TOUR SCHEDULE

Day 1 (28th June): Caen to Limoges

Once off the ferry, we will make our way down through France to Le Mans, stopping off at the Le Mans motor museum, before continuing on to Oradour-sur-glane. A commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in west-central France, The original village was destroyed on 10 June 1944, when 642 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a company of troops belonging to the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich a Waffen-SS unit of the military forces of Nazi Germany. A new village was built after the war on a nearby site, but on the orders of the then French president, Charles de Gaulle, the original has been maintained as a permanent memorial. We will spend some time looking around the Village and museum before heading to our hotel for the night.

Day 2 (29th June): Limoges to Millau

Today we continue our ride south through the Millevaches and Gorge du la Cere, as we head for Millau and the Bridge in the sky, stopping at the visitor’s centre and viewpoint for photos, before heading to our hotel.

Day 3 (30th June): Millau to Nimes

Today we head off through the Gorge du Tarn and the Cevennes National Park on our way to Nîmes, a city in the Occitanie region of southern France, Which was an important outpost of the Roman Empire. It’s known for well-preserved Roman monuments such as the Arena of Nimes, a double-tiered circa-70 A.D. amphitheatre

Day 4 (1st July): Nimes to Grasse

Today’s all about stunning scenery and fabulous twisty roads as we head to Gorges de Verdon and the Grand Canyon du Verdon – Europe’s largest gorge.

Day 5 (2nd July): Grasse to Grenoble

Today we take on some of the French Balcony roads before Riding Route Napoleon up towards Grenoble and the French Alps.

Day 6 (3rd July): Grenoble to Bourg-Saint Maurice

We continue over the French Alps as we cross the Écrins National Park taking in a few Cols and balcony roads along the way, across Col du l’lseran through Val-d’lsere and on to our hotel for the night.

Day 7 (4th July): Bourg-Saint Maurice to Innertkirchen

We’ll continue across France dip our toe into Italy, over the Grand-Saint-Bernard, the third highest road pass in Switzerland, also used for the opening scenes of the film The Italian job filmed in 1969, from here we head for the Swiss Alps and home for the next two nights.

Day 8 (5th July): Innertkirchen ride out/rest day

Today we’ll spend the day exploring the Swiss Alps, we head out for an assault on some passes, first off Grimsel pass climbing to a height of 1264 metres and crossing the Bernese Alps, from here it’s onto the Susten pass climbing to a height of 2264 metres with fantastic view of the Stein Glacier, with a good road surface and numerous hairpin bends its one not to be missed. The rest of the day we’ll spend in a similar fashion, searching out great roads such as the Gotthard pass and the old Tremola, as well as interesting places such as Sanatorio del Gottardo and of course the stunning scenery as we head back to our hotel for a delicious meal and a few beers.

Day 9 (6th July): Innertkirchen to Nancy

After breakfast we’ll head out of Switzerland avoiding the motorway as much as possible and head for France and the Vosges mountains, taking in the Route des Cretes and Grand Ballon to name just a few, as we head to our last Hotel of the trip, where we’ll spend the last evening together watching the fabulous light show while enjoying a meal at one of the many restaurants.

Day 10 (7th July): Nancy to Calais

I’m afraid it’s home time all to soon. We head towards Ardennes region once more before riding through the Champagne region, then a quick stop off at Le Circuit de Reims-Gueux before joining the motorway for our last push to catch our afternoon Eurotunnel crossing back to the UK.