Terry Arnold
Leaving Metz, I/we (my wingman Clappo) made our biggest routing error, following the autoroute down towards Nancy. We were chatting away on the intercoms, when after about 50 miles I realised I wouldn’t normally choose to use the autoroute for so long. Both our satnavs had sent us down the main road when I knew there were spectacular routes we should be following. After a discussion we agreed that Colin would lead us across country to pick up the proper route. We stopped for fuel at a garage that didn’t have any, satnav led us to another that had been demolished before we eventually found fuel and were able to resume. All very tiring indeed.
Eventually we were back on course and headed towards the Vosges mountains. Now we were entering the more scenic areas of our tour. The Vosges are truly wonderful, densely wooded mountains and valleys, beautiful smooth and winding roads with little traffic.
There were a high number of weekend bikers on the bigger roads and when approaching a large bar/rest-stop biker destination, we came to a wide, open downhill T-Junction. All of a sudden, I could hear a loud scraping type noise and I immediately checked my mirrors, expecting to see a motorbike sliding along the road and bracing myself for the impact. Apparently, all of us did exactly the same! Then, over the intercom, Clappo shouted that a military jet had flown very low overhead and had then banked away, disappearing without trace. Our hearts were all pounding from the shock of the moment and took many minutes to calm down.
A roadside chalet-style restaurant looked promising for lunch so we pulled in. I checked and they claimed they were full, I felt that they didn’t want to serve us. As we mounted up, I lost my footing and down went my bike again, onto tarmac this time with some light damage to the bars and a pannier box. (2-Nil to Terry) Just a few miles further on at 1500m alt. we stopped for photos at a fantastic view of Geradmer and its lake. Just a little further again and we stopped for lunch at a scenic cafe with a deck at Schlucht. Cheese and ham platters and beer – very welcome. Motorcycles passed by in large numbers, clearly a popular road.
Another theme – late arrivals into our destinations. We arrived into a modern IBIS hotel just outside the Besancon city centre, exhausted again. This evening we didn’t even venture outside apart from putting the bikes into the underground parking. We elected to stay in for food and were very pleasantly surprised by the standards of the meal, and no-nonsense quaffable beers.
