For our inaugural motorcycle tour we decided to head for mainland Europe. The plan was simple, we would hop on a ferry and ride down to Chamonix Mont-Blanc in the heart of the Western Alps and use Chalet Le Bois Rond as our base, from where we would ride some of the local Alpine roads and passes. Midway through the tour we'd ride out to Andermatt in Switzerland overnighting at Hotel Bergidyll before returning to Chamonix the following day. We figured it would take us a couple of days to get down there and a couple more days to get back and booked a stopover at Hotel du Lac de Madine in Heudicourt-sous-les-Cotes for the ride down, and at Le Clos du Montvinage in Etreaupont for the ride back.

There was a twist though. It's 218 miles from Bewdley to Dover and Calais to Chamonix is another 551 miles. That's 769 miles of which the vast majority is very boring tyre squaring motorway. Phil had ridden it before and knew what he was in for so elected to stick his bike on a trailer and drive down a couple of days earlier. The advantage being that he could take everyone's luggage down plus we'd have a car available to take us into the centre of Chamonix - the chalet's a couple of miles out of town.

 

Rather than hammering it down to Chamonix Phil opted for the more relaxing two day drive and booked a stopover at Chateau de Barive, just outside Laon. After arriving at the chalet he'd drop the luggage off and on Saturday morning head back north riding 350 miles of scenic roads to meet up with the rest of the group who'd be making their way down from Calais. If all went to plan everyone would meet up at the hotel in Heudicourt sometime on Saturday evening for dinner and an overnighter. Simple.

 

For our maiden tour the riders were Chris B on his BMW K1200RS, Kyle on his Suzuki SV1000S, Phil on his BMW K1200S, Chris P on his Honda Fireblade and Gaz on his Honda Blackbird.

 

 

The trip would be 5 riders, 9-11 days, 16 mountain passes and roads, and 2,331 miles.