Hull on his ES2

Robin up from South of Manchester on his Fastback

Bert stole the show though

Campbell down from Aberdeen

Ian's new Falcone

Forfar John's fine Commando

Windy, Forfar John and Philly getting into it

Alan looks like he's getting out of it, good to see Robin back on the scene

Story telling

Just excellent no matter where you look

Sandy Bloy's sidestand modification

Not a bad part of the world

Kirk at Kirk Yetholm

Pretty

George Martin paid us a visit to drop some oil

Euan's sidestand mod, he though it might blow over!