Euro trip part 3

We left Embrun and retraced our steps a bit to find the small roads and in amongst some spectacular passes and roads we found a small bike museum adjacent to a nice cafe, a perfect stop for lunch. The museum was interesting with an eclectic mix of bikes, bikes you don't see so much of in the UK including a collection of small capacity bikes which many Europeans cut their motorcycling teeth on. The place is open June to October, free entry (donations welcome) and its on the D902 near St Paul sur Ubaye, shortly after we crossed into Italy, roads much quieter and more potholes taking the S21 to almost Cuneo then taking the S20 over the Tende pass to la Brigue, a former Italian town ceded after WW2 to the French. A nice campsite on the edge of town with the possibility to swim in the pools on the river, I didn't go in but Fiona did, the Alpine water straight of the mountains meant it was freezing and I tend to shy away from freezing. The campsite owner was a jolly chap who I managed to get some banter with, despite being born here post war he still considered himself Italian. We scranned up some dinner then walked into town for a beer, there is a hotel on the left as you enter the town in the square, avoid, its run by Bobby from still game complete with mullet and i'm pretty sure we got ripped off.  After people watching (this town seems to hold onto its village idiots) we headed further into town to a bar, the barman recognised us from the previous place and even knew what we'd been drinking, scary. We sat at the bar and attracted the attention of the chief local village idiot, his stories getting more exaggerated by the minute and culminating in a request to go to his house for more drink, in true time honoured fashion we made our excuses and left.
The following day we had a short run into Italy again and into my home village, this time we were staying in the Hotel just outside the village, the local Festa was on so it was busy but very entertaining. This year the show was a horror comedy featuring Frankenstein and other monsters all done on several stages throughout the village, very well done and even though I only understood about a third very enjoyable. The rest of the weekend was spent meeting family and friends and planning the next part of the trip. More to follow.......

Nice roads again

Woo Hoo , old bikes

Only one Norton 

This was a very interesting Exhibit, a French BFG with I believe a 4 cylinder Citreon car engine

Made the visit very worthwhile

OK thats enough

Waiting for the lights at the top of the Tiende pass, they one way traffic about 25 minutes a time

Camping La Brigue, recommended!

If you fancy fitting in, house for sale

Italian feel obviously

An attempt at an arty shot

Bruno looking cool as he arrives to have a drink with us

The village lit up for the Festa

Not far from my old house

Woo Hoo a Guzzi

Proper car 

Busy

The lights do it justice

The bridge

scary

The band and actors

This one scared the bejeezus out of the small kids

Frank getting a hard time 

Nice jacket

Moody

Mavis and her cruel dad

The guy on the left had an easy gig, he never moved or spoke

The band were good and a bit zany

Euro Trip Part 2

We left the camping just after 10am and headed first on the highway before taking the much smaller and more pleasant D roads passing through small French villages which quite often look deserted, as always there are signs of abandoned property everywhere, I assume rightly or wrongly that like in Italy family houses don't get sold, they get locked up and left it appears. We stopped for lunch in Les Voivres and the nice roadside eatery that is Le Pont des Fees, sitting in the sun watching the world go by (well actually not much going by) alongside the bikes, bliss.
We headed to Rioz to the municipal camping and found what we thought was a quiet spot but mistakenly camped alongside the main road so it turned out a bit noisy. Toilets and showers were excellent, it appears the municipal campgrounds have upped their game and most appear to even have toilet paper supplied, changed days and all for 16 Euro a night. We headed into town and walked the length of it but it appeared to be closed so ended up at the Kebab place at the end of the road to the campground, turned out that thankfully it served more than Kebabs so a nice meal was had with some cold beer. Arriving back at the campsite i quickly realised I'd left my camera on the seat in the Kebab place, Fi ran back to retrieve it and luckily some honest person had handed it it in further reinforcing my view that most people are good , honest and kind. Overnight some hefty thunder and lightning to wake us up but we were dry so all is good.
Waterproofs donned as we left but it was warm so I changed to my mesh jacket, we stopped for fuel on the Lyon ring road and the sky was black as night, big storm brewing I thought however the sky towards Grenoble seemed to be clearer so we took a chance and removed the waterproofs, sometimes getting wet from the rain is marginally better than the boil in a bag effect of waterproofs in hot temperatures. There was heavy rain and lightning expected so we booked into a Hotel in Grenoble for two nights to sit it out. Grenoble is a nice city in the old town, it has very much a student vibe but the newer part reminds me of a large Aviemore, concrete and souless like many ski towns. We managed to secure essential supplies, whisky and M&Ms, Aberlour 12 year old for only 23 Euro, perfect. The hotel bar though charged us 17 Euro for 2 beers, needless to say thats all we had! A full day sightseeing in Grenoble before finally getting back on the bikes and heading through the Alps.
We took the small road to Briancon, spectacular but busy , held up for 20 minutes in a landslide but that allowed us to get clear of the traffic, the Triumph and the ER6 performing well on the multiple hairpins, some sections you could get a good rhythm going but spoiled inevitably by the Lycra louts emulating their Tour De France heroes and riding like complete pricks. A nice days riding ending up in a busy but nice campsite at Embrun, also recommended! Some bike maintenance, chain lubed and a small adjustment to the ER6 Clutch.
More to follow!

