Nick, should be there around 6.30ish:D Have you checked availabilty at this place of yours:rolleyes:
I haven’t touched another burger since that discusting place you took us to:w00t:
They have a double which I think could be a triple, but not two doubles that week.
And of course salads for Nick 
edit:- Can make the teahut tomorrow evening, but not before about 8.30pm
My dad is in Bulgaria right now… or he was… no wait right now he is in Croatia so that means he was in Bulgaria… he took a month off and is doing 12 countries… lucky man 
Just confirmed that’s the case, only one double available on those dates, no good for us then:w00t:
Nick, we can get across in two days, first stop=Tours then onto Vielle-Adour.
330miles a day, easy:)
This give this thread a couple of days to see who’s in and who’s not and then you can start your planning all over again:w00t:
So, meeting Rob at 6.30 tonight. Any “potentials” welcome to come down.
Looking to probably base ourselves at one place for 4 or 5 nights - will mean we plan go play, less the luggage, and will make booking a lot earier as there are fewer places to find.
I’m off now (it’s sunny :P) so any posts won;t be read by me at least.
BL
N240/N260 - something like this:-
Description mercilessly stolen from another forum:-
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:“Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:“Calibri”,“sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:“Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:“Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}The famous N260 from a bikers perspective:-
“The N260 Has the most mundane start of any road It startsat a set of Traffic lights at Llanca on the coast road in Northern Spainamongst thousands of white painted holiday homes and apartment blocks withterracotta roof tiles. Here it is travelled every year by countless quantitiesof camping cars and rubber necking tourists in cars who rarely drive atanything above snails pace, as here, it is part of the famous coast road toFrance along the Vermillion coast. Yet within half a mile from its start thebeautifully surfaced road starts to twist, turn and swoop but giving littleaway as to what lies ahead along its 311 miles before it arrives a few milesshort of Jaca where this amazing road is unceremoniously terminated havingreached its crescendo on the last few miles to Biescas with a waterfall ofcontinuous bends.
The road is in many respects similar to the special stages of a rally where thevarious “stages” are separated by short lengths of normal road where one cancatch ones breath before the next onslaught of bends and hills arrives to playhavoc with all your senses. This road is not for the feint hearted, or for thebeginner it is best ridden with respect and by riders who keep more than alittle in reserve for the unexpected occurrence such as coming across the oddcow or goat or large rock or muck on the blind side of a corner as well as thepossibility of coming face to face with another motorist on the wrong side ofthe road, however that doesn’t mean that one should not push the envelope justa bit, But be fully aware that in many places there is precious little, ifanything, separating you from a drop of up to 500 metres. So in the event thatyou get it wrong it could take your mates following, a long time to find youand even longer to get you back up to the road if you are sporting injuries.
From the coast the road starts off with some fast sweepers through somefoothills, to wet ones appetite, but all too soon these are replaced by a longstraight that goes straight into the heart of Figueres (Famous for the DaliMuseum) after traversing Figueres the road remains quite benign to Olot, inplaces it is fast dual carriageway, but then at Olot the road appears to splitinto two and with the same destination, Ripoll!, signposted in both directions,confused? You will be! at this point we must stay in the LH lane and within 500yards you will realise that you have started another special section asimmediately you are thrown a dizzying collection of twists , turns 180 degswitchbacks which continue for 19 miles to the suburbs of Ripoll this is abaptism of fire but nothing compared to what’s coming.
After refuelling one heads north for 9 miles to Ribes de Freser (this road usedto be marked as the N152 but has recently be returned to its original name theN260) the road follows a river so there are many fast sweeping smooth cornersbut one must take it steady and regroup as another special section is not faraway.
