MooN

I think I had planned 1500km for this trip and door to door was 1508km according to the trip meter on the bike. it also showed 24h50 minutes riding time ( a little less in reality as I don't always switc the engine off when stopping for a pic or slapping the sat nav or whatever but call that "saddle time" and it'd be about right) fuel consomption was around 5,8L per 100 km. I left home on wednesday morning under clear skies and temps of around 8 to 10 deg c. The first stage was south to Clermont Ferrand on roads that I have ridden many times before. Crossing the Loire, westbound at Pouilly sur Loire I rode south on the left bank of the Loire for a while further before stopping for a coffee break. Budget restrictions being what they are ( and I'm something of a cheapskate at the best of times...) coffee from a flask was the order of the day and I just stopped at a convenient spot at the roadsiide by the river. Tigger in full touring Mode: despite the sunshine, I still had thermal liners in jacket and trousers at this point. I picked up the A75 southbound shortly after this at Monmarrault and as the weather rapidly deteriorated I hunkered down and concentrated on "making progress", switching from the "scenic" gps app to "Coyote" which warns of any speed cameras or dangers on the road as well as basic navigation. I really didn't need any avigational aids as I simply had to run south untill junction 37. This was a boring, if reasonable short interlude just concentrating on the road ahead and despite the rain keeping the speed needle around 140km/h ( the French Autoroutes are limited to 130 under normal circumstances, but in rain are limited to 110 and 140 on the tigers clocks gives a real speed of around 135, hence the usefulness of advance warning of any speed cameras, mobile or otherwise. ( it's not an infallible system, but for 50€ a year it only has to avoid 1 10 km/h exess speed fine to be viable. ) Once off the Autoroute, the road eastwards from Marvejols to Balsieges, before joining the Gorges du Tarn proper was superbe. The weather was still cold and damp, with 10/10ths cloud cover but only actually raing in brief showers. These showers are much easier to deal with wearing waterproof riding gear rather than having to stop and clamber in and out of rain gear every half hour. then the start of the Gorges du Tarn proper. riding down the Gorges was stunning, I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it, there's certainly nothing on this scale in the Uk. Having the road to myself, mostly due to the bad weather was a bonus cos I imagine it would be heaving with bikes and camping cars during the summer. The main problem was actually staying on the road which winds seemingly endlessly downwards hanging onto the edge of the mountainside, on a balcony to go around a buttress, through a tunnel from time to time, squeezing through a gap between the cliff face and an outcrop, never straight or level or of equal width for more then a dozen yards and all this on a wet surface whilst gawking open mouthed at the incredible scenery. Wow! just... Wow. Once it was over and I was nearly at the bottom I realised I had taken no pics, just too gobsmaked by it all to function normally. It was about 18:30 when I rode into Millau from the west. I had provisionally booked a bed in a local "Gite d'Etape" ( bit like a youth Hostel) which, using my sleeping bag and sorting myself out food wise, would only cost me 15€ ( remember what I said about being tight fisted?) It was raining steadily now and when I stopped at a supermarket to grab a salad and sandwich for my supper, I phoned ahead to tell him I was about 15 minutes away. I mentioned I was just getting some food and he said " you can't eat here." I new that they weren't doing food cas I was the only guest, but I had previously said that I would grab a sarnie on the way in. He now decided that he wasn't happy with me eating a sandwich in my room either! Bearing in mind it was now pissing down I told him he could fuck off and hung up. ooopsss... Google to the rescue ( much as I hate to admit it the smartphoe is a very useful tool in this sort of situation, it took me about 3 minutes to find the nearest hotel mercure / Ibis ( 800m away) and book a room for the night with free undercover secure parking for the bikeand breakfast included for 80€ ( tight fisted up to a point...) I already had food for the evening and the welcome and service at the hotel were excelent and I mad good use of the facilities which were far superior than I would have found in a gite d'etape. The view from the hotel room window It was too late to go and look at the viaduct / suspenders bridge and as I had planned a short easy run the next morning I decided to leave it till then.

I'm clearly in the wrong business, I should move to the uk and set up sign printing. that's firkin ridiculous! great story Yen.

nice one Bob, my knees would have struggled with that climb as well!

What ho @Leejbaker welcome in.

Keep moving @boboneleg, moving target’s harder to hit…

And very welcome cup o tea it was too. @Tango tried to get out of it by giving me a false phone number, but that didn’t work so i pitched up, drank his tea, dirtied his sofa and buggered of before his mrs got home actually he’s a nice bloke and we set the world to rights for a couple of hours. I did have to leave earlier than originally planned i had an invite that i couldn’t politely refuse, so i missed Mrs Tango, much to my regret. thanks Bob, good to meet you. I got home about an hour ago.

yeah I'll only be stopping for lunch at Clermont, pshing on to millau for the night if I can make it.

