Photos Trip Barcelona-Paris [Part 2]

Once I had a little ride through Toulouse, which looked like a very beautiful city, I got the motorway and drove towards Limoges, which it was my last stop before to get to Paris. Things got a bit mad here. I wasn't on a rush really as I was on holidays, but for some strange reason I wanted to get to Paris ASAP, so I drove pretty fast on this last part of the trip, which was about 3 or 400 Km away.
One of the greatest things about was that french speed radars do not affect spanish plates [As long you are not stopped by the cops of course] So I am pretty sure there will be good laughs somewhere when they see my photos giving a middle finger.
A great oportunity to test the motorbike and also the brand new tyres Michelin Pilot Road 2ct. They were ace!, fantastic grip.

So after booking another hotel and stay a night in Limoges, the very next morning I got in Paris. I was clueless to drive there [Its a huge city], but I remembered on my last staying that there is a sort of circular road 'Periferique' which surrounds all Paris city center. One way or another would get me to the first thing I wanted to do, which it was a photo with the Eiffel Tower behind. [Yes silly.] Its obviously a place easy to spot, as you can see it from many parts of the city. So it wasnt hard to find it.

Look at that Bugati! Fucking cool!

Right after I took a couple of photos, I did notice that my motorbike chain was literally hanging!. I didnt feel anything on my way there, so it probably got streched on the last few hundred miles
One thing was for sure, I couldnt drive back to Barcelona like this, so I needed to sort that out inmediatly.
At first I didnt know what to do, I knew fuck all of Paris and also didnt know how long I couldnt drive on this conditions.

More 'bloody tourists' pics

Suddenly I saw this cop passing by and riding a huge motorbike, so without hesitate a second I wave him and told him what happened to me. I wasnt expecting much help really although I knew that despite being a cop, he was still a motorbiker!

And I was right, he pulled over and looked at the mess and very kindly told me he would take me to a main street not far from where we were, where I could find all major motorbike brands shops. Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati you name it. They were all there! It was a funny ride, the cop was stopping the traffic to let me passing by, sometimes even we drove on the wrong direction. It made me feel like a celebrity haha ...

Look at this Ducati. Great!

More silly touristic photos

Once we found the Honda shop. I thank the cop for his help and I was told by the staff that there was no problem to change the whole chain kit, but they needed a day to sort it out which I guess it was the time to get the spare pieces delivered. A great relief!

French countryside

I didnt have a problem with that. What else could I do?. I had a place to leave my bike and plenty of time to visit Paris. So I checked in the nearest hotel I found and got the tube to visit some of the Paris main attractions.

Thats a famous bridge over the Senna river, but I dont remember now why its so famous

Hotel wasn't cheap really, but it was very well located in city center, near the Arc de Triomphe and the bonus is that I could also see the Eiffel tower from my window [Which was full of lights that night I think due to the Olimpic french medals]. The area looked posh, with loads of expensive cars with private drivers waiting on the outside. Ferraris, Jags, Rolls and the likes. Pretty much like the ones you see sometimes in London city center.
After some visiting of Paris that afternoon, and some more the very next morning [Pere Lachaise], I accomplished everything that I wanted to do there. So once my motorbike was ready on the afternoon, I drove south again to Limoges, stayed there one night in the same hotel I was in on my way up, and then back in Toulouse and the French coast again.

Banyuls sur Mer

Ready to go!

Weather was great all the way, although near Paris was a bit more cold. I only had my old 70s leather jacket with me as a 'luggage' but so far I was very lucky with the weather because I got all the way was nothing but Blue skies.
But as soon as I hit the south french coast you could tell that was much warmer again than the north.

But there was one last thing I wanted to do before to get in Barcelona.

I saw this little shark in Port de La Selva. It was dead, probably thrown by the local fishermans

Cala Tamariua-Port de la Selva

Once I passed the border, I didnt wanted to finish my trip without to swimm again in Cala Tamariua in Port de La Selva. A beautiful unspoiled spot in the heart of Costa Brava.