After leaving Ribes de Freser the road immediately narrows and you come acrossa large signpost that warns you that the road ahead amongst other thingscontains N bends for 45kms!! and that’s just to the Col de Toses , there are afurther 22 kms after the Col to Puigcerda that is nearly the distance fromOxford to London! with only a car passing every ten minutes or so. This makesthe cat and fiddle with it’s over policed roads simply pale intoinsignificance. One cannot attempt to describe this road, it is a dizzyingcollection of every kind of bend and turn, which progress ever upward givingjust enough time between bends for a gulp of air. There is no respite at alland just when you are starting to have trouble losing concentration you arriveat the Col de Toses (1800M) where the wise will take a break to discuss whatthey have just experienced. It is a humbling bit of road and more than one ortwo get all religious when they describe what they have just been through. Mostsimply stop, look at the magnificent views along the Serra de Cadi (one of thelargest valleys in Europe) and go over and over again in ones minds eye whatthey have experienced in the last 40 odd kms. After this it is downhill towardPuigcerda but a word of caution! starting just after the Col the local councilhas repaired cracks in the road with tar overbanding the result is what lookslike masses of black snakes on the road these are in fact the slipperiest bits ofroad I have ever come across, touch a black line is to court a big slide and atight ring piece so beware! This overbanding continues most of the way toPuigcerda but becomes less frequent and easier to dodge the further you go.
From Puigcerda you can take a well earned rest along the next 32 miles via laSeu dUrgell to Adrall, however the road is full of fast sweepers with plenty ofvisibility and as smooth as a babies derriere and that inevitably tempts one topush on, so one does! there are one or two speed cameras but these are only foruse against the locals, not tourists, but one must keep an eye out for the thelocal men in blue near the towns as they don’t suffer fools gladly and finescan be steep, but hey, unlike the French they take credit cards, that will donicely sir!.
Once you turn right for Sort at the village of Adrall you must don yourconcentration cap again, limber up the knees elbows and neck becauseimmediately you are once again under the cosh. This section of a mere 30 milesagain throws every kind of turn at you, like Henry Cooper twisting in the ringwith Mohamad Ali, bends were coming from every angle some are very slow indeedothers can be taken quite quickly but only open up at the last second the speedlimit signs near the bends give a good idea of how fast you can take them ageneral rule of them is use MPH instead of the posted KPH but if you comeacross a 40 or a 30 sign then it is nearly bottom gear stuff! The views if youcan dare take your eyes off the road for a second are spectacular; thisparticular section of road is used by many of the local sportsbike owners onthe weekends. All too soon or not soon enough depending on your numb bum youarrive in Sort where we stop for lunch (there are many restaurants and cafes)and have a well deserved break. Mileage so far? 157 miles, number of bends?Lost count 2 hours ago, number of scares? Oh just a few! Did you get your kneedown? The knee sliders bear silent witness.
At this point most people who are not into masochism call it a day but it isamazing what a meal and some renewed blood sugar levels will do. Do I need toremind you we have only ridden half of the road! You want more?
By now you know the form and the next bit of road isn’t quite flat but it is abit easier than the last 2 hours. Bear in mind much of the riding has been over3000 feet high and some of it is well over 5000 feet so water intake to aidconcentration and avoid dehydration is of paramount importance.
Approaching Pont de Suert the road once again commences its Jekyl and Hydemanner and really gets back into the swing of it by the time you get to the Colde Espina and when we reach the col de Fadas once again it is time for a breakthis last section has been another 61 miles and by now lack of concentration isagain causing problems. However the N260 has perhaps saved the best to the endthe last section another 75 miles of roads has many tunnels , cols over 2000metres high, amazing lakes, with strange coloured water, and eventually in theaptly named National Park of the lost motorcyclist, (sorry, Lost Mountain ed.),the final act is played out over the last 15 miles to Biecas by which timeevery muscle and nerve and all other unmentionables are screaming enough! Thelast 17 miles into Jaca where we have a superb biker friendly hotel with garagereserved, seems to take forever, but after a shower, and over a good meal, anda drink or five, all the stories of the days experience come out.
