paris – Always on Road

On Tuesday morning I got up early, because I was so motivated to leave France, and finally get onto British Island with my motorcycle. Not so many rider from Hungary can say this I assume, I wanted to accomplish one of my dream. So I was confident, my DFDS ferry was planned to leave Calais, France at 13:55PM, so I had enough time to get there. But did not want to waste time on waiting, so I packed everything again, and leave my room.

It was a bit early, around 8:30AM, so I decided to put on my raincoat because of the cooler temperature, and got up to motorway again.

I was very fast, and with several coffee stops I arrived and checked into Calais, France 12:20PM, I was immediately sent to 12:25PM ferry. 😀 Coool!

I had only one single question, when I went through the Customs Control and ID check, am I on British territory, so is ride side changed to left already or not. I didn’t know, so said yes, no-one else was around as there was only 5 mins to get on the ferry. I rode on left side, but at the first roundabout I realized it is still French territory, so rode a bit improperly :’D No problem, learned for my whole life 😀

Finally I was on hold at the parking line for another 6-8 mins, so I was a bit frustrated that ferry may leave me behind, but finally as the last guest I got up to the ferry. Everything was okay, departure was successful, and I was on the way to British Island. Great!

and some Lasagne 🙂

We successfully docked in Port of Dover, UK

48 km/h – 97 km/h – 113 km/h

I started my first kilometers riding on left side, and got more and more familiar with the concept. On motorcycle it was not so hard, the only thing what I felt a bit interesting is just turning right with big curve. But first time felt that right hand rule is much obvious, as drivers are also sit on right side, so it is much closer for me to look at.

In United Kingdom I decided to avoid motorways as I would not planned so much run there, I had to experience as much as I can on these roads. I did not regret it, experienced that feeling what I felt playing Rally games so many years ago on British roads. Tiny roads with brick wall on one side, and fence on the other side. So lovely, and every meter reminded me to these epic moments of my childhood. 🙂

Finally I drove around 120 km in UK when I arrived to London, UK, and could experience riding left lane very much. It was so good to try, and challenging at the beginning. I enjoyed it very much.

Finally I arrived to my destination to Club Quarters Hotel, Lincoln’s Inn Field in London.

I used Chain Lube again, and carried my bag and box into my hotel room quite soon. I was so happy that there was plenty lock anchor installed in front of the hotel, just for solo motorcycles.

I locked my motorcycle with my safety chain, and walked a big in the town. 🙂

Finally I became so tired, walked like 8-10 km to refresh my memories from Business Trip last year. 😀

On the way back I reviewed parking again around the hotel, and decided to put my bike into a preferred safe parking house around British Museum. It was extremely expensive, but parking in London anyway is a so expensive thing, a luxury.

Finally when everything was done, I went back and could have some rest in a so good hotel, and relax for some work in the next couple of days, just to prepare myself to proceed with my trip to go forward, 😉

On Monday morning I got up around 8AM, was a bit tired, but could relax and prepare myself for another longer run to get to Paris, France.

Again, packed everything back and left Lausanne, but I had to buy Chain Lube, so I visited a Yamaha Store somewhere around. I saw those models too what I didn’t know if I will ever see in Hungary, like a Yamaha YZF-R1M.

I was successful, got a new one, and got up to the motorway to go to France.

I went through the border at Creux, Switzerland and was so happy as France started with a beautiful serpentine immediately. But after some minutes I became disappointed by Average Speed Camera Zones which was 30 km along the whole serpentine and another 20 km more. The average speed was limited to 70 km/h so along km long strait roads it was so boring and of course there was no petrol station or any restaurant to stop to grab some coffee. In addition, between the mountains the temperature was around 18-21°C, so I was cold, too, and could not shorten time to any better place.

Fine, I got through, but until Vaux-lest-Prés, France I met several Speed Limit Zones, so I decided to continue on motorway, unfortunately. Anyway I knew that will not like France, but it was rather because of old intention when I had been to Paris long time ago.

The weather was beautiful, no clouds, no significant traffic, so could ride without so many problem. 🙂

I grabbed some fuel at Venoy, France and could talk to some French bikers. They were surprised that a Hungarian rider is somewhere around there 😀

The traffic was still okay, but when I approach to Paris, I realized that so many motorbike is on the road, and they are so pushy to other cars on the road, so at the beginning I left them to do what they generally do, riding around cars, trucks with high speed and hoped for no problem. Later I joined to them, but with much higher attention to others on the road, because I would have liked to get home finally. It was okay, but I could not imagine myself riding around Paris for more time. They are so opinionated and violent to others. I was horned at least 10 times because I was careful to others. I let them go or forced them to wait, because I will not assimilate that much. That’s life, did not expect any other from France.

Finally in a huge traffic jam I arrived to Center Paris, and could stop for some rest near Tower Eiffel. 🙂

I saw several nationalities there, especially a Buddhist monk asked if he could take a photo of me. Why not? 🙂

It was interesting, but my old experiences came up when I saw the guys walking around with key rings hanging a mini Tower Eiffel. Not surprising (again!), Hungarians. Who else? €1 for me talking in Hungarian, €2-3 for English speaking tourists. Come on!

Finally got back onto the motorcycle and went to an external district of Paris, to Athis-Mons, France

My accomodation was at Ana and Bens flat. It was so nice, a small flat. I liked them, because we could talk sometime and could congratulate them for winning World Cup. 🙂

Motorcycle prepared, as usual, and as I had to leave on the road, just applied my extra safety chain on my cycle. 😉

Fortunately I had direct visibility to my bike from my private room, so I could regularly check it, but finally it turned out no-one touched my bike during the night. I was too paranoid, just because of my feeling generally of France. Sorry, but I don’t like France, but needed to get through.

I had a shower, grabbed some pizza from around, and finally could go to sleep after a so long trip on motorway. 😉