You may have noticed that there has been nothing new on this website for a couple of days, this is because we have had a long weekend away in Dijon for our first (but definitely not last) visit to the classic bike event Coupes Moto Legende.

Having wanted to do this trip for a while and also wanting to try out a motorcycle tour and add into that our super low mortgage at the moment, made it the perfect time to do the trip.

I am planning to do a full report once all the photos and videos are sorted out, but I thought I would just give a first few impressions.

Although we constantly moan about the state of the roads in this country and the health and safety police you can kind of get used to how bad it is until you go somewhere like France where the roads are smooth, quite empty and the drivers are mostly extremely considerate. Whether this consideration is as a result of the lack of congestion and potholes I don’t know but it must be a factor – take note Mr Brown repair the roads and reduce road rage, with all the MPs expenses being repaid why not top up the road repair money budget? Of course that’s assuming one actually exists.

The poor state of our roads became particularly evident after arriving back in this country. After riding 370 miles from Dijon to Calais without stopping unless we wanted to and in relative comfort (numb bums aside)the last 170 miles in the UK was like torture and I’m not exaggerating, it was the most miserable part of the trip. The roads were bumpy, congested and full of centre lane hogs (nothing to do with Harleys). We stopped on an M25 roundabout for about 3 minutes and virtually immediately we were pounced on by the motorway police, never mind the mobile phone using public going on their merry way lets see what these two bikers are up to.

The French are extremely laid back and at the Coupes Moto Legende circuit this was particularly in evidence for the loosely described Parade Laps where Health and Safety did not appear to be a feature, instead the ‘at your own risk’ wear overalls to ride your motorbike rather than full race leathers attitude. Oh happy days.

There is a downside to travelling in France before you get the idea that this is a knock everything about Britain report. For a start the current exchange rate of Euros to Pounds does make things very expensive e.g. a can of Guinness (1/2 size of cans here) 3.70 Euros, we didn’t drink too many of those I can tell you. Plus the gun-toting Police are very strict on speed, however the French drivers do warn you by flashing their headlights when you are approaching a speed trap.

All in all a very good trip and one conclusion we came to was that we will not go on organised trips again as we realised that riding as part of a group is not our bag even if the camaraderie in the bar later is. The B & B we stayed at just outside Dover is definitely worth a mention and I did something I rarely feel inclined to do, which is I have put feedback on the website where I found Ale Farm at Sutton, near Dover. You can see more by clicking here

Full report soon…