Post by Ghoti on Mar 10, 2007 11:10:40 GMT
I decided to take a friend (who to protect his innocence I shall refer to as Flipping Idiot And Seriously Carp Orienteirer [Fiasco for short]) to France for a little practice at riding on the wrong side of the road.
I knew I may have let myself in for more than I could cope when the questions started coming in such as 'is it weird leaning left on a right hand bend'.
We left my house at silly O'clock AM, taking the fun route to the Channel Tunnel. So far, so good.
On departing the train, we pull into the services, fill up with petrol, get a coffee fix and food, ready for the day ahead. Discussing where to go, I turn on my GPS and it is frozen. A quick text the person who I know does less work and surfs the net during work time more than me to see if he can help me out. (see diversionclub.proboards74.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1173438010) Anyway, no immediate reply so we decide to just go where we want and use Fiasco's GPS to get home.
Questions before we left were improving to 'what side do you overtake on' and 'do you go around the roundabouts the other way'.
More by luck than judgement, we find a fairly nice route to Saint-Omer for the first coffee stop. After sliding the length of the restaurant (see mate, I said I would not mention McDonalds!) due to wet boots and a very slippery floor, I decide to text a few more people for help on the GPS and also to attempt the trial and error method (note, no hammer in my tool kit!). GPS gets going (wohoo!), all personal data lost (boohoo)
and we decide to head for Peronne for a spot of lunch.
By this time, Fiasco was saying how he thought he had cracked riding on the other side, so I said he could lead. Five minutes later and after 1 dead end, the leader riding on the wrong side of the central reservation and going around one block 3 times, I decided it was my turn to lead again. We share the lead down to Peronne and find a nice cafe.
Nothing happened at the cafe, absolutely nothing and a 25ish year old French bird definitely did not try to pull Fiasco
. (For full story, send £5 to the usual place).
We decided to leave and head back to the train avoiding all toll roads. So, with Fiasco leading some spirited riding (and 1 toll road later), we get back to the tunnel.
Train was delayed due to technical problems so we get a traditional french meal "Le Grande Mac et Frittes". Not wanting to be outdone by Fiasco getting pulled, I chat up the very talented serving girl and I get my meal for €5 and Fiasco (who has the same thing) pays €7.80. That'll do for my ego at least.
In total, I did about 350 miles (a few more for Fiasco) and had a great day out. Train fare was £24 and I got breakdown cover for about £9. By the time you factor in the price saving on 800 duty free smokes (about £80 saving), I think it was a free day out including petrol and food. Obviously if you don't smoke it will cost you something, but well worth it, or you could start smoking
*.
Just got to wait until May when I'm off for 4 days to the Ardennes.
* Note - smoking kills. It is not big and not clever. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do smoke, quit. Unless you want to justify a day out in France. And if you have time to go into Belgium (about 10 mins down the road from the Channel Tunnel) you could save even more.
I knew I may have let myself in for more than I could cope when the questions started coming in such as 'is it weird leaning left on a right hand bend'.
We left my house at silly O'clock AM, taking the fun route to the Channel Tunnel. So far, so good.
On departing the train, we pull into the services, fill up with petrol, get a coffee fix and food, ready for the day ahead. Discussing where to go, I turn on my GPS and it is frozen. A quick text the person who I know does less work and surfs the net during work time more than me to see if he can help me out. (see diversionclub.proboards74.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1173438010) Anyway, no immediate reply so we decide to just go where we want and use Fiasco's GPS to get home.
Questions before we left were improving to 'what side do you overtake on' and 'do you go around the roundabouts the other way'.
More by luck than judgement, we find a fairly nice route to Saint-Omer for the first coffee stop. After sliding the length of the restaurant (see mate, I said I would not mention McDonalds!) due to wet boots and a very slippery floor, I decide to text a few more people for help on the GPS and also to attempt the trial and error method (note, no hammer in my tool kit!). GPS gets going (wohoo!), all personal data lost (boohoo)
and we decide to head for Peronne for a spot of lunch.
By this time, Fiasco was saying how he thought he had cracked riding on the other side, so I said he could lead. Five minutes later and after 1 dead end, the leader riding on the wrong side of the central reservation and going around one block 3 times, I decided it was my turn to lead again. We share the lead down to Peronne and find a nice cafe.
Nothing happened at the cafe, absolutely nothing and a 25ish year old French bird definitely did not try to pull Fiasco
. (For full story, send £5 to the usual place). We decided to leave and head back to the train avoiding all toll roads. So, with Fiasco leading some spirited riding (and 1 toll road later), we get back to the tunnel.
Train was delayed due to technical problems so we get a traditional french meal "Le Grande Mac et Frittes". Not wanting to be outdone by Fiasco getting pulled, I chat up the very talented serving girl and I get my meal for €5 and Fiasco (who has the same thing) pays €7.80. That'll do for my ego at least.
In total, I did about 350 miles (a few more for Fiasco) and had a great day out. Train fare was £24 and I got breakdown cover for about £9. By the time you factor in the price saving on 800 duty free smokes (about £80 saving), I think it was a free day out including petrol and food. Obviously if you don't smoke it will cost you something, but well worth it, or you could start smoking
*.Just got to wait until May when I'm off for 4 days to the Ardennes.
* Note - smoking kills. It is not big and not clever. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do smoke, quit. Unless you want to justify a day out in France. And if you have time to go into Belgium (about 10 mins down the road from the Channel Tunnel) you could save even more.
