Belgium & France 2005

 Kathleen and I went for 2 weeks holiday in France and Belgium on the Skorpion. This is the first time we’d been abroad on the bike for a few years, and the holiday followed our usual pattern: Go on holiday with no accommodation booked, no real plan, just a ‘wish list’ of places we’d like to visit, and a date by which we’d have to return. I’ve never liked the idea of working to a strict timetable, as you could find a really interesting town that you end up spending more time in than you planned, you could see a sign to something that you detour to visit, of you could be caught by bad weather and decide to ride 300 miles to the sun. More importantly, France is full of cheap hotels, so you’ll always find somewhere to stay.

 We started the holiday by catching the ferry from Rosyth to Zeebrugge, not much to report about the journey other than it was during the G8 meeting and there had been warnings of the Kincardine Bridge being blocked by demonstrators. Hence we went via the Forth Road Bridge, which had a very high level of security – about 40 police officers on duty on each side of the bridge. All vehicles going through the tollbooths were being inspected by policemen, and pedestrians having their bags checked. Once through it was just a short ride to the ferry terminal. Top Tip Time: If you’re travelling via Rosyth and arrive a couple of hours early (as they tell you to do when you book), park your bike in the queue for the ticket booths, then walk over to the terminal building. There is a waiting room, with toilets and a tea machine, from which you can see the ticket booths and can return to when they open. There’s not a sign telling you this and you end up waiting out in the car-park for an hour trying to shelter from the rain (Don’t ask how I know this!).

 We were soon onto the ferry and the bike securely tied down in the hold. There were about 20 bikes on the boat, and there is an area for bikes with rings attached to the deck. Bikes are parked side by side about 3 feet apart on their prop-stands, and straps attached between each bike and the rings on the floor. A very well thought out, safe and quick way of securing bikes for the voyage. The trip over was fairly uneventful, only point of note was that there was an ‘Almost Angelic’ type cabaret duo playing in the bar. I didn’t realise they were there, I thought it was just muzak being played through the speakers! It’s strange to hear someone singing British and American pop hits, in English, but with a thick European accent. After a good sleep in our cabin, a tasty breakfast, and it was goodbye to drizzly Scotland and hello to drizzly Belgium.

 We rode 10 miles or so into Brugge (Bruges), where we spent most of the day having a look around. When you’ve gone abroad on holiday there’s always a temptation of trying to do a good mileage on the first day, but that means you miss gems like Brugge. It’s a truly charming city with a very well preserved and compact city centre. We had a good look round then it was westward into France. One of our plans was to visit some of the seaside towns visited and painted by Impressionist painters at the end of the 19th century, so our first ports of call were Fecamp and Etretat. Unfortunately it was a bit wet, so our visit to Fecamp was brief, but it had cleared a bit by the time we got to Etretat, conveniently at lunchtime. After a good feed and a look at the cliffs (famous from numerous paintings), we headed onwards.

Norman & Kathleen in Etretat - art lovers will recognise the background

 The next day we had to cross the Seine near Le Harve, and this was when things got interesting. Just east of Le Harve is the Pont du Normandie, which I believe is the largest cable stayed bridge in Europe. It’s also a toll bridge, and shows that the French have more of a clue than we do when it comes to bikes crossing toll bridges. I’m always annoyed when crossing the Forth and Erskine Bridges, where you have to queue up with the cars, when you get to the tollbooth they make you wait for a minute, then let you through without paying, thereby inconveniencing you and the cars behind. As you approach the Pont du Normandie, signs tell motorcyclists to keep to the right, you ride on the cycle lane past the queuing traffic and the tollbooth, then rejoin the traffic after the barrier. A far more sensible arrangement. As you approach the Pont, it looks like the Forth Road Bridge except it is a lot higher, and is fairly steep. As you approach the summit, not only do you get a stunning view, you also see another bridge. What you are crossing is the ‘small’ bridge over a canal; the big bridge is ahead and is simply huge. It’s 856m between its pylons and it seems like you’re miles above the river. Good view!!

