We set off on 30^th April for a few days in the south of France on the two FJRs.  As Alan and Teresa had such a good time in Spain and Portugal on their FJR in October it was not too difficult to persuade John and Bridget to go along on this trip.  It was to be Bridget’s first foray abroad on a motorbike so it is fair to say she was somewhat apprehensive.

We had a good run down to Bourges (approx. 350 miles) where we stayed the night followed by a second day of 270 miles down to Millau.  This took us along a mixture of motorway and country roads to break up the monotony with some fantastic scenery.  It was great to experience motorways with sharp bends going through the Massif Central.  The roads and viaducts were quite spectacular.  The last 30 miles or so were in the rain and we arrived at the toll booths to the bridge where we were supposed to divert the last 1 mile down into Millau.  You can imagine we were not amused to find that the road was blocked and we had to do a 14 mile detour in the pouring rain when we were already knackered!

We stayed at the Cevenol Hotel where we had a warm greeting and enjoyed some excellent and well priced cuisine (and a few drinks),

The following day we set off for the Dargilan Cave high up in Les Causes mountains in the Cevennes National Park.  We managed to go “off piste” by following TOM TOM which took us up into the mountains with some surprisingly tight hair pins and through forests.  We arrived just in time for a tour (in French only) but it has to be said that the pink stalagmites and stalagtites were very impressive as was the petrified waterfall that is some 100m long and 20m high.  They say you can get Notre Dame Cathedral into this cave and you an believe them.

From there we went to Florac and then along the Gorges Du Tarn down to Le Rozier and back to Millau.  What a  fabulous road and no wonder we came across so many bikers.  Road and scenery absolutely stunning.  The FJRs had to cope with a few miles of gravel roads but no problems there.

The following day Bridget was suffering from ear problems due to a not too well fitting crash helmet so the girls decided they would have a day off the bikes.  We then set off to the bridge to admire this wonderful structure – highest bridge in the world, taller than the Eiffel Tower.  For 15 years or so all the motorway traffic had to travel down into Millau and then across the old bridge, no wonder they are so pleased to have this magnificent structure which opened about 5 years ago.  It is rare that a man made structure  can actually enhance such a beautiful natural environment, but this does.  Alan is pleased to point out that the Viaduc du Millau was designed by a British architect although he does not have any bridges in his own portfolio!

We had an unfortunate experience when we thought the camera with all of the photos so far had been “misappropriated” in a shop but somehow managed to turn up in John and Bridget’s room.

We started our return journey on 4/5/10 expecting to take about 4 – 5 hours inclusive of stops.  It rained heavily for the first 70  or so miles, this turned to sleet and within no time we were into snow.  At one stage Alan had ice that suddenly formed between his double glazed visor and had to do an emergency stop on the narrow hard shoulder of the motorway with max. 2m visibility.  Hair-raising to say the least, and when he lifted his visor, only then did he see John and Bridget who had also pulled over only 20m ahead of them.  John too had totally steamed up so he removed his glasses which helped. The Nolan inner visors were useless!  Alan removed his totally to prevent ice build up and unfortunately his glasses fell apart as he was cleaning them – lucky he had contact lenses handy.  (The optician subsequently said that that can only happen in extreme cold!).  We agreed that we would pull in to the next service station to review our situation.

We passed a collision where two cars and two bikes and come off the road – we found out later that the bikers has simply slipped on the ice but were uninjured although their bikes had to be recovered.

Alan and Teresa pulled in to the next station at St. Flour but having spent half an hour looking around 5 buildings including hotels, restaurants and garage all of which were closed decided to continue.  It transpired that John and Bridget had missed the service station but turned  into the next picnic view point which was already a white over.  There they made the decision to try to get back onto the motorway before they got completely snowed in. They felt help would be more forthcoming on the motorway than from a tucked away view point. With both feet sliding along the road like a pair of skis, John just managed to get back on the motorway thankfully to a slight downhill exit. He felt certain that he would not have made it if it if it had been up hill.

Once on the motorway they followed some lorries that were forming sufficient tracks for him to follow. At one stage there was a snow plough up his backside but he was not going to or able to pull over into the 3 or 4 inches of snow to let it pass.  They plodded on through the snow and some 3 hours later they made it to a snow free service station where Bridget could hardly get off the bike or stop shivering,  John was concerned that her core body temperature had dropped but with a bowl of soup and some dry clothes they set off in the driving rain for the hotel. One Frenchman asked which way they had come and called them champions as he had also done the trip only a few minutes beforehand. He thought he was lucky to get out in his car!

In the meantime back at St. Flour, where Alan and Teresa were by now well and truly stuck, the snow was turning into a real blizzard behind them.  In the middle of nowhere (as all the buildings were found to be closed) Alan and his by now shivering wife were well and truly in trouble as the bike could not be moved and frankly it would have been suicide to get back on to the motorway during the blizzard.  The picture at St. Flour (sic) was just before the blizzard – you can see how close the motorway is.

Fortunately the second of only 4 off road vehicles that passed was the Gendarmes and it has to be said they were superbly helpful.  While sitting with then for about 2 hours in their warm vehicle they explained in franglais that there had just been a 15 vehicle pileup  just south of the service station (somebody had been looking over  A and T) and that the awaited rescue vehicle could not get through the now closed northbound carriageway.  They organised another pick up which was to get to them from an access road into the service area.  Then to great dismay the gendarmes later said there was now another accident and as all other help was at the first two they would have to part company and leave the intrepid travellers there in the blizzard to wait for an unknown time for rescue.   After what seemed an eternity when Alan was starting to think about building a snow hole to give some comfort against the freezing wind and snow, help arrived.  Now, has anyone tried to get a bike which cannot be moved onto a sloping flat bed lorry which is covered in ice – it is not easy. It was eventually towed on but not without a lot of panicking by all concerned.  The driver was able to get the bike, Alan and Teresa to Massiac where the snow had cleared.   There was then a repeat performance of getting the bike off the lorry.  The only way that this could be achieved was by the non English speaking Frenchman who was wearing boots with good grip in the snow to teach the non French speaking Alan wearing only biking boots (no good for grip on the icy flat bed lorry) how to use the 5 lever controls to get the bike down while the driver sat astride it stopping it from slipping off the back.

The rest of the journey although in the pouring rain was relatively uneventful and Alan and Teresa were reunited with John and Bridget at Bourges after 11 hours since setting off.  John was fortunate in that he missed the worst of the snow and sensibly decided to keep riding to stay ahead of the worst of the weather.  In case any readers are wondering, we jointly felt that it was best for J and B to continue rather than wait because they could at least keep safe and remain in contact with A and T with the mobiles.  No point in having double the problem.

The following day it rained for the first 30 or so miles and then thankfully stopped.  However the wind was constant, nonstop until we were almost at Le Havre.  It caught both bikes on more than one occasion and it was a real struggle to keep to a safe line.

We arrived early at the port only to be told that we should return an hour later.  When we asked at the booth how we were to get back out we were told we had to drive through the 9 lanes of on-coming traffic back to the roundabout!  Although there was no traffic in sight we thought it best to cross the adjacent lorry lanes and these were also clear and to leave via the departure lanes.  The  little Hitler from the booth came running out and insisted that that was too dangerous and we would have to go the route she told us – HEALTH AND SAFETY HUH!!!!

It was good to get home though!  By the way, the trip to Germany, Switzerland and the highest road in Austria has been put on hold for some reason!  Something about “over dead bodies”.

Alan Culshaw and John Hardman