• Ciao Guest - You’ve landed at the ultimate Guzzi site. NEW FORUM REGISTRATIONS REQUIRE EMAIL ACTIVATION - CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER - Use the CONTACT above if you need help. New to the forum? For all new members, we require ONE post in the Introductions section at the bottom, in order to post in most of the other sections. ALWAYS TRY A SEARCH BEFORE STARTING A NEW TOPIC - Most questions you may have, have likely been already answered. DON'T BE A DRIVE-BY POSTER: As a common courtesy, check back in and reply within 24 hours, or your post will be deleted. Note there's decades of heavily experienced Guzzi professionals on this site, all whom happily give endless amounts of their VALUABLE time for free; BE COURTEOUS AND RESPECTFUL!
  • There is ZERO tolerance on personal attacks and ANY HYPERLINKS to PRODUCT(S) or other competing website(s), including personal pages, social media or other Forums. This ALSO INCLUDES ECU DIAGnostic software, questions and mapping. We work very hard to offer commercially supported products and to keep info relevant here. First offense is a note, second is a warning, third time will get you banned from the site. We don't have the time to chase repeat (and ignorant) offenders. This is NOT a social media platform; It's an ad-free, privately funded website, in small help with user donations. Be sure to see the GTM STORE link above; ALL product purchases help support the site, or you can upgrade your Forum profile or DONATE via the link above.
  • Be sure to see the GTM STORE link also above for our 700+ product inventory, including OEM parts and many of our 100% Made-in-SoCal-USA GTM products and engine kits. In SoCal? Click the SERVICE tab above for the best in service, tires, tuning and installation of our products or custom work, and don't miss our GT MotoCycles® (not) art on the BUILDS tab above. WE'RE HERE ONLINE ONLY - NO PHONE CALLS MADE OR RECEIVED - DO NOT EMAIL AND ASK QUESTIONS OR ASK TO CALL YOU.
  • Like the new V100, GuzziTech is full throttle into the future! We're now running on an all-new server and we've updated our Forum software. The visual differences are obvious, but hopefully you'll notice the super-fast speed. If you notice any glitches or have any issues, please post on the Site Support section at the bottom. If you haven't yet, please upgrade your account which is covered in the Site Support section or via the DONATE tab above, which gives you full site access including the DOWNLOADS section. We really appreciate every $ and your support to keep this site ad-free. Create an account, sign in, upgrade your account, and enjoy. See you on the road in 2024.

Ardennes Ascension 2010

RJVB

RJVB

GT Reference
Joined
Oct 28, 2008
Messages
1,936
Location
Paris
It's been a while I've posted anything in the form of a ride report, and I've been told new "old stone pics" are sorely required. Well ... there's not too many old *man-made* stone in the album below, but quite a bit of really old stone (formations). :ugeek:

Anne and I had a long weekend off for Ascension, so we decided to go where we'd been wanting to go for a while: the French and Belgian Ardennes. Since her scooter broke down a week or so earlier, we went with 4+2 wheels — which isn't the worst solution if you're considering that many of the places we tend to go have all kinds of delicacies that just beg to be taken back home :D
We took a bit of a chance with the weather, the forecast had been quite rainy and cold. It turned out to be less rainy but colder than foreseen; I was glad I had another liner for my riding pants at Anne's place.

The scenery is gorgeous, and mid spring is probably a great time to go there. The roads are good to great on the French side, but in rather bad state of maintenance in Belgium. More than one rider has gone down due to an unexpected pothole or immense road snake — road-side signs about dangerous riding roads (yes, aimed at us!!) are not to be taken lightly. Many of the roads also sport longitudinal groving, probably to increase lateral grip, but not pleasant for riding.

We stayed in a nice hotel of the Campanile chain just outside of Sedan.

The day of our return was also my license's 3rd anniversary; I finally got rid of the A I had to display on the rear (and which incited more than one to undertake a dangerous overtaking to show the newby "how it's done" :evil: ) — yay! :mrgreen:

Anyway, the piccies:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mgn12m8/Ardennes2010051315

----------
As an added bonus, nothing to do with this trip, I'll throw in the pictures from our feb/mars trip to Nice via Lyon and back via Aosta:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mgn12m7/Lyo ... ta20100203
 
Rene, many thanks for the images of France. Elisabeth especially enjoyed the "food porn" of preserved fruits and Calissons d'Aix en Provence. The last time we bought any, was in Salon-de-Provence at the Nostradamus (where else?) Chocolatier. :D
 
Thanks for sharing your pics- I have enjoyed visiting that part of France a few times- normally camp a little further south east at Montmedy where there is a nice little municipal campsite at the citadel.

Plenty of history and nice roads to be explored in that area.

Cheers

Guy
 
One day soon I hope to join you on one of these treks, thanks for posting!
 
Great stuff.

A few random comments:

Virtually no litter (saw three bits in 722) and no graffiti. Impressive.

Did you "yellow out the tags on those Guzzis in 732 or is that something folks do when they park their m/c?

We -- USA -- almost chose wild turkey as our national bird. Not as dramatic, but a fine bird in its own right, and the whisky named after it is quite fine ... or so I hear. ;)

Presume the American military vehicles were European reenactors, an interesting breed in any country. The vehicles were cool.

Anyway, thanks for posting. Would love to ride there someday. I've been to France numerous times ... OK, I've been to CDG numerous times. :roll: Would love to see the real France.

Bill
 
Oops ... hadn't seen your reaction. Somehow I must not have gotten, or missed an email alert.

Yes, I seem to recall there wasn't much litter, nor too much graffiti, but you probably know to trust the eye of the tourist photographer to detect such things and remove them from his/her shots (by pointing the lens elsewhere) ;)

The tagging of license plates is something people here tend to do when they park their vehicles in photos publicly available on the interweb. Not sure it's really an important thing, but I presume it does make it a little less easy to put a duplicate plate on an identical vehicle and distribute license bonus points to an unexpecting 3rd person...

Indeed, I heard mostly French gurgling up from those US uniforms ... even from the German uniform, IIRC ;)

That choice of national bird, was that before or after Goscinny & Uderzo wrote Asterix & Obelix in America? B) I'd have gone with the grouse ... ideologically because it seems more peaceful, in reality because I'm sure it tastes better than a raptor! :whistle: :silly:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top