Going to France for a week - need help and suggestions

Off-topic
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Hi All

Am planning to ride down to a mates house in Limoges in last week in May (hoping for warm weather then).

Will be going two up.

We want go on a scenic route and visit a few places on the way down.

I have always wanted to go and visit the War Graves to pay my respects but other than that I have no idea of good places to visit.

Using the AA website it’s about 420 Miles avoiding toll roads. So I was thinking of taking about 4 to get there.

I have also read a few articles in the past about planning a trip e.g. what things to take - avoid taking, what docs to take etc etc but never kept any of them.

So any pointers from your own experience or links to good articles would be appreciated.

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pm me with your e-mail address i have something that will help,

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received will send now

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A bit of general advice from my days of trucking in France:

  • No matter how terrible your French is, try to speak at least a few words. Get one of those tourist guides and try your best. The people there will give you huge credit for even attempting. If you expect them to speak English, they’ll be a lot more rude and distant. Remember, you’re in their country now.

  • Stick to the Route Nationales vs. the motorway, it will be a lot more interesting, and free.

  • Eat at least once at a “Routier”, the French truck stops that boast awesome three course dinners for about 15 quid around evening time. You’ll be amazed.

  • Have breakfast at least once by stopping at a small village Boulangerie on the way through for a fresh Baguette. Just make sure you finish eating it before the day is over because the next day you’ll be able to beat somebody over the head with it :w00t:

  • If you smoke remember you can’t buy fags everywhere in France, you need the “Tabac” shops in the towns. If you go to petrol stations they might sell you a pack of butts under the counter but it’s likely to be very overpriced.

  • Like your coffee large? Tough ****, you’re in France now. Cafe Long is as good as it gets. Best drink two at once to get any volume out of it.

Other than that have a good ride and remember that while on the RN’s the sky’s the limit (or 90 km/h whatever comes first) you don’t want to be blowing through towns at silly speeds, at least in the daytime. Les Flicks take a dim view to that.

Bon voyage! :smiley:

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If you’re thinking of going via the ferry to Caen/St Malo (a decent route to get to Limoges imho), and you’re interested in war graves/museums,/etc, then I’d definitely suggest a few days around Caen.

There’s one huge war museum in Caen that’s really worthwhile. Also, a few miles along the coast is Arromanches (the Mulberry harbours. Really amazing. A man made harbour that they towed across from the UK to enable th beach landings. Another good museum there.), and Bayeux is an excellent place to base yourself for a night (good war museum and cemetary, and the tapestry’s pretty good even if you don’t think you like that sort of thing. Also a couple of decent restaurants and lots of bars). Very near to Caen centre is Pegasus bridge (excellent museum - watch The Longest Day for the amazing story of what happened there)

Nearby is the fantastic small town of Domfront (on your route if you go crow-fly from Caen to Limoges), which is in the centre of the french perry-making region. The countryside around there is fantastic, and visit La Maison du Pomme at du Poire - http://www.parc-naturel-normandie-maine.fr/scripts/site/04_page.php?cont_id=1&cont_appli_id=6&page_id=26&menu_id=26 - , a fantastic collection of traditional cider apple and perry pear trees, set in old farm buildings with a decent exhibition on perry and cider making. You can also go via the tiny village of Camembert, and go to the cheese museum. All around that area is fantastic countryside, and in May the blossoms will be out in all the orchards.

Hope some of that is useful. All the museums, etc, above are easily googlable.

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Thanks for all your help guys.

Am busy working through all your help and suggestions.

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BB, thats a well thought out post youve just put up sir. well done. Ive done quite a bit of France but not what you’ve just put up.

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If you want to borrow The Longest Day on DVD, just yell. For a history-buffoon like me, it was a remarkably good introduction to the beach landings and Pegasus Bridge.

Oh, and if you’re planning to do many attractions in Normandy, there’s a great discount card that you get at any museum. It costs €1 on top of the regular ticket price and saves you at least €1 at each participating museum.

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Just checked my insurance policy and it cover me for Europe but the roadside assistance only covers the UK.

eBike - they want an extra £50 for Europe.

Anybody got any ideas on who does a good but cheaper policy?

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I pay just under £50 pa for UK and Euro breakdown cover, home start and roadside. Can’t remember who it’s with, but I get it via my insurer (CIA). They were pretty good when Mrs BB had to get brought back from france in a van a few years back.

