Champagne Weekend – A Motorcycle Adventure
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By Graham Holt (CVAM)
A weekend trip to France with MCI Tours (Motorcycle Holidays)
 

On a cold, bleak January day my thoughts were drifting to the freedom of the open road and sunny skies. A biking trip to France was what I needed; something to look forward to. I emailed some mates but the response was nil. Everyone had other commitments or were having to tighten their belts after Christmas (though I did suspect that the idea of a trip with my infamous Ducati with its well-founded reputation for misbehaving was what put them off.) I tried to encourage them with tales of my bike’s impeccable service history and my fanatical cleaning regime but still had no takers. Next I approached my wife who, though usually fairly supportive with my biking obsession, on this occasion declined my generous offer to ride two-up on the back of my very uncomfortable Duke for hours on end.

This did not put me off. I still wanted a spring adventure.
 

Quite by chance I discovered a company [MCI] running motorcycle tours and one of their trips looked just what I was looking for. A trip to France, the Champagne region no less; not too far and a great destination for a weekend. I opted for the one bike, shared room which at £295.00 sounds expensive when you are providing machine, petrol and spending money but I felt a weekend away with other like-minded people would add un-measurable value.
 

The tour started in Dover very early on a Friday morning so I decided to leave Somerset on the Thursday afternoon and bike to Dover via a stop at my old biking haunt “Ryka’s” Box Hill Surrey. Here you can re-fuel on the best burgers, tea and bikes. After a short stop I rejoined the M25 / M20 and motored with pace all the way to Dover for a planned stop in the local Travelodge.
 

Friday morning came and I met up at the port with my fellow companions. There were a lot of couples which surprised me. I had imagined there would be more people on their own as this was a group holiday. After a short briefing on the boat we arrived in Northern France. It was just as I remembered from previous trips, flat and featureless - so different from the nips and tucks of Blighty. On the face of it there’s not a lot to see which is why most of us through on the A26 from Calais were keen to get as far south as possible. The major bonus was the weather, it was glorious.
 

We were heading for lunch at the services which was a culinary dinning experience compared with home and gave us a chance to use our best schoolboy French. This of course led to a response in fluent English which made you feel a little foolish. The journey continued without incident but with a lot of motorway to our hotel at Auberge Champenoise.
 

Photo 1 - Our tour group

The traditional Hotel was also the local watering hole; a bar full of men sipping Pastis and small glasses of beer; you stood no chance at the bar unless you ordered in your best French! I was paired up with the only other single chap, Joe. The hotel was like a very basic English B&B. The shower was like a dripping tap, Joe persevered but I managed to find better facilities further along the corridor. After dinner we all ended up in the bar where I thought the conversation would flow along with the beer. However the general consensus was to go to bed. I had not anticipated that this would be a weekend for couples, though in hindsight it probably was, being a ‘Champagne Tour’ – my mistake. I stayed at the bar as it was nearly half past ten and had a few more drinks with my new French friends. Good job I did get a little numb as Joe snored louder than a set of screaming eagle pipes. I used my ear plugs reserved for my bike to mute the racket…

Saturday

We left the hotel and rode via Epernay onto Reims where the Pommery Champagne House is. I never realised that keeping champagne was such an art. Apparently to remove the sediment, some poor person has to manually turn each of the thousands of champers bottles every single day.
 

Photo 2 - our bikes lined up outside the gothic masterpiece of Reims Cathedral

We parked up in the centre of Reims and had lunch – a bit of a chore with so many bikes. A few of us almost got left behind; this would have been disastrous as none of us knew how to get to the next rendezvous. Luckily Joe and his sat nav came to our aid as without it we may have gone around the city for hours and lost the afternoon. Quite why our tour guide left without us is a mystery.

The tour around the Route Touristique du Champagne was excellent, with winding “D” roads and great views.
 

Photo 3 - Route Touristique du Champagne

Photo 4 Our tour leader playing his bag pipes on the steps of one of the Champagne houses. Check out the owner’s daughter’s reaction! I thought it sounded quite good.

Sunday
Another lovely day, we left the hotel on an “N” road and headed towards Arras for our scheduled lunch break. Shortly after departure the sun began to burn through the cloud. We stopped at a small WW2 cemetery for some final pictures. It was an eerie place, the silence only broken by the occasional thundering lorry. We congregated in the central plaza Arras for some light lunch; I made polite conversation about our trip when I really wanted to moan about the lack of “N” road miles we didn’t cover. Then back on the road - motorway again - for our departure from Calais. I chose to break my journey home with a stop over with family near Dorking, Surrey.
 

Photo 5 - Break en route to Arras

In conclusion; would I do a similar trip again? The answer would be yes, probably, but maybe I would look at the nature of the trip more carefully and choose one with more adventurous riding. For the inexperienced European biker this trip offers a taster, without too much pain and if things go wrong, there is at least back up. On reflection I think that the cost was worth it just; although I have since been twice with friends once to the Loire valley and a tour around Normandy exploring the site of the Normandy D - Day Landings. On both trips we mainly used Route national or “N” roads or the minor “D” roads & found them traffic free and interesting and much more cost effective.

For the real thing you need to go much further south where there are some of the best riding roads in Europe. For example the legendary N85 “Route Napolean” If you have never been abroad on a bike before you really don’t know what you are missing.
 

Photo 6 - French Countryside, Champagne region

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