Having passed though the Alsace Lorraine region of France on
the trip to the misty mountains we thought it looked worth a
visit to check out a few more of the roads. It looked very promising
and not too much traffic to spoil the fun.
The
trip there was a tad boring, cutting diagonally down meant quite
a few long straight roads across Picardy - a bit more planning
might get us some better roads next time, but choice is limited
in this part of France.
Stop one was just outside Rethel in a small village with one
bar and one hotel, which was enough for us. The bar doubled
up as the hotel restaurant; no choice of menu but the Coque
Francais was tasty and you can't knock a room, garage for the
bikes, four course meal and a good few beers all for 45 euros.
Now into the Champagne-Ardennes the roads improved a bit as
we followed the River Aisne for a while and then struck further
west into the Lorraine. The countryside here is still pretty
flat and open, and the roads in the few hills are too small
and bumpy to be much fun. Once past Nancy things get a bit more
interesting but it's not until we get into the proper hills
of the Alsace that the roads really start to improve.
This
was a long day's ride, over 300 miles on twisty backroads, and
we were running late for a hotel. A couple of abortive tries
showed that this area is popular even outside the school holiday
period and we had to turn to Tom-tom for suggestions. It came
up with a ferme auberge in the middle of nowhere, and luckily
for us they had some rooms; one point here, you must be able
to speak a little French in these areas, no one speaks English
and if you want a room and a meal your gonna have to have some
French or German.
The next morning we were in the hills proper. We started off
checking out the main roads such as the D48 and the D417 which
offered excellent fastish bends and little traffic, before trying
the D430 south towards Mulhuse. This one turned out to be a
popular tourist road, and although not too busy there were a
lot of people about at viewpoints and this limited our riding
enjoyment. But the views were good.
At this point we realised that on of the 'Blades had developed
electrical problems and was running out of go for the starter
motor. So we turned north for Colmar in the hope of finding
a Honda dealer. Bit of a long shot we thought, but heading into
town via the industrial area one of the first signs we saw was
the Honda logo, and there was a large bike shop right in front
of us. A quick meter check of the charging circuit showed only
12.5 volts output, so something wasn't right. Perhaps the regulator
thought the shop mechanic. They had none in stock but there
was just about enough output to keep things topped up if the
headlight was disconnected, so we bought a replacement battery
and carried onward. Interesting note: on return to Brussels
a check with the local dealer revealed that the RR5 'Blade was
subject to a recall for a faulty generator. How come the Colmar
dealer didn't tell us this?
On
to Ribeauville for the night and the next day we headed northwards
with the idea of cutting right up through the Alsace hills and
then heading north-west across Lorraine to Luxembourg.
This was Sunday, but traffic was pretty light in the hills.
Roads were generally excellent, good twisty sections with grippy
surfaces, although perhaps a few too many villages. Some better
planning needed. Being Sunday there were quite a few bikes out
and at one point we picked up a couple of German lads and we
had a good run on slightly slidey damp roads - there is always
the chance of a shower in these green hills.
And then we came by chance upon perhaps the best road of the
trip, the D993, a lovely fast sweeping road with shellgrip like
surface which twists through the forests north-west into the
Lorraine. One or two cars, the odd bike, but mostly just us
and as quick as you can manage.
Once out of the hills the roads lost a lot of their interest
and it was just a matter of pressing on towards Luxembourg,
the Ardennes offering some brief interest before the Pas de
Calais and le tunnel. The Alsace is definitely worth further
investigation as there are some good roads and it's just a matter
of working out some routes which avoid the villages as much
as possible.