So there you have it, the greatest motorcyling road! Not convinced? Let’s lookat the competition take the famous route Napoleon it is less than 100 mileswith far fewer bends, yes it has some good sections with good views as well,but it’s a pussycat in this company. The greatest road as selected by the BBCsTop Gear team? well that was simply pathetic! There are good roads in Italybetween Naples and Salerno, in the Alps, in southern Spain the road to Ronda iswell known, and in Scandinavia as well there are good roads, in fact there aregood roads in most countries but they are only 20- 50 miles long this is thegranddaddy of them all forget the Pirbright bends, forget the A-whatever inWales, forget the Cat and Fiddle, This road is the same distance as the roadfrom Carlisle to London with hardly a straight section worth calling a straight, if that doesn’t make this the greatest road, what does?, wimps need notapply!.”
Nick, we can get across in two days, first stop=Tours then onto Vielle-Adour.
330miles a day, easy:)
330 miles in a day across those roads aint easy, on my last trip down there found roads so twistie took 1 1/2 hours to do approx 30 miles 
still looks like good trip one I’m planning for next year
same here;) but will ferry to Santandar:)… oh! and doing it in a car:cool:
Some of the best roads in the Pyrenees won’t take a car:w00t: Get on yer bike:D
I’m going in September as well, 10th to the 17th. What route you taking down? We’re going to Calais and not to Santander and then riding down.
Was talking about getting to our Base, riding across France Steve:w00t:…If a rider can’t do about 670 miles across france in two days my advice would be to stop riding, period:D
Early stages mate, will be looking at it this weekend… got a good map from Ian (veloslow) showing recommended routes that i can’t wait to get stuck into:cool:
They will take the car I intend going in :w00t:
Ok, we’ve gone from one idea to another Nick, I know it was my idea to have a base for 5 nights and go play from there:w00t: but when looking at it, it tied our hands as to what can be done and what can’t, so srappped it all and went back to the drawing board:w00t:
Now after a lot of reasearch, reading and more reading, chopping and changing :
I’ve come up with this :
Day 1: Calais - Caen 220 miles
Day 2: Caen - Fontenay-le-Comte 264 miles
Day 3: Fontenay-le-comte - Vieux-Boucau 265 miles
Day 4: Vieux-Boucau - Luz-st-Sauveur 170 miles
Day 5: Luz-st-Sauveur - Tarascon 144 miles
Day 6: Tarascon - Perpignon 146 miles
Day 7: Perpignon - Les-Eyzies 196 miles
Day 8: Les-Eyzies - Saumur 182 miles
Day 9: Saumur - Calais (Motorways) 365 miles
A total of 1952 miles:cool:
If this is all ok i’ll now move on and start looking and booking hotels:D
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=47.09505043749491~0.7168307527899742&lvl=5&sty=c&rtp=pos.50.953079_1.853049_Calais%2C%20Pas-de-Calais%2C%20France___e_~pos.49.184349_-0.361099_Caen%2C%20Calvados%2C%20France___e_~pos.46.46486300000014_-0.8022740000000013_Fontenay-le-Comte%2C%20Vend%C3%A9e%2C%20France___e_~pos.43.789384_-1.395314_Vieux-Boucau-les-Bains%2C%20Landes%2C%20France___e_~pos.42.873125_-0.003128_Luz-Saint-Sauveur%2C%20Hautes-Pyr%C3%A9n%C3%A9es%2C%20France___e_~pos.42.845669_1.602078_Tarascon%2C%20Ari%C3%A8ge%2C%20France___e_~pos.42.69812_2.88743_Perpignan%2C%20Pyr%C3%A9n%C3%A9es-Orientales%2C%20France___e_~pos.44.935942_1.013262_Les%20Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil%2C%20Dordogne%2C%20France___e_~pos.47.259763_-0.07932_Saumur%2C%20Maine-et-Loire%2C%20France___e_~pos.50.953079_1.8530489999999993_Calais%2C%20Pas-de-Calais%2C%20France___e_&mode=D&rtop=0~0~0~&form=LMLTSN&encType=1
Sorry, if somone can post that as a picture I would be very gratefull :doze:. The route as it stands :blink:
And at what precise point do the pyrenese figure on this rideout?:crazy:
Ha, Ha…he’s got the destinations correct Chris but route totally wrong:w00t:, i’ll update him when i see him, yes i’m still laughing too:laugh: to be fair, E and F is in the pyrenees;)