Western France and Northern Spain, Sept. 2010

[Guy]

Excellent report. It only took me an hour to read!   Just another area in Europe to put on the "someday list"

[Sport-Touring]

[Gaw]

Great ride report Jerry

Glad to see you like Spanish wine, I will add a glass of wine to my "pimientos de pardon tapa" invitation. See you in Madrid soon?

 

[Smarti]

Thanks for this one!

[FJR-UK]

Glad to see you like Spanish wine, I will add a glass of wine to my "pimientos de pardon tapa" invitation. See you in Madrid soon?

Your offer gets even more tempting! I'll have to see if an airline makes an offer we can't refuse.

Cheers!

[skippy69]

Awesome pictures and trip.
Thank you for sharing with us.....

[Tombstone]

Very nice!  

[CDN]

Fantastic ride and accompanying report  Well done sir!    

[djgarrett21]

Wow! Amazing pictures and travel log! If you don't mind, could you tell me what camera equipment you used? Beautiful pictures!

[FJR-UK]

Wow! Amazing pictures and travel log! If you don't mind, could you tell me what camera equipment you used? Beautiful pictures!

Thanks. I tired of lugging around a SLR, so I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7. It has a 12X telephoto zoom on it, which is very useful when I manage to hold it steady enough at full extension. Also, I resize the shots for the internet with Photoshop. Most of them have been tweaked.

[FJR-UK]

Apparently, I've lost the host for my photos. It may take some time to fix...

(Later...)
Should be okay now.

[FJR-UK]

Today, Spain implemented some of the strictest anti-smoking laws in the European Union. Before today, a bar or restaurant could decide if they wanted to allow smoking in their establishment. Most did, since there are so many smokers in Spain. But, from today, smoking indoors is banned from all public places and many outdoor spaces, like playgrounds, schools, etc.

[nnjhawk02]

Today, Spain implemented some of the strictest anti-smoking laws in the European Union. Before today, a bar or restaurant could decide if they wanted to allow smoking in their establishment. Most did, since there are so many smokers in Spain. But, from today, smoking indoors is banned from all public places and many outdoor spaces, like playgrounds, schools, etc.

Thats good news for all involved.  Great R/R BTW

While I dont mind if ya smoke, I dont want to be a party to it while eating.

As a Yank, we've been smoke free in most areas for awhile now

I just read ur whole trip & have a couple of ?'s

1.  Why doesn't the EU set a EZ-Pass system, that way U dont have bother w/ tolls?

2.  While I was in Fr for '07 Rugby World Cup, (saw ur Rose beat the Wallabies) - I noticed due to high tolls - hardly anyone uses the toll roads (which R way more expensive than USA)  Thus way build something & charge for it when U dont get the return?

3.  I loved Fr. & wished I was on 2 wheels - Rock On

Lastly, FJR - how's the health?

Happy New Year & if U have ur Health> U have everything............All the best 2011

[FJR-UK]

I just read ur whole trip & have a couple of ?'s

1.  Why doesn't the EU set a EZ-Pass system, that way U dont have bother w/ tolls?

2.  While I was in Fr for '07 Rugby World Cup, (saw ur Rose beat the Wallabies) - I noticed due to high tolls - hardly anyone uses the toll roads (which R way more expensive than USA)  Thus way build something & charge for it when U dont get the return?

Lastly, FJR - how's the health?

1. I imagine an EZ-Pass system does away with toll plazas somehow. Good question. Might have something to do with extracting payment from different nationalities? It sure would be nice to have such a system, though.

A couple good reasons for toll plazas (from the state's POV) : France often sets up a remote speed gun just before a toll plaza. You're already stopped, they just have to wave you over. Also, the tickets are timed. If you get to the plaza too fast, they can cite you.

At least they've done away with border crossing checkpoints in the EU.

2. The benefit of a toll road is to make good time. If they are clogged with traffic, it defeats the purpose. I only use a toll road if I want to get somewhere fast or have many miles to cover.

3. My health is fine, thanks for asking. When I got back from my trip, I had my anticipated angiogram. It turned into an unanticipated angioplasty. I now have seven stents in three coronary arteries.

God bless the National Health Service is all I have to say.

[ChrisInTexas]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing the experience. And, good luck with your heart. I too suffer from heart issues and know what it is like.

[FJR-UK]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing the experience. And, good luck with your heart. I too suffer from heart issues and know what it is like.

I've been getting serious about my heart condition: moderating the eating and drinking, and in the gym two days a week. The treadmill was a struggle at first, but I now spend 35 minutes on it – running two minutes out of every five. Then some strength machines for arms and legs.

I'll tell you what: I just did a quick 250 miles to collect my wife from her mother's. The difference in how I felt after the trip was a marked improvement over a year ago.

I am really ready for September's trip to Corsica.  

Update: Modified to update broken links due to Apple's discontinuation of iDisk/MobileMe. Hopefully, Photobucket will not be changing anything anytime soon.  

[FJR-UK]

The b*st*rds at Photobucket have kidnapped all my photos and are asking for a £5/month ransom. I've been posting trip reports here since 2010 and now all the photos are blurred and watermarked. Well, I'm not paying...

So, I began the long and tedious job of finding a new host and relinking all my photos. I subscribe to Amazon Prime, so that was the solution to finding a new host, although it's taken me most of a day to work out how to link to the pics.

Then, I got to day 11 of this trip when I kept getting duplicate post warnings. Clicking on the delete button caused me to lose days 12 to 15. I tried to add copy to day 11 to recreate the missing days, but none of the saves will work.

I tried to delete the thread, rather than leave a mess, but was unable to do that, so...