Welcome back!

If you like classic bikes, racing and the idea of spending a few days in France then Coupes Moto Legende could be just your cup of tea.

We certainly thought it sounded like ours and having not been touring abroad for a while we thought we would join an organised tour and do the trip.

The trip itself exceeded our expectations and we were pleasantly reminded what a joy it is to travel in France. There seems to be this widely and unfounded myth that the French are generally obnoxious. In our experience this is definitely not the case and seems to be the opinion of the tabloid-reading, stay-at-home public who think shouting loudly in English to be understood will get them the service they deserve and then are surprised when it doesn’t….hmmm.

Anyhow, as I say, we totally enjoyed the French experience and highly recommend it, but do yourself a favour and learn a few French phrases before you go, you’ll be surprised at what that achieves.

But before I go any further talking about the trip I feel I have to mention the B & B we stayed at just outside Dover on the way down. When we received our tour information pack we discovered that the time of the outgoing ferry was 8am with a 7am meet at the docks – gulp! So enter ‘Bike Friendly Hotels’ into Google and the first website to come up is Bike Stay a website with locations around the world that, for example, offer secure bike parking.

So, having located Dover on the website, we contacted the owner of Ale Farm at Sutton just outside Dover and booked for the Thursday night. The accommodation was so good that I did something I rarely do (usually because places are not worthy of it) and sent Rachel, the owner, an email thanking her and also left a comment on the Bike Stay website. Unusually for B & B you get a self contained unit at Ale Farm, which was furnished to a very high standard and Rachel, knowing that we would be too early for breakfast, left us an array of goodies whilst charging us less than someone who would be staying. Secure bike parking was in one of the barns not to mention the three dogs on site. This is definitely one of those places that we would stay at again and next time we will have breakfast as it is highly recommended by the visitors book. Rachel tells us she gets quite a few motorcyclists staying with her and she loves it.

Anyway, back to the trip, we met up with the others at Dover and had chance to get to know each other a bit on the Ferry, this doesn’t take long when there is a mutual love of motorcycles going on, and we even met a chap whose mother lives in the next road to us at home, how spooky is that?

We were asked by the tour organiser if we wanted to ride with him or do our own thing and initially we thought we would ride with the group, but with 20 bikes we soon decided that we would make our own way to Dijon.

Did I mention that we like riding in France? The people in service areas are polite and constantly wish you a good journey I’ll let you make up your own mind on how this compares to the UK. They also have something fairly unique in France on the motorways which are rest areas comprising toilets some picnic tables and well-kept grounds, which as you can see from the photo, are sometimes deserted.

The toll roads, which were the route given to us by the tour organiser, can be somewhat monotonous, but with 370 miles to cover it was a means to an end. However, the roads do meander through the lovely French countryside and there is always something to look at. The last part of the journey was on the N71 (sometimes called the N971) from Troyes to Dijon and this was a fantastically twisty road with hairpins a-plenty and mainly fabulous road surfaces. There was a heart-stopping moment on some recently laid tarmac, where the loose stones were not immediately in evidence shall we say. Several in the group later recounted the same but agreed that it was a spectacularly good road. It was a pity that this road was at the end of a long and tiring journey when the sun was at it’s fiercest as it is much more enjoyable when fresh, which we were able to enjoy on our return.

We stayed at an Ibis Hotel in the centre of Dijon with secure bike parking. This was easy to find and was a 10 minute walk from the town centre and a pleasant 20-30 minute ride to the circuit back along the N71.

So to the circuit on the Saturday, and once you get close, much like in this country, there is a steady stream of bikes going in the same direction. Spectator parking is on the grass within a short walking distance to the circuit entrance. The paddock and the various stands are inside of the race track and are accessed via a walkway that runs beneath it.

Now paddock is a bit of a posh word for what is essentially a collection of tented stalls in which the various machinery is being displayed and fettled. We were surprised by the array of early Japanese motorcycles which for most of us would have been starter machines, way back when, to be used and abused and now only tend to turn up at shows. However, here were pristine and near-pristine examples being used. On our journey down we were passed by groups of French motorcyclists ’scratching’ these bikes and boy do they know how to ride and that’s just the women!

We also saw bikes that are quite rare in the UK – BMW R50s with and without sidecars, Zundapp outfits complete with machine guns, plus new models including the V-Rod Muscle and new Moto Guzzis.

The French also have a sense of style as evidenced in the wicked moustaches and jaunty head gear plus despite the general heat there was no raised voices and passage to and from the pre-race area was done in a calm and relatively quiet manner despite the crowds milling freely about.

There was also a good deal of cooking going on in the various tents and we even saw one guy cooking fresh langoustine.

Commonsense also seemed to prevail, rather than over the top health and safety concerns, as evidenced by a chap in overalls and old-fashioned helmet going out on track, like days gone by. It would appear that each individual was allowed to take responsibilty for his or her actions, how civilised.

We watched the 125GP and the sidecar racing from a great spot overlooking the parabolica and you can see a short video including these below. The quality isn’t as good as I would have hoped but it should give you a taster of what’s on offer and maybe tempt you to visit this great event yourself.

I don’t like to complain about the heat, but it was HOT! We sat watching the racing for as long as we could bear, even with hats and suntan lotion there is a limit and once we had satisfied our petrol head and Castrol R cravings and having had a most enjoyable day we headed back for the shade and the beer at the hotel.

As I mentioned earlier, the centre of Dijon was less than 10 minutes walk away and so we decided on the Sunday to have a gentle day wandering around and exploring and gave ourselves a rest before the mammoth 540 mile journey looming the following day. As you will see at the end of the video it is well worth visiting and getting absorbed into the laid-back French cafe culture.

There was a very early start on the Monday and in the valleys on the N71 it was actually quite cold, meaning heated grips were used for the first 100 miles or so. But early starts mean even emptier roads and this was a real pleasure, we hardly saw another car or person for the first half of our journey. It also meant we got to really enjoy the fantastic N71 like we hadn’t been able to on the way down.

I won’t go on about how horrible the journey was from Dover to home (although it was 170 miles of hell) but ignoring that fact it really was a fantastic weekend and we were both glad that we made the effort and went to the Coupes Moto Legende and I have a feeling we’ll be going back.