Tour Now Full
September 4th to 16th 12nights
Countries: England, France, Andorra and Spain
We are always engaged in the process of listening to our customers and using their feedback to refine our tour plans. After a hot bright 2009 summer morning ride across the high sierras of El Maestrazgo on our way to Alicante. We stopped for lunch and a refreshing dip in the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea at Peniscola. The consensus was that the beach and facilities here were fantastic. It follows that they also liked Alicante, but with retrospect they would have preferred to save themselves the additional miles and stayed resting here for couple of days before the return leg. This is exactly what the customers on our now shorter (2,500 mile) September 2010 tour will be doing.
On all of our tours, the destination is a pleasant place to rest up before the return leg, but on a motorcycling holiday it is secondary to the journey itself.
We start this tour over a lunchtime meet at the famous Ace Cafe, London before riding to Portsmouth where there will be time to check out the Historic Naval Dockyard, before catching the night boat to France.
The next morning we stop to admire and then cross the impressive Normandy bridge. At a leisurely pace we then visit a number of the D-day landing sites before checking into our hotel.
The highlights of the following days while riding South through France include; Spectacular Le mont St Michel. Fine dining at the vibrant Place Plum, in the Medieval heart of historic Tours. The picture postcard scenery of the Loire, Dordogne and Pays Cathare regions. The ride becomes more exciting too as we ride through increasingly hilly and mountainous, challenging terrain.
The tour crosses the Pyrenees through Andorra, over the Puerto de l'Envalira at 7,897ft and into Spain. There are more mountains and increasingly arid terrain to explore before arriving at the coast and a two night stop near the attractive resort of Peniscola, which featured in the closing scenes of the epic movie El Cid, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren.
Return leg highlights include; A visit to spectacular Montserrat, set high in the mountains North of Barcelona. French Mediterranean resorts and the city of Bezier. The amazing Millau Viaduct, followed by a thrilling ride through the Tarn Gorge and across the mountains of the Massif Central. Quiet roads through mainly hilly terrain until North of Paris, including a visit to a working Himalayan Buddhist Temple in the grounds of a chateau. To break up the final mornings ride to the ferry crossing between Calais and Dover there is a short visit to a WW1 battlefield site.
We will return to Dover by the Friday afternoon of week two.