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
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
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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
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
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