Covid-19 Update
15 August 2020
So, that's it. The final nail in the coffin of 2020's biking weekends at your favourite venue. Today at 04h00 began the 2 week obligatory quarantine for anybody returning to the UK from France. I expect the French govt to reciprocate at any moment. Apologies to you all for a complete season washout. We'll be here next year and in the interim STAY SAFE and look out for your loved ones. All the best Tony & Violette
Dates are for INCLUSIVE nights.
If the dates of your choice are showing "FULL", please contact us and we will let you know if there are any cancellations
2021 Prices are EUROS and are as follows: All prices are for individuals sharing two to a room: €660.00 per rider for the full 5 nights (Pillions: €600.00), Arrival will be on the Thursday afternoon, with departure on the morning of the following Tuesday (unless otherwise indicated)
Single room charge: single rooms are only available should we have one or more of our "double bed" rooms available for single occupancy. Should you wish for a single, contact us and we will allocate them on a 1st come 1st served basis. The single room supplementary charge is €60 for the weekend
Half-board (breakfast and dinner) with all wine and beer included during dinner.
Accompanied ride-outs. We will lead the group out every day and take you along some superb biking roads. We will stop for coffee and lunch. The cost of these is not included in the weekend rate. (FYI €90 per person will normally cover the 4 lunches and the 8 coffee-stops over the 4 days' riding. We normally have a whip-round at the first coffee stop of the day. Any Coke or Orangina drinkers will be subjected to extensive verbal abuse and a surcharge)
(NB: The prices for the weekend do NOT include ferry costs. You should book these yourselves.
A €150.00 deposit is payable per person at time of booking, with the balance to be paid two months before your scheduled arrival
Just send an e-mail to the site address, letting me know the dates and the number of people you'd like to book for and I'll get back to you asap.
A normal weekend would shape up like this:
You will make your own way down to the Chateau in order to arrive here on the Thursday afternoon. The best route is an overnight ferry from Portsmouth which will get you into Le Havre, Caen or Cherbourg early in the morning. You then have all day to ride down here at a relaxed pace. The next FOUR days are all about riding. Departure is on morning of the Tuesday following your arrival.
The roads we will be riding are very scenic, but will also cater for the most demanding road-rider. It is a very intense motorcycling experience. We will ride in the morning for 1 to 2 hours and stop for a coffee break, another 2 hours or so and lunch, a coffee stop in the afternoon and then back home. 200 miles altogether. Over the four days you will ride four different circuits, all will be approximately 200 miles long and we will aim to be back home by around 17h30
We use the "drop-off" system when on the road (see "How we ride"), so nobody ever gets lost and everybody can ride at their own pace with no pressure to ride at a rate that they don't feel comfortable with, nor have to plod along at the rate of the slowest rider.
If you haven't ridden in France before you'll be amazed at the welcome you'll receive from the people here. Policemen will wave (you down....), traffic will be light and will be trying to help you wherever possible by getting out of your way; the myth of the little café terrace, in the middle of nowhere, where we stop to take on coffee and water and to regale each other with our tales of derring-do is TRUE! There'll be lots of coffee stops, lunch in a little local restaurant and more stops in the afternoon. You'll come home to the Chateau tired, but with your eyes popping out of your head, ready for the next day's roads. You'll park the bike up and grab a cold beer, before hitting the showers in preparation for dinner and another round of "Did you see me when.....?"
We have a lot to say, and sometimes our guests do too!
Contact us by by the form below for preference in the first instance.
Once your booking has been accepted then communication will generally be via email.
During the tour, mobile numbers for Lead riders will be shared out as necessary.
The whole point of the weekend is for you to have FUN while riding at all times within your "comfort zone". You won't have that if you feel that you're obliged to gallop along at a rate that you don't feel comfortable with, neither will you if you feel that you're dawdling along and are getting bored...
Every group is made up of riders with varying degrees of experience, age, skill, enthusiasm, horsepower, machine control and stamina. I like to think that we can cater for everybody but it's obvious that somebody who has only recently passed their test will find it daunting to be thrown into this particular deep-end...It's also important that everybody is committed to their riding and, normally, the fact of having to ride all the way down here is a guarantee of that. If you are a "new" rider however it might be worth postponing your 1st trip until you've undertaken some additional training in the UK (see the LINKS within the Contact Us section) or just piled on the miles and are feeling confident with your riding. Confidence is the key; how FAST you ride is definitely NOT. Groups are, by definition, made up of riders with varying levels of confidence and we can cater for this by applying the "Drop-off system" This is not complicated but I've managed to make it appear so in the following explanation. Read it carefully as you'll be quizzed on it once you eventually arrive here...
