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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.

Despite the first flights of cranes already heading back north, it' still defininately winter here. The sun was out yesterday afternoon and the temps were nearly up to double figures ( but not quite) so I donned all the thermal gear and went for a ride. I didn't get moving unill nearly 3pm so the sun was well past it's already low winter zenith and as I hate riding with the sun in my eyes I rode NW for a while keepin the sun on my left cheek, the idea being that as it sank lower I would turn NE to have it behind me and then ride South as it dropped below the tree line and so end up back at my departure point... "ish" As the sun was low there was very low the pics are all taken facing NW-ish and with looong shadows. by the time I got home at around 5,30pm the temperature had dropped to around 3c and I'd had the heated grips on for an hour already. still very bare trees I did manage to find an abandoned house for @XTreme, No I didn't go and explore it cos I couldn't be arsed. there were also one or two little lanes that lured me away from the chosen direction, mostly ending in a field or farm yard but otherwise I just follow them through and pick up my original heading at the next opportunity.

managed to get out for an hour this evening, clear skies but only about 7 deg C so I got me thermal knickers on, liner in me jacket and rode up into the vinyards west of Chablis. in the ongoing series of finding oddities amongst the vines, I found motocross track!

Weather was a bit odd on sunday, 10/10ths cloud cover with a warm wind from the south and an odd light so the pics might look a bit strange. Having spent all day saturday in the car traveling from here to Louhans, to Perouges, to Lyon and back here again my back was aching so I decided on a short ride, close to home allowing me to pull the plug and retreat if I got any pain or if the bizarre weather turned to sht. I rode south along the river to Bailly and visited the cooperative wine cellar there there are about 4 hectares underground (50 ish metres underground) where they make Cremant de Bourgogne, a local fizzy wine. This has remained open as it is, naturally, considered by the French as a "neccessary commerce". I started here because there are 3 of these underground systems along the east bank of the river between Auxerre and Cravant. Originally stone mines at the turn of the last century, this is the only one that is still safe to visit. Used today as a cooperative wine producer and seller, it was used as a munitions depot by the Germans during the occupation, the other two cave systems further along the valley were used as an aircraft repair facility by the Luftwaffe and were the target of a number of allied bombing raids. The acces is not easy and the airfield is the other side of the river, so they set up a cableway from the cave entrance, across the river and down to the valley floor. The remains of the site are still visible IF you know where to look, and I have seen at the local mayors office, photographs of a focke wulf fighter being hauled up the cableway from the runway to the underground workshop in the cliff face. the entrance/ Exit South along the river again, through Vincellottes and Vincelles onto the winding back road along the eastern bank between the cliff and the river you come across this first last time I came up here you could go in the pill box, and obviously many of the local "youfs" had done so over the years. The entrance is now sealed with a steel door and it has been transformed into a bat breeding site The other side of the pill box looks out over a 15 or 20 metre drop across the valley . A hundred metres further along is the first of the underground workshop entrances. the sign on the door says that there are "Pieges a feu" ( explosive traps) and alarms to discourage intruders. on the opposite side of the road are the vestiges of the winding tower for the cableway again looking out over the river below, but you cant see that due to the vegetation. another 100 or so metres along is the 2nd, smaller, entrance photo taken AFTER tigger had decided to have a wee nap I even had the presence of mind to think of you lot and take a pic befor picking it up! In the time it took me to pick it up 2 cars had stopped to see if I was ok or needed help, which was reassuring. On south again, past another pill box and then, as the cliff peters out somewhat, the remains of the soldiers and techniciens barracks from there I dropped down to the village of Cravant, crossed the river and headed back north along the main road to Vincelles, cut east across the railway and back towards the same place but the other side of the river and on the valley floor. The airfield is now a model aircraft club airfield from this position, if I turn northwards a little you can see the workshop entrances in the cliff face over the river ( just left of centre in the pic below) there are no traces left of the cableway gear down here, though I have heard that some are still visible down by the river. further along a dirt track from the airfield, about level with the far end of the runway is another, I presume, barracks or possibly workshop? they obviously had to dismantle wings and suchlike before moving a plane up the cables to the cliff workshop, and re assemble them again before flight. I rode straight in and took a pic looking back east straight across the valley to the cliff entrances. zoomed... I took a short vid of this place but have no idea how to post it so I'll have to work on that.

I decided to eschew the tarmac today and adjusted the suspension accordingly. having pretty much run out if ideas within the 10k radius I decided to ride some of the local trails, starting with the GR13 ( staying within 10 km of home) This is actually the first ever trail I rode on the transalp back in 2005 0r 2006 having been inspired by ride reports from, if I remember rightly, Grizz, Gnomad and one or two others on DSUK or maximum bikes. I picked up the GR13 at Champs sur Yonne and took a wrong turn almost immediately, but discovered the way into the village football field back tracked a couple of hundred yards and headed east along the correct trail I'm not very fit and am still learning the tiger off road, so I stopped regularly to think about what I was doing and to catch my breath, also to look at the map ( I use a paper IGN , (O.S. equivalent) for this sort of thing) and actually enjoy the "proper" navigation. as you can see, this is no technical "off road" riding a la Boboneleg or Sirfallsalot, but more or less wellmaintained, dry limestone trails through the vinyards. One of the things I love about riding these trails is that I came across no fences and no gates... at all. Looking out over the river, South East to Vincellottes and directly South through wooded sections above Irancy and back on the open trails across the plateau to drop down the other side back to the river and home. nearly 3 hours in all. Finished at the car wash to get the dust off,

always have been... despite my busy schedule for the weekend I found time to take part in the demo ride organised by the FFMC ( French FEM affiliated motorcycle action group) protesting against the proposed legislation imposing a "Control Technique" ( french equivqlent of the MOT) for motorcycles, and this despite numerous independant and even govt sponsored studies concluding that: "no evidence can be found of a link between mechanical failure and motorcycle accidents" " No other european country where such testing exists can demonstrate any corrolation between the testing being implemented and and a reduction in the number of accidents imvolving motorcycles" " technical or mechanical failure is a demonstrable cause in les than 0,3% of motorcycles accidents in France" and so on and so forth. The main mouving force behind the attempt at implementing this new legislation is a millionaire businessman whose name is... DEKRA which just hqppens to be the same name as the largest chaine of MOT testing stations in the country ( the potential market is possibly worth 5 billion euros)... so yes, the french are revolting in the way they are best known for, despite covid Regs, and despite shit weather. about 250 bikes held a protest ride around the 3 DEKRA testing stations this afternoon. It may well be a waste of time, but similar demos have been held all over france this week end and with general elections looming, who knows.

3rd part of the Cardinal points of the Yonne department attainable by road. The Southen most road accessible point in the department was always going to be fun because it is obviously in the heart of the Morvan Natural Parc which is a riding nirvana at any time and though not particularly warm today, around 10 or 12 degreesm the sun was shining so I early lunched and headed out. Southern most point is on the D10 between Quarré Les Tombes and Dun Les Places, right in the heart of the Forét du Duc at 47: 18'41"N 04:0'13"E. I was more than a little surprised to discover an Island... finally got there, to within a few yards turned around, and rode home along here a little bit of dirt I nearly fell off when I saw this, anybody read ( or seen the film) "Into the Wild" ? I thin kit's actually being, or has been used as a hunting cabin, but I didn't hang around too long cos I could faintly hear Banjo's tuning up...? Thought I'd throw in a Chateau for those from the new world who like that sort of thing 205km all told, and it went something like this