I can only offer a tentative yes, as I have to go to Oz next June for my brothers 50th birthday (tough life, I know   ).

Having been an biking trips to both Northern France and Scotland, I can recommend both.

Scotland for a whiskey tasting trip, or Northern France for the Normandy landings and calvados.  I had no interest in the landing sites before going, but was organising it for a friends 40th. But after going I must say I was truly fascinated by the level of information and stuff to explore.

Anyway, it is too early for me to confirm but I think it's a great idea for (one of) next years trips.

I'm up for this as sure as I can be this far ahead. I think late May might be best to go for. Ferries still Cheaper. Will do some tentative checking on prices Anyone want to have a punt at route planning?

Corkboy wrote:I can only offer a tentative yes, as I have to go to Oz next June for my brothers 50th birthday (tough life, I know  

Dates and places please.

There will be at least one member within cooee of your bro

May does sound ideal.

Ferry options may influence route:

Brittany Ferries: Best ship [Pont Aven], shortest time crossing, probably the more expensive option.
Cork Roscoff: Saturday 4pm approx, arrive Roscoff approx 8am.
Roscoff Cork: Fri night approx 9pm arrive Cork approx 11am

Irish Ferries: Not bad [Oscar Wilde ship, good and cheaper, also more flexibility]
Rosslare to Roscoff or Cherbourg: operates every second day but some sailings are Roscoff and some Cherbourg. Depart around 5pm Rosslare arrive around 11am.
Return is same basis, depart around 7pm arrive around 11am.

Celtic Link Ferries, cheapest option and longest crossing.
Rosslare to Cherbourg Tuesday Thursday Saturday leaves about 9.30pm arrive around 3pm.

As for route planning, so far seems 88KE and Comberjohn have come up with some nice ones....I have used Brittany Ferries and Irish Ferries quite a lot but not Celtic Link.

The question is do we stay around northern France and wander or do we go for a fixed base and camp for the time we are there with a trip out somewhere each day? There is motorway from the ferry ports so a long trip is feasible. There are lots of hotel options too.

There has been a tentative interest from a few people.....including Comberjohn, 88KE, Bjorn, 92KK, Corkboy........any more?

As a start, does it suit better
1: to go midweek and come back midweek or
2: make it a weekend to weekend or
3: make it a sort of 5 day trip?

May 23rd is a Friday....is that a good weekend..?
Friday May 30th is a bank holiday weekend.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I will be seeing if we can meet up with other K owners when we're down there. My brother is the president of the Indian Motorcycle Club of Australia, so has no truck with these new fangled BMWs (or old fangled BMWs for that matter). If any of you know any Indian motorcyclists in Oz, they would know him (soft-spoken retiring type that he is  )  I led 22 of them around Ireland in 2009 on the way to the International rally in Scotland.

We will be going to Melbourne (Mordialloc) for two weeks around the 7th of June, and up to Cairns (Trinity Beach) for the week beforehand (so as to get some Sun as we will be leaving our summer, for Oz's winter).

Tentative yes from me also at this time, either or both will do 

Regards 

Pat

Please add me to the list of tentatives to either destination.
Stephen

and please add me but I may need to get permission  after my recent trip.

This is a hard one to plan if we want cabins on the ferry because they book up quickly...but I have done the trip without cabin on both Pont Aven [Brittany Ferries Cork Roscoff] and also Oscar Wilde [Irish Ferries Rosslare] it was fine. The areas for the reclining seats are actually quite comfortable and there was room for laying sleeping bags on the floor plus there are showers and lockers [€6].

Gear in a lockable topbox/pannier carried on board might be an idea. Due to ship movement I would remove top box to keep weight down low and probably leave bike gear on the bike for convenience.

I don't see this as a trip to commit to months in advance, but if someone does and wants to make a firm booking I am happy to fall in with it. If a 4 berth cabin is available at the time its worth taking but if not the reserved seats would do me.

Camping is nice and a run down to places like Lorient/Vannes etc is about 3 hours from Roscoff. The direct line from Roscoff due south has lovely places like Pontivy Josslyn and many more. For nerds Nantes is home to Jules Verne........west of there is St Nazaire. Both Nantes and St Nazaire have magnificent suspension bridges. Roscoff has some really nice places too. Mont St Michel is also midway between Roscoff and Cherbourg but its not a quick visit.

Weather is the only thing that would draw me to France instead of Scotland....Rosslare timings suit me better than Cork timing.

I had a check of the holiday arrangements last night (translation - I had a discussion with SWMBO).  Looks like this is not really a runner for me.  As I said, we are going to Oz for three weeks, so the most I could do on the bike is a long weekend (probably a bank holiday weekend).

So I will definitely do one or more of those next year, but something as far afield as Scotland or France will require more time than I can commit to.

This one is hard to plan.

Monday 5th May is a holiday......

It might be that some of us book one and we see what happens. The first meet at Stradbally happened this way, arranged between 88KE and myself and it was put open to all.

Will had a suggestion to maybe go on a Wednesday/Thursday and come back Tuesday/Wednesday as this suited our work commitments. Leave Rosslare on a Thursday night works for us, leave France on a Monday or Wednesday night also works. This would give us about 11am Friday morning and back to ferryport about 6pm on Monday or Wednesday. Other options are leave Rosslare Tuesday night and leave France Sunday night.

Corkboy wrote:I can only offer a tentative yes, as I have to go to Oz next June for my brothers 50th birthday (tough life, I know   ).

Having been an biking trips to both Northern France and Scotland, I can recommend both.

Scotland for a whiskey tasting trip, or Northern France for the Normandy landings and calvados.  I had no interest in the landing sites before going, but was organising it for a friends 40th. But after going I must say I was truly fascinated by the level of information and stuff to explore.

Anyway, it is too early for me to confirm but I think it's a great idea for (one of) next years trips.

Mentioned Calvados... Yeah, take wine and cheese into view and some bear may just turn up