What should you know before you come?
Passport, bike registration docs, insurance. You will need some form of European breakdown insurance. The AA, Green Flag etc do good cover. Check with your current insurer what’s on offer and also confirm that your bike is fully insured for the trip to France, BOTH FOR ACCIDENT AND BREAKDOWN (a lot of the companies are NOT offering recovery for bikes involved in an accident, check it out!).
!!!!!MOST IMPORTANT!!!!!
MAKE SURE THAT YOUR TRAVEL POLICY COVERS YOU FOR BIKES LARGER THAN 125CC!!!!!!!!
Seriously, this was a major issue in 2007 with a rider needing medical/repatriation assistance and finding that he was NOT covered as he thought. Check it out!
Take photocopies of your docs and keep them separate from your originals.
You WILL need the the EHIC card which can be obtained free from your local post-office. This enables you to recover any medical costs incurred in France.
You will be covering around 1600 miles so make sure that your tyres and chain can make it and that you’re not going to miss a major service. Coolant, tyre pressures, brake pads, discs, oil and brake fluid levels should be checked. Check for leaks around the engine and fork seals. The official word is that you will need to blank off the thrown-beam section of your headlamp lens with some insulating tape and you'll need a GB sticker. Once down here we have a Triumph dealership in town and there are the usual suspects (Nippon/German/Italian) in Niort, 20kms away.
You can get them down here with about a 10% saving over the prices in the UK (depending on the exchange rate - check with me first). If your tyres are part-worn, finish them off on the way down and get a new set at the end of the day's ride on the Saturday. Let me know your make and model and I'll get you a quote.
Hard panniers are good. If your bike doesn’t come equipped then throw-overs or a tail-pack are good alternatives. A tank bag is very useful for documents, camera, route cards, maps etc. make sure that whatever you have is waterproof. If you don’t have soft pannier covers then wrap up all your stuff in bin-liners before putting it in the panniers. You won’t need too many clothes. Enough shirts/T-shirts for four days, a pair of jeans, a sweater, a fleece-type jacket, and some walking shoes (in case you have to push your bike anywhere...). A little black dress for the evening and a simple string of pearls is always very elegant.
It really depends which time of the year you've decided to come down. Weather in April/May and September/October is usually gorgeous but the mornings and evenings can be a bit chilly. Bring some thermals (or equivalent…I don’t want to know) if you're coming at that time of year. For the summer months you won't have any need of warm weather gear, whether it rains or no, the temperatures will remain comfortable. Leathers or Goretex suit (all preferably with some form of armour), sweat-shirt, winter gloves, spare gloves (summer?), rain-suit, neck tube, Vee-wipes, Visor demist, boots. Helmet with a clear, unscratched, visor. I don't anticipate riding at night so a tinted visor will probably be OK, but how are you going to get down to Portsmouth Thursday night? Take a clear visor as well, whydoncha? EARPLUGS!
Sunglasses, camera, chocolate, fruit-juice, energy bar…..whatever.
We don't include the ferry booking etc as part of your weekend cost. We have two recommendations for you to make your booking however:
MCN offer discounts on cross-channel ferries here: MCN Ferry Discount Codes
Also you can try: www.ferrysavers.com
Aim to get to the check-in at around an hour or so before departure in case there are queues. There are cash machines and a Bureau de Change at the Terminal and on board. Don't hesitate to muscle your way to the front of the queue as British drivers love to hear the throaty roar of bikes' exhausts and admire our multi-hued vestments. It's a good idea if you've all filled up in the UK. This will save at least 30 minutes on the French side, just when you're all impatient to be getting away
I don't know which port you'll all be arriving at, but if you can let me know when your arrangements are finalized I'll send you the best (most interesting) route down. If you get tied up with lunch/ hedgehogs/lambs-wool underwear, you'll have the option of popping onto a motorway to make up time. If you've opted for one of the Cherbourg/Le Havre/ Caen crossings and have arrived in the morning you'll have plenty of time to get down here. The route maps I will give you will lead you from town to town on the route, with the road numbers and distances between points clearly marked. A good idea is to stop for a coffee once you've cleared the town and are out on the open road. You can check the map and the bloke who forgot to attach his chinstrap can now do so.....
