Advice please

I've been wanting to travel overseas on the bike but can't afford to go too far, I was thinking of going over to northern France next June sometime! I was think of going from home (nr Chester) to Dover (with an overnight stop), then from Calais to Caen then onto northern Normandy, I've worked it out to be around a 1200 mile round trip.... Is there a better route you lot can recommend? cheap places to stay, I know what to carry regarding French law etc.

Thanks in advance

I did a tour of Normandy in 2011 and had a fantastic time. I went from Portsmouth to Cherbourg

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The place we stayed at also did camping I think. Hope you have a great time

Great write up Tony, I went to France last year in the car (Family Holiday) and visited most of the places you did, was a great experience and made me feel proud to be British! I want to go back on the bike this time and see France from a different perspective. How much did u pay for the channel crossings?

Just to add a few options for relatively cheap accommodation... Maybe look into staying at Youth Hostels? They usually offer great value for money and everywhere I've stayed so far bikers were very welcome and I prefer an actual bed to camping any day! Maybe that extends your range a bit and you can get a taste of an alp or two that way?  

At the risk of starting an argument, I'd suggest that if you're going across from Dover you might find more interesting roads sooner by heading south-east towards the Ardennes (and further on into the Vosges, Black Forest etc.) rather than west. This also gives the option of visiting a few WW1 sites, if that interests you.

A lot of the roads in the flatter bits of northern France (which is quite a lot of it) are not very exciting - the main roads can be straight and boring, the back roads often seem to have villages every couple of Km.

Unfortunately, most of the best biking roads in France are in the less populated and hillier southern half - Limousin, Auvergne, Cevennes, Pyrenees etc., and of course the Alps, so it involves at least one overnight stop to get to them. Just look for the bits lined in green on a Michelin map.

 Or head to the border regions of Belgium/Germany (south & east) to The Eifel Region.

Be the forward recce party for the Nürburgring trip   

Here's a Motorbike Tour through The Eifel in Autumn 2011

We're doing Assen different this year, heading from ours over toward Matlock for breakfast from there taking A & B roads all the way to folkstone, tunnel to Calais (£32 one way), then heading via Dunkirk and Ostend to Bruges for two nights then heading up to Groningen in Holland for two days. Travelling back on the coast road back to Rotterdam for an overnight ferry home. Hotels costing between 50 & 80€ per night though we have insisted that they are secure parking for the bikes. If you're a member of MAG or BMF there's discounts to be had on ferries etc and they also can recommend biker friendly accomodation and help book trips/organise routes. Well worth the membership.

Snowcat wrote:We're doing Assen different this year, heading from ours over toward Matlock for breakfast from there taking A & B roads all the way to folkstone, tunnel to Calais (£32 one way), then heading via Dunkirk and Ostend to Bruges for two nights then heading up to Groningen in Holland for two days. Travelling back on the coast road back to Rotterdam for an overnight ferry home. Hotels costing between 50 & 80€ per night though we have insisted that they are secure parking for the bikes. If you're a member of MAG or BMF there's discounts to be had on ferries etc and they also can recommend biker friendly accomodation and help book trips/organise routes. Well worth the membership.

How much is Membership Steve?

Cheshirecat wrote:How much is Membership Steve?

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Sorry Kev, couldn't resist, hope link1 was of help  

0ldcat wrote:

Cheshirecat wrote:How much is Membership Steve?

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Sorry Kev, couldn't resist,  hope link1 was of help  

I guess I asked for that Tel lol

Portsmouth to Cherbourg is a good one. Normandy D Day beaches are worth a look. Been many times on the Harwich/Hook of Holland overnight ferry, and rate it very highly.

Dogsbody wrote:Portsmouth to Cherbourg is a good one. Normandy D Day beaches are worth a look. Been many times on the Harwich/Hook of Holland overnight ferry, and rate it very highly.

Looking for places to stay, would you be able to recommend any campsites, cheap hotels etc?

Can't really add anything that hasn't already been mentioned, as our visit was a quick one on our way back from Switzerland.
I thought Cabourg was nice and warranted further investigation. Cheers