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I found this for european cover

£24.75 for up to 12 days

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Definitely visit the town of Oradour sur Glane, just north of Limoges its the site of a second war atrocity. De Gaulle closed the town to remain exactly as it was to serve as a monument to the murdered, and it is (very) slowly returning to nature. It is a strange experience, and is worth the time.

If the earlier war interests you the Historial de la Grand Guerre in Peronne is excellent, also visit the monument to the missing soldiers of the Somme battles at Thiepval, and the Newfoundland Regiment memorial at Beaumont-Hamel just north of Albert. As you travel between them you will be amazed at the number of War Cemeteries, all unbelievably well kept by the War graves Commission and somehow dont they feel morbid at all, any and all are worth stopping off for a few mins and thinking. The Somme battles were fought not much more than an hour from Calais, and because of the type of static (almost) warfare, there is a lot to experience in a small area.

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were doing the somme battlefields at beginning of May, and last year we did the Normandy beaches mainly around the Omaha area, very sombering to think that every step those guys took could have been their last, I think everyone should visit one of the memorials at least once just to remember those who went before so that we can follow along and enjoy the freedom

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If you want to splash out a bit, head to Mont St Michael after Normandy and eat in Madame Poulards. Totally unbelieveable food that will never be matched in my lifetime I feel (totally unbelieveable cost too). Mont St Michael is a cracking place also, steeped in history and totally unique.

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the pix dont do mont st michel justice does it redster ? absolutly amazing place :slight_smile:

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No indeed Steve.

To Muntu, looks like its a bit out of your way the old Mont mate, perhaps another time :slight_smile:

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Ooohh I always wondered where that was. Might go this year in fact, thanks dunchues!

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+1 from me. You’ll generally find a visitors book and a small pamphlet of info about the battle that left those poor bodies behind, and sometimes a story about one or more of the people who were killed. To me, it’s a lot easier and more moving to try to get to grips with it all in a small cemetary with a couple of dozen graves, than in one of the big ones with rows and rows of graves where you just don’t know where to start looking at them or thinking about it.

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WOW you guys are amazing - I’m so itching to go already.

Hopefully by the last week in May we will have some fine weather.

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dunchues (22/01/2009) As you travel between them you will be amazed at the number of War Cemeteries, all unbelievably well kept by the War graves Commission and somehow dont they feel morbid at all, any and all are worth stopping off for a few mins and thinking. +1 from me. You’ll generally find a visitors book and a small pamphlet of info about the battle that left those poor bodies behind, and sometimes a story about one or more of the people who were killed. To me, it’s a lot easier and more moving to try to get to grips with it all in a small cemetary with a couple of dozen graves, than in one of the big ones with rows and rows of graves where you just don’t know where to start looking at them or thinking about it.

X9 250. Central/SE London.

Yeah the smaller ones are somehow easier on the senses. Its worth standing on Thiepval Ridge and looking out, you can almost see the line of advance marked in small cemeteries. When you go into them, out of for instance 60 graves at least half will be Old Pals regiments which were made up of blokes from the same town, maybe the same factory or office. Lived together all their lives and died in the same advance. I have a book called Covenant With Death somewhere, its fact based fiction and about one such regiment and if you can find it its worth a read, then visit the area.

Its hard to imagine the scale of sacrifice, even standing there looking out I at least cant get a grip on the numbers, but can you imagine what it must have done to small English towns to see a generation disappear? After the first Somme battle the Pals regiments were assimilated into others and the experiment stopped, of course it doesnt change the numbers of fallen on all sides though.

You see a lot of headstones marked simply A Soldier Of The Great War, it is not even known whether he was Us or Them, depending on your viewpoint, which I found hugely sad at first , not because of country of origin but it seems so hard on someone so far from home and no one will ever know who you are, but somehow the guys lying there just seem like old soldiers together, without rank or race, in lovely French countryside, which of course is exactly what they are, and for me every single one of them is a hero worth two of me.

The very last thing I am is sentimental or in any way spiritual, I am pretty selfish really, but it is humbling to visit this area, even for a short time, and try to imagine a part of what it must have been like. Its an easy weekend away from London and while it may not be a lifechanging experience for most, it will, I believe, stimulate the senses of any human being. Check it out, and poppies will always make you a bit sad and you will have a new understanding of LEST WE FORGET.

BTW; thanks for making me remember too, I am driving a van back to UK from Spain this weekend, and will stop for an hour in Albert and sit with a generation I respect. .