France

We got up a little earlier today and went over to our other apartment for breakfast! We set off on the motorbikes for a tour around the local area, but the traffic in Antibes was very heavy. Out of the town there were some lovely hilltop-villages and twisty roads.

We headed up into the mountains a bit and found the Ski resort of Greolieres for an afternoon on the slopes. Ed got a little stuck in the snow and ice and mud in the car park, so I went over to help him out and he coated me in slush!

There were surprisingly long queues for the lifts everywhere as well and then we twigged that it was probably half term and that would explain the traffic on the coast earlier as well. We finished Skiing around 5pm, got changed, grabbed a cuppa and headed back down the mountain into the sunset.

95 miles today which takes our total to around 4000 miles now of the 16000 or so we estimate for the trip (I'll refine those numbers later)

A day off for us and the bikes on the French Rivery-area today.

Slow rise, breakfast, cleaning, internetting, and then a lovely evening meal with everyone in La Cascade restaurant.

Today we set off from Nimes at around 11.30 and headed towards Marseilles, I had a little trouble getting on to Roger as I'd left him on slightly uneven ground! I went to climb on him and before I knew it he'd dropped forward off the centre stand and thrown me on the ground! James found this highly amusing, however clambered off Frazer and gave me a hand righting my lump of a bike!

The first part of the journey involved a toll road so we could get to Marseilles fairly quickly and then enjoy the coast roads along the Riviera. We trundelled through Marseilles enjoying some of the city's architecture and then came out the other side heading towards Cassis.

Being a Sunday there were a fair few bikers out on the roads and we found that it was easier just to ride one handed (where safe of course!) so we were ready to wave at any biker travelling the other way!

We stopped for lunch in Cassis, a lovely town over looked by the tallest cliff in Europe, standing at 399m.

After lunch a friend of mine Jeanine, who knows the area well recommended we should take the Routes Des Cretes, which starts near Cassis and winds its way up towards the top of the cliff and then back down. It was an amazing road 16km long with a shear drop one side and amazing views at various spots of the Mediterranean and the French coast.

Caption competition:

After dropping back down to sea level we made our way towards Antibes passing through St Tropez, St Raphael, Cannes etc to be greeted by my parents + Aunt and Uncle for a lovely dinner and few glasses of wine!

We've taken the next couple of days off and are planning to sort a few things out on our bikes, fit in a days skiing + try and catch up on a bit of sleep. We'll also post some photos of the last couple of days.

Today was a relatively late start due to the welcomed hostpitality received from our hosts last night in Barcelona, Lucy and Ross!

We set off on our way at around 2pm after karting all of our luggage from the 6th floor of their lovely apartment in the city centre down to our bikes! Lucy was on hand to help us manage all the stairs though!

We then took a coast road from Barcelona, heading north towards the French border. We stopped for our last meal in Spain then filled up just before the border.

Beautiful sunset and views of the mountains of Andorra and we took a ride down off-road with a great view out over the sea before it started getting extremely windy again.

Then we covered around 200miles before we arrived in Nimes and our pre-booked Formule 1 hotel. It was windy and cold again, reminiscent of a couple of weeks ago, and our hotel was almost exactly the same as one we had stayed in a couple of weeks ago as well.

Looking forward to the coast roads along the French Riviera tomorrow before meeting up with Famille Murray in Antibes for a couple of days.

So, nearly a week in and we wave goodbye to France, or maybe just au revoir as we'll be back before too long to the south coast. A good time to pause and reflect a little perhaps.

The first half of the week we were battling the weather in the UK and thankfully found a gap just long enough to jump over to France were the weather was much the same if not colder! Then we battled on far enough south and west to get out of the snow-zone for now at least!

Thoughts on France then: the breakfasts are very strange - the first morning for example was just a piece of bread and jam with a drink and the other mornings were variations on that theme! Other meals considered they love their meat and their pomme frites but unless they count as one each they won't be getting their five-a-day fruit and veg as the fruit option was scarcer than sun this week! There were a lot of vey cheap hotels though and the lunches were big and long.

Seeing people reading while they were driving was a shocker and quite disturbing. Otherwise the roads were okay and most interesting around the Bordeaux area.

Also, on the whole everyone was very friendly and accommodating, so a great country to start off in really.

Otherwise we have learnt that gaffa tape is brilliant and is holding together all manner of things on our bikes and clothing!

Here's hoping that the sun comes out in
Spain! Until the next time,

James