Alternative French Rally

[Stuart]

I received this from Bernard today and am posting on his request. I translated it with Bing so please excuse the drop offs....

"French meeting?

Hello
I'm Bernard, http://www.moto-vintage.fr, I sell diesel RE and others.I organized in France in limousin, an international gathering of diesel and Royal Enfield motorcycles.
The meeting will be at St Julien Le Petit (87) haute vienne near Limoges on Saturday and Sunday on 3 & 4 August 2013. Ago on place a small campsite in this small town and in the programe we propose rides motorcycles across the countryside.
The purpose of this meeting is to share our passion for the Diesel and Royal Enfield motorcycle

Please, can you put on the site (because my english is not good).
Contact via website or phone.
Tel number + 33 6 64 73 22 22

Thank you and long live the bike
Bernard"

So there you have it. If anyone can add to this I'm sure it would be welcome.

[BertTrack]

That sounds like a lovely spot!

[rednorfolk]

mm,nice one. nice and warm.

[oldbmw]

I have stayed at this camp site before. For the French Enfield club rally. It is fine, just a field with toilet block and BBQ facilities in a very small town. there is a restaurant and bar there Other restaurants not so far away ( by bike) also a river or lake to swim in if you are brave. Be aware it is a bit elevated so will be colder than you expect by night. Much of the A20 Motorway (which goes by Limoges) is free although shown as Peage on many maps.
Anyone going or returning there from the western channel ports Roscoff, St Malo, Cherbourg, Caen, Le havre is welcome to overnight at my place. which is 2-300 miles from them depending which one, but all have good roads. About another 3 hours to Limoges.

[rednorfolk]

oh.toilet block ...no shower then

[oldbmw]

There are showers in the toilet block, also dish and clothes washing facilities...

[rednorfolk]

good stuff ...ill look into this one a bit . be a long run on dennis/sidecar, but lots of ADV fun

[Diesel Dave]

Sean, I might be up for this one if you fancy a convoy?

Larry, It would be great to finally see you place in 'La Belle France' too.

Obviously I'd use the Enfield for such a prestigious event, although old Sluggy may well be confined to the rear ranks with all the shiny stuff around.

[oldbmw]

Hi Dave

Shouldn't be any problem. With Luck Henry from Priceparts and his little band will be stopping over on this Tuesday on the way to the rally at Vanosc.

Limoges (St, Julien) is an easy half days ride from here. Note it is hardly any detour to the destroyed by the nazis village of Oradour sur Glane.

Larry

[bourasseau]

Hello,
Come with your diesel motorcycles st Julien Petit
this will be the first gathering in France Motorcycle DIESEL
St Julien is located near Saint Leonard de Noblat 87 (near Limoges)
parts in the attached registration form has returned in preference to Dan
has soon
good road
Here is my number like if you have a problem in France
+33 6 64 73 22 22
bbourasseau@aol.com
Vive la moto

Bernard

[Anorak_ian]

Hummmm, I might just be able to make it.
Makes me wish I had started work on my 58 Enfield a lot sooner.

[oldbmw]

I hope to be there. Expect to arrive Friday late afternoon.
saw Bernard on Wednesday. all is in hand. will be visiting Clermont Ferrand next week to get my front brake fixed (hopefully)

[Anorak_ian]

I can't make it after all

Far too much work to do, house move etc.

[BertTrack]

I should be able to make it now. Track 3,2 is ready for it. And so am I.

[Stuart]

I won't be able to make it. Have fun & document the event for us!

[BertTrack]

I've made it back!

Not that that's the most important thing. It was lovely!
For now a short one. I'll try to write up something in the lines of the other rally's after i have gotten my senses again.

Very hot.
Over 200km's of organised tours. Or guided ones.
No traffic worth mentioning.
Very friendly people. (And i hardly speak french!)

Here's an appetizer http://youtu.be/RWX81trtERg

[oldbmw]

I went, met Claude again on his Velocette, also BertTrack on his diesel and a few others. Sampled various flavours of "eau de vie" etc, and found the ground to be very uneven on the way back to my tent at the end of each evening.

Friday was very good hot day, but during the night we had severe thunderstorms. wet enough to frighten one Enfield to sound its horn continuously. I like several others rose to investigate each of our steeds only to discover it was someone else's. Retired back to tent, now wet. Rest of the weekend great weather.

The ride down and back I went via "le grand bourg" to avoid any large towns. This is a really nice route with bendy roads in open country. journey time including stop for lunch was about 4- 4.5 hours. (165 miles each way)

This meeting was not in the usual campsite but at the beach which is about 4 miles from the town. Really lovely site ( and I don't just mean the bikini clad ones Smile )

Only downside was you have to ride back to town to get a signal for a mobile phone.

I have photos of some old brit bikes and many diesels but no idea how to post them here, (including one of BertTrack fixing his bike

[BertTrack]

Another vid showing the camp and other bikes.

http://youtu.be/dBb44qv4TjE

[BertTrack]

1st French Diesel motorcycle meeting 2013.
Royal Enfield motorcycle meeting.

Taking place during the weekend of 3 and 4 Augustus.