IMPORTANT!
DRINK LOTS OF WATER ON THE WAY DOWN!
Some riders have arrived here on the Friday with splitting headaches and totally exhausted. This is due to dehydration. Drink lots of water when you stop to take on fuel/lunch/coffee and you'll be fine. No, really...
Once you're all down here I'll be leading you out over the four days on four circuits which take in some great biking roads and will give us the opportunity to visit Oradour sur Glane. We will all start in the morning with full tanks and then stop for petrol every 100 - 120 miles. We will stop for coffee in the morning, for lunch and again for coffee in the afternoon. The accent is very much on riding; we will leave the chateau at 10h00 and won’t be back until around 17h00. We will have covered 200 miles in that time. Riding will be on well-maintained B-roads. There will be 0.00 kms of dual-carriageway riding during the weekend, so come prepared. NOBODY WILL GET LOST NOR WILL THEY HAVE TO PEDAL LIKE MAD TO KEEP UP WITH THE LEADERS! (see "How we ride"). The one thing to be avoided at all costs is for you to feel pressured into riding at a speed where you feel uncomfortable, be it too fast or too slow.
Liability - Important!!
You are liable for both your and your bike’s safety. Do not attempt to ride beyond your capabilities. If you drop behind we will wait for you. If you fall off, we'll go back and pick you up
Will love us. People in villages will wave and cars will do whatever they can to give us space for overtakes. Thank them with a wave (or rather, extend your right leg. Honest!) and don't sit too close to them prior to the overtake. Remember we could be in a group of up to 11 bikes and if number 3 annoys a motorist then the others are going to have to deal with him when it comes to their turn to pass him. Courtesy rules!
Remember the THREE "P"s Position, Planning, Execution, Cheery wave, Cup of Coffee
It’s a good idea to take a good map. Michelin make the best and do a little one in book form which shows all the major routes and towns and which costs about 4 euros. (£3.80) You will each receive a detailed route card in any case that shows distances between points and the contact telephone numbers and address of the chateau. You'll all have my mobile number and you can use this should you become separated.
Teller machines will accept British cards providing you have a PIN number.
Be aware that when you use your card to pay for petrol at an automated pump your card will be debited a "maximum" amount of around €120. This is also true in the UK. The difference lies in the fact that in the UK the bank automatically and immediately calculates the difference beteween the maximum figure and your actual purchase and credits you the difference. Using your UK card in the rest of Europe it may take up to a week for the credit to appear on your account. This can mean that after 5 fill-ups your card might be showing a debit of approx €600. It's easy to max out over a week's travelling. If you're travelling with a mate then double up when filling up and spread the strain between your two cards.
This is our HOME you're talking about! We're really happy to welcome you and we will have some great evenings round the (very big) dining room table. There's lots to do at the evenings in the house (pool, tennis court, ping pong, "baby-foot") or you can chill outside in the park with a good book. As we don't smoke I'll ask you, please, to smoke outside. We'll supply firebuckets and flame retardant overalls.
The weekend includes continental breakfast, evening aperitif and dinner. Wine, beer and soft drinks are included during your meal. We DON'T do spirits. There's a reason for this: I like you to be fully functioning in the morning! If you want to go out there are bars in the town (250 metres away) and even a jazz bar.
Bring a UK/French plug adaptor with you! You can get these in Boots or on the ferry. I used to have several of these but they've all gone walkabout, so I've given up......(you know who you are)
The weather forecast for this weekend, from Saturday morning until Tuesday morning is bright and sunny. Not too hot, not cold at all, rain if you'd like some
Past trips have been very good fun. The riding has been great and the company as good. By the time we get back to the chateau in the evening you will be glad to park the bike up, hit the shower and get ready for dinner. During the day coffee and lunch stops are normally chosen on aspect and availability.
Where are we?
We're located 60 kms south-west of Poitiers, or 22 kms due east of Niort, in the Deux-Sevres département of France. The town is Melle, and it's great! Melle is about 750kms from Calais or 450kms from Cherbourg or Le Havre. There are direct routes via A and B roads with some interesting twisty bits on the way down or you can choose to go the whole way on the motorway route, which will get you to within 15kms of Melle, whichever port you're coming from.
