The roads were typical Departmental 'D' French rural with dead straight roads and vast expanse of farmland with the rollercoaster drop and rise between valleys. We were passed by Ian and his daughter Nadia who I last saw at breakfast over an hour ago as we were leaving doing 70 plus as they came up the inside just as we were slowing down having seeen two motorcyclists gendarme. I don't think Ian saw them at all until it was too late, but luckily they were too busy with some French motorist to take chase. We did pass Ian and Nadia later when they stopped for a ciggie by the side of the road, what a waste of time smoking is!
The route took us through Chaumont and under an amazing two tier viaduct spanning the city. On the way I saw several huge raptor birds on some sort , possibly buzzards. After a quick stop at McDonalds we leap frogged the tour leader Steve and three others as they pulled in to a roadside Cafe we later found a great restaurant in Dole in the old part of the town for lunch. Mine a goats cheese salad and Steve went for the Sirloin. Excellent meal and all for around 12 euro.
After lunch as we approached the start of the French Jura and came across a road block with no real diversion in place. Eventually we decided to ignore some of the no entry signs and ride up the side of the hill anyway concerned we would get come across a dangerous section of road a landslide or something. Fortunately we got around the block in the end and back on route without issue. Not sure what diversion we should have took.
At Mijoux after a great twisty mountain ride following other bikers having fun on a Sunday we pulled in for refreshments at a roadside cafe where some of the other tour riders pulled in a few minutes behind us and then after a quick Ice Cream a fantastic ride over our first pass the Col de la Faucille. As the climb topped out we could see Lake Geneva with the Alps as a perfect backdrop in thr distance.
While following Steve I noticed he was missing route info and seemed to be heading toward Geneva instead. My garmin was trying to recalculate and it turned out Steves 660 was using the Motorway toll section between waypoints . At this point I realised we may be heading toward The Swiss border. I didn't have my Vignette fixed on the bike and didn't expect us to head across the border so I shouted to Steve while riding "Are we going to Switzerland today? " where Steve replied "yes,! You are in it chap" with a wry smile. It turned out his GPS was took us an alternative route between the two waypoints. We took the toll road down to Annecy and cost me 4 Euros. Damn. Unfortunately this was due to a missing extra waypoint if had been there should have forced the route to avoid the tolls It seemed my Zumo understood and Steves didn't. Only a few miles off the course but one to watch out for, but my turn to lead us two tomorrow anyway.
Found the hotel ok great parking facilities we get a lockable garage unit two bikes per unit with remote control up and over doors.
After a look at the lake we met some more on the tour at an outdoor cafe for a bowl of mussels. Not as good as the Kings Head and the service was awful. Ended up in a row with the waiter and the manager who tried to force us to pay for drinks the others had ordered after they had left. Got quite nasty and Steve handled it well as I was taking my specs off ready to fight my way out of there. No way am I paying 70 euro for a meal and drinks I didn't have. The waiter forgot the other chaps paid on CC. Anyway after comments thrown at us about the UK leaving the EU we went and had a couple more beers at another bar yo laugh about it and calm down.
Off to the Alps tomorrow (Mon) and Cormayeur.
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