Roadside eating

Didn't fancy it at first but good grub (Not Kebabs)

Fi with her Dads beer (Local brew, tasted ok)

Grenoble, old town, nice architecture

The castle, reached by cable car

No sure about this

Putting your life in the hands of a plastic bubble

Operated by some not very large wire rope

Going up

still going up

pretty steep!

The Alps

Street scene

Eating time

Beer time

Landslide gives us an opportunity to skip the queue

Pretty

Glacier fields

Photos don't do it justice

Euro trip part 1

This years holiday was undecided until a few weeks before we left, we had the time booked off, we knew we wanted to end up at the Begonia Rally in Belgium but the decision was between a trip North to Norway, Sweden and Denmark  or South to France and Italy. The decision was always going to be weather related, the outward ferry booked from Hull to Rotterdam with P&O (ridiculous price but slightly less ridiculous than the robbers at DFDS) this year alas the jet stream didn't play ball and we in the more Northern climes had a lot of rain so the Decision was made to turn right when we got off the ferry and head South.The bikes were also decided later in the day, Fiona after doing a fair few miles on the Guzzi and Commando this year that she wanted a wee break and would take her trusty ER6, meanwhile I decided a holiday without the associated Norton stress (and the carrying of copius amounts of tools and spares) might be fun and purchased a very low mileage Triumph Bonneville Newchurch just before the trip.
We set off as usual under a bleak sky to Newcastle first for a night with Fi's Auntie Marion, the run through the bypass wasn't as bad as expected but still hellish busy, we stopped on the A697 to don waterproofs, so far 90 dry miles which was good, Cornhill for lunch at the nice cafe / post office / General store then fuel up at Coldstream, after the fuel up we both experienced some surging on the bikes, a week earlier we filled up at the same Shell station and both Nortons ran crap so I suspect there is water or something in the fuel tanks, note to self, don't stop here again. A late start on the Saturday due to a particularly heavy night partying and on the road at 12.30, A19 to Thirsk was pleasant but somehow I missed a turn and ended up on a very busy A1, we turned off for York, another mistake, York circular is roundabout city and on this particular Saturday busy as hell, we fueled up just before Hull and Fi said her chain was rattling, inspection showed some tight links, the chain has only done under 4000 miles but hadn't been used for the previous 3 years, that and the rain must have aged it, copious amounts of chain lube and it seemed better (It was lubed before we left and appeared ok) Waiting for the boat we were joined by a delegation from the mighty Panther Owners club, all en route to their rally in Finland, I felt their pain!
Sunday a quick chat with the Panther people, through passport and another lube of the chain then off, stopped on the Brussels side of Antwerp for Breakfast and petrol, then Luxembourg for Petrol and food before finishing up in Metz at the municipal camp site, 4 Countries in a day, only in Europe is this possible ! We got a bit of shabby treatment at the first place we tried to eat so found a place where they actually wanted the business, great meal and a few beers. It rained during the night but stopped around 7am which was perfect.
More to follow, some pics to enjoy!

Bikes clean and ready to go

Waterproofs on!

Lunch

Party party

Panthers on tour

Impressed

Back on the road, food is a sandwich from the garage shop

It got hotter

Municipal camping at Metz , next to the Mosel

Church

another church

Road sign is funny

dancing

This was a surprise, no idea what its all about

Nice eatery

The Mosel runs through Metz

Art?

Yet another church.....