With plenty of time to spare I started to pack the bike late in the evening of the 1st of august. As usual it turned out I forgot some essential items like phone chargers etc. But! Never mind that.

I started the trip to the meeting on the 2nd of august riding on highways mainly except around Paris and the last 100km. With 800km it was a nice day's ride. The sun was beating down on me. And the Track was eating tracks.

Late in the afternoon I arrived at St Julien Le Petit. I quickly found the sign pointing to the beach and arrived at the site. Rolling straight on in with the help of Bernard to the possible camping spot and parking the Track against a tree because I wasn't sure if I was able to demount in an orderly fashion. I was in France after all and fashion is important!

I met Larry who also rode over from the west of France. And as I was pitching up my tent Andre arrived. A face I’ve seen before on at least 2 occasions previously. His Diesel decided not to participate or play nice. So he had to take the Deauville.

For dinner breakfast and lunch it was possible to ride back into town at the local hotel/restaurant. A short and nice ride. That evening we all drove up to the restaurant and I got a chance to practise my non existent French. The people were very friendly and considerate for my lack of the language. I got someone appointed to me to translate and interact with and through him (I apologize for not remembering names well) I had a chance to get to know the people around.

After a wonderful desert and some coffee we headed out and I found to my surprise that the Track had eaten it's way into the asphalt. The side-stand was buried in the stuff.

I got to my tent in time to see the light show that the clouds were giving and it promised to be a spectacular night. It started with some rain. Not too bad. Enough to lull you into sleep. Followed by a worrying amount, enough to make you consider if the tent floats. One of the Enfields was considering that option as well and decided to inform us of it's worries by sounding it's horn continuously. My Track was parked near my head and it lacks the pleading that could be heard from across the field.


The 3rd of august was started early. Though the lake was invitingly giving of clouds of water I decided against going for an early morning swim. We drove up to the hotel to get breakfast and I found to my surprise why it's called a petit-déjeune. But it fits the rest of the day very well. The rides were all to start at the hotel so once done with breakfast if was easy to join the group. I was pleasantly surprised by the organisation of this all. The only flexible thing was the time at which we left. Giving everyone ample time to finish what little was left (word play) of the breakfast and get ready. I had to lift my bike out of the thick goo again and was considering the state of my side-stand since it seemed to tilt more than it should have.

The ride was very nice, the speed was kept around 50km/hr roughly and there were people keeping an eye out in the rear for the slow bikes. I tried to sometimes fill in the holes that were left when a slow bike was blasting it way up a hill. The immediate thing I noticed was the lack of serious traffic. Things are very quiet in the region and it suits a group like us very well indeed. The traffic that we did meet plied to suit us more than the other way around, and it didn't feel like there was pressure to change that situation. Apart from the occasional foreigner (Dutch!).

When we arrived back there was time to eat something. Some went up to the hotel to get lunch.
I noticed more and more bikes and the tents were growing in numbers as well.

The after lunch ride took us to a hill with a lovely view of the surrounding countryside.
It looks like a docile region hill wise but it has very lovely roads, apart from the gravel that they like to pour on.

On arrival at the camping there were several journalists waiting. The Track was photographed and I got to give a few interviews.

That evening dinner was in the hotel. Again very nice food and I made it down to my tent in one piece. This night was only interrupted by the occasional snore.


Sunday the 4th of august started for me and Arno with a swim in the lake. A lovely way to wake up. Luckily followed by hot coffee in the hotel with breakfast.

The trip following breakfast was going to be a long one. A lovely long one! 90Km's of it.
Somewhere in that trip we visited an old tannery production facility. Beautiful buildings left to rust. Greens taking over the place, giving it a very nice atmosphere. Cheap labour and an old rail road next to it allowed it to become the biggest production plant at the time.

After another run in the afternoon were we went to the lake for a nice ice-cream(Bernards very good choice!), we went for dinner again in the hotel. Upon returning to the camping I was in invited into the French group surrounding Bernard. It was a first for me.
I finally got a look at the way the French love food. And with good reason. A shame I had already stuffed myself. What followed was a lot of enjoyment, drinking games, dirty jokes oh yes! And I got the gist of them most of the time.

With an invitation for breakfast on Monday morning from Bernard before leaving I went to bed comfortably. With the obligatory light snoring in another tent it would be a quiet night. Except that I dreamed up some funny situation with a motorcycle riding through a front door of a house and quite possibly with the help of the jokes earlier that night I broke out in a laughter so loud that I woke myself up. Soon I heard that there were others affected by my laughter. A good night!

Monday caught a hold of the “camp” with more people packing up to go and leaving. I packed everything, followed by a French breakfast. I said my goodbye's to the very friendly people all around and always an awkward moment left on the Track.

The return trip was nice again. A lot of people returning from holidays along the way. And I got home safe and sound in the evening.

[Stuart]

Thanks for the write up of this event Bert

[BertTrack]

Some parts of the rideouts

http://youtu.be/U4I31stDn6E First on saturday

http://youtu.be/AeKx0day5Xg Second one on saturday

http://youtu.be/wOAtJuXUJ6E First on sunday (partly)