 Just below the bridge is the former artists’ village of Honfleur, we rode through it, but it was disappointingly busy so we didn’t stop. Next stop on the ‘art tour’ was the very pretty seaside town of Trouville, and its much grander (and expensive) neighbour Deauville, which I assume the Honda is named after. (Why?). We headed south west to Poitiers where we spent a couple of nights and visited a nearby monkey sanctuary. At this point we had planned to head to the Pyrenees, but as we headed south west from Poitiers it got hotter and hotter, until it started getting a bit uncomfortable, so we headed westward to the coast at La Rochelle. When I say it was getting hot I mean HOT! The cooling fans came on at 50mph, the ‘overheating’ light came on going uphill, and when I stopped at lights and sat upright I burned my neck against the collar of my jacket. In France a lot of pharmacies have an illuminated clock/thermometer outside and I’m sure I saw 42°C at one point, and saw 36°C at 7pm. Too hot for us, so it was off to the coast.

 La Rochelle is a really attractive seaside resort, but can be very busy, so we headed northwards up the coast to St Nazaire, crossing another really big bridge as we came into the city. We headed north up the coast to about Lorient before heading inland until we got to Dinan. Dinan is an incredibly well preserved medieval town, not a museum piece, but a living, working town. We spent the best part of a day here just wandering about looking at the buildings (including its wonderful Art Deco railway station), before heading north to the coast at Dinard. Dinard is one of our favourite towns, so we spent a couple of days there. It’s almost out of place on the north coast, looking more like a Mediterranean resort, once popular with artists and Victorian tourists from England, but now full of French holidaymakers. Last time we were there, there was an amusing statue of Alfred Hitchcock (complete with birds!) commemorating the annual British Film Festival, but this time it had disappeared, possibly relocated.

 After Dinard we took the short crossing across the River Rance to St Malo. The mouth of the Rance is dammed and the rising and falling of tides added to the river flow is used to generate electricity. The road runs along the top of the dam, giving a good view. As well as being a major port, St Malo also has a walled ‘old city’ (intra muros for you Latin scholars). Well worth a visit and the city authorities, in an attempt to avoid gridlock in the city’s narrow streets, ban motor vehicles after 1 pm. So we spent a pleasant morning wandering around leaving at about noon, by which time the streets were beginning to fill with pedestrians (who have right of way, so you have to ride at walking pace). At first it seems almost too well preserved, and the buildings are a bit too perfectly straight, then you discover that the city was flattened during WWII, but in this case it was rebuilt to the original plan, using original materials.

 Back on the bike, and we headed eastward passing the D-Day Normandy beaches, and saw the remains of the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches. This was a sectional concrete harbour towed over from England just after D-Day, and still in place, albeit in a rather dilapidated condition. Most of this coast is now fairly heavily developed with planned ‘resorts’ so we headed on to Le Harve, crossing the big bridge again.

 Le Harve is an intriguing city. We’d seen a couple of programmes on French television about Le Harve’s architecture, and I wanted to go for a look. The city was completely destroyed during WWII, and rebuilt within ten years using one architect. Building, by necessity, was done quickly and cheaply hence a lot of concrete was used, but strangely I quite liked it. OK, there are too many housing blocks of a very boring design, but the city centre is quite nice, and the main square has an open airy feel to it. Not brilliant, but shows what can be done quickly and cheaply with a bit of thought (unlike, say, Cumbernauld).

 We did a return visit to Etretat, in good weather this time, before spending a couple of days riding around before heading towards Zeebrugge. We were a bit early, so headed to the nearby resort of Blankenburg, then onto the ferry for the trip home. In total the trip was 1700 miles spread over 14 days.

 You’ll have noticed at this point that I’ve hardly mentioned the bike, because there’s so little to mention. It started every morning, nothing broke or wore out, and it carried two people and 120 litres of luggage without complaint. What else do you expect from a modern bike? On open roads I usually cruised at 60 – 80 mph, the bike got about 65 mpg, used about 500ml of oil, and I sprayed the chain once (after the rain). I didn’t see any other MZs on my travels, but a Voxan rider told me my bike was ‘cool’, not bad, eh!

 Uncle Norman