well according to meteo France, it looks like I'll be riding into rain tomorrow and will be playing dodge the thunderstorm by the evening. Thursday doesn't look too bad, showers but nowt worse. Friday I'll be running north trying to keep in front of a storm front coming in from the south west, which I hope will go through during the night otherwise I'm going to have a really shitty day on saturday. Still, it's better than they were forcasting a week ago so maybe it'll not happen... OH, @XTreme,

been planning this trip for a while but with no definite parameters for a number of reasons. The idea was that, I've wanted to do the "gorges du Tarn" for a long time and that ties in nicely with Millau and the suspenders bridge. Once I'm that far south I'm only a mornings ride from our Base at Capestang on the Canal du Midi. That could tie in with invading @Tango's personnal space and drinking his coffee ( well it'd be rude not to...) as he's not far from there. Once that far south I'm too far for me to ride home in a single stage so back home via the Gevaudan and the Auvergne with an overnight stop somewhere in the Puy de Dome. I still don't know wether I am physically capable of the distance (using very little autoroute) and I haven't done 8 or 10 hour days for a loooooong time, That and the weather forcast is mainly why i'm keeping theplans fluid cos if I find it's just fucking miserable and / or painful then I shall stop and re adjust the plans accordingly ( the Joys of riding alone) Plan A is this ( ish). wednesday morning to Clermont Ferrand ( I know I can do this, cos I'e done it before in a small group. about 4 hours afternoon: millau via les Gorges du Tarn. spend the night in Millau and then an easy ride down to Capestang where I'll stay on one of our boats and, if they've let him back in the country, say hello to @Tango ( can you PM me a phone number mate? that way I can let you know if i've copped out, or call you on thursday afternoon to meet up.) Friday, still a bit vague and will depend on motivation and weather but something basically hesding north with with the autoroute as the escape route if needed overnight stop around Ambert or Thiers. Then more North and home on the saturday which will just be a slog cos from Vichy North I know the roads having ridden them many times already. Unfortunately no real escape route here as returning into Burgundy and the land that time forgot and the world passes by. I'll try and take some pics if the weather's not too bad. about 1500km in all.

there's another place?! why wasn't I told?

pretty much, except that we're now playing catch up for 2 winters worth of repairs and maintenance not done, so yeah, short staffed, under equipped, no stock and no money to buy any parts, but still expected to provide the same level of service and quality... I'm now having a week off and have a 4 day trip planned but as per usual with me things are going wrong one after the other which may well prevent that from hapenning.

currently working 9 days a week, ( 40hours overtime sofar this month) so not much else getting done really. I've planned a 4 day trip for next week but the longrange forcast is shite weather for the whole time so I dunno wether it'll happen or not ( and I have to avoid injuring myself at work for the next 3 days)

my doc made me take mine 3 times a day for three days and calculate the average. The pharmacy lent me and bracelet thingy with a digital readout that was idiot proof... supposedly it was hardly a constraint to do it and cost nothing.

it,s been fookin snowing here, on and off, since friday afternoon here, thursday was 20 degrees today it was 2 or 3. tomorrow much the same. I, worked all week, and done 5 hrs overtime today. I shall mostly be sleeping tomorrow. Starting summer hours this week so will be working weekends from now till october, well saturdays anyway and having time off during the week.

no they move quite slowly... i crease me up sometimes.

main problem is the amount of tax on the bloody stuff and as it's all percentage based, the higher the price the more money the govt makes out of it. I dunno how true this is but I read lest week that if a litre of petrol is 2€ then 1€60 of that is govt tax...

Avallon, that's where I was at 2,30 am on sunday morning picking the girls up from the cinema...

Well im probably going to have to sell at least one of them to pay for the petrol…

On the P&O firing question, that manner of termination of employment would simply be illegal under European employment laws. Oh, wait a minute… the Uk voted to leave the EU… Tough shit then I guess. ( but don’t let anybody say “i told you so…”)

Well its a lovely day here today but i wont get any riding in. Maybe tomorrow. Mrs Moon is working all weekend so i’m trying to rack up some brownie points by doing all the housework & a couple of other things ive been meaning to do for a while. I also jave to take the twins to the cinema in Avallon (50km) for 17:30 and then go pick rhem up at 02:30 tomorrow. Now am i a hero or what?!

well I got so sick of hearing "brexit means brexit" that I now just say " Brexit means Brexit, now fuck off !"

"education is important... opening the pub is importanter!"

you'l have to buy the books to find out....

cheers, but unless something very strange happens I'll kip on one of our boats at Capestang. I might come round and drink your coffee though if you're not too far away from there.

well if my plan comes off and the weather is clement enough I'm planning on heading into @Tango country. A trip south via millau, free nights kip ( and drinking) at our base in Capestang and home via Ambert in the Auvergne. about 1500kms in all. I'm planning on doing it over 4 days cos I can't do huge distances in one hit anymore cos my knees and back wont take it and I'd rather take my time and only use the Autoroute in short sections to make ground so it'll be mostly Route Nationales and D roads. I reckon if I eat from a supermarket at lunchtime and stay in Youth hostels ( Yeah!... youth hostels! ) on nights 1 and 3 I can feed in a restaurant in the evening and keep the cost down to about 85 € a day. depending on fuel costs at the time obviously.