First stage, France !

OK, and we are off,

Via Belgium (Houffalize) we started our trip. Left the highway in Liege (Luik) and haven't really been on the highway since. Spend one night on a campsite in Houffalize, after tasting some nice beers off course.


The next stage went towards the Vosges (Vogezen), the first bigger hills, and in very nice weather we ended up in a Motorpension run by a Dutch guy, Wim ,Gites Les Tronces.
See his website for some pictures.
After going from one little village to the next even smaller, you end up in a forest were the tarmac ends and you drive through sand and gravel for about 5 minutes.
And then you are welcomed by the to dogs and Wim, off course I have a room, and dinner, you dont want to drive this road by night do you ??
We stayed for two nights so we had some time to drive around in the Vosges. The weather was not very pleasant the next day, so we drove in the mist over Col the la Slucht

After saying goodbye to Wim we were off to the Jura, the second hills/moutains range. And in beautifull sunshine and over winding roads we found after some struggle a very nice campsite in the little village Port Lesney. And in the last sunshine of the day we set up camp there, deceiding to stay there an other day to do some hiking.

But next morning the rain started, and did not stop till the next night. Although we managed to have a great walk in the hills, we were soaked and needed a fireplace in a local bar and some heartwarming local beer to get back to life.

So next morning we put the still wet tent back on the bike, and left for sunshine, SOUTH,
Through the Alps, towards and past the Grenoble, still not a single mile on the higjway !!
We found the sun, and a very empty campsite in the moutains, sunny during the day and freezing at night. Here we managed to dry our tent, and hike in the sunshine.
But still not warm enough for our liking, so off we went again, to Nice !!!
Through real motobike country, corner after corner for hours, untill,,,,,prrrrr,pang,poef...... the BMW stopt......
By going downhill I managed to start it again, but it started running worse and worse.
10 KM before Nice, it died, and no hills anymore, so we bought jumpcables, and started the bike again, but not faster than 40 km an hour in 5th gear.... and then the motor-Gods interveined..... a BMW motorrad garage, the last 200 meters I pushed the bike into heaven.





To be continued........