Cala Tamariua. Pristine clear waters

Is it any more relaxing thing than swimm in cristal clear waters with plenty of fish around?

Its was a shame that my holidays were over soon. Like I said before the trip wasn't planned, but If I had another extra week instead Im pretty sure I would get more upnorth than Paris, Holland or maybe crossing the channel to England.

Thats definately a must for the next year!

All photos by Pedro Vila

More photos trip Barcelona-Paris [Part 1]

Montseny mountains near Maresme Area

So here we are with a few more photos of my unplanned, fully improvised trip to Paris. The one above is from The Montseny mountains where everything started.

Port de La Selva sunset

Then I drove all the way from the motorway towards Costa Brava- France, although I went to Cadaques first and Port de La Selva later to stay a night. I didn't still knew I was going to get more further up.

Cadaques

The photo above is from Cadaqués. A nice pintoresque small village not far from the French border. I initially wanted to stay there for a day or two, and visit the small beaches [called Calas here] around, but due that it was August it was a bit over crowded so I decided to get to the next village 'Port de La Selva', which is one of the last towns before you get to France.

Cadaques

Leaving Cadaqués

Port de La Selva

Port De la Selva is a nice small fisherman village right in the heart of Costa Brava. The area is pretty unspoiled and it has a nice clean waters to swimm and do some great scuba diving. Cala Tamariua near the village is one of my favourite beaches. You hardly find people there and is got one of the cleanest waters I ve seen on my entire life. In fact all the area has.

Sunset

Serenity

At this point is where the idea to get to the french side started to go in me head. The south east coast in France is a brilliant ride, with plenty of curvy roads. In fact France has one of the best roads-motorways system of Europe. Nothing to do with the ones we get here in Spain really.

Once you cross Port Bou, last town in Catalunya, then you find all along the coast the first French Villages. Cerbere is the first we get on the 'other side' which it isnt a special place really. After Banyuls Sur Mer next village is Port Vendres and then Colliure.

French border

In Colliure I stopped to get something to eat. Its a nice village with a big castle right near the beach. By the style and architecture of this little villages you can tell you are not in Spain anymore. I couldn't tell how, but they look different.

Port Vendres, France

After leaving Colliure, my next destination was Perpignan. Once I got there I bought a french map and start looking for possible destinations.
The first option would be to carry on along the french seaside and get to Nice, Monaco or perhaps go to the Italian border.
The second option was to drive to the main land, go to Carcassone, Toulouse and go up north.
Paris sounded like a great destination. Despite having some relatives there, Its been a long time since I was in Paris last time. First option was much shorter, and second meant about 2.500 km. But what the fcuk! , on the most spontaneous way I choose to get to Paris.

Colliure. Home of thespanish poet Antonio Machado

Colliure Castle

Weather was great so far. A very important fact for motorbike riding. I checked on the local newspapers and the forecast looked pretty sunny for the upcoming days.
Once I passed Carcassone I took the motorway to Toulouse. The countryside here started to get really beautiful. There were loads of green fields and forests with beautiful Castles all the way near the roads. They were very well preserved. I was stunned about how beautiful the French countryside is. It has really nothing to envy to England for example, in fact I believe is got more forests and trees than UK.

Toulouse and Limoges were my next destinations.

End of part 1

Trip Barcelona-Paris

Triumphant!

So here we are after summer holidays. The last week of August I traveled from Barcelona to Paris all along the coast to Perpignan in the french side and then Carcassone, Toulouse, Limoges and finally Paris. Everything was done on the most improvised way, no luggage, no route, no plans.... just the motorbike and me. I couldnt even imagine, when I started my trip that I was going to get that far.

Port de La Selva [Catalunya]

It was a fantastic ride, great roads and motorways [French ones are supposed to be the best ones in Europe] , blue skies all the way and the best of it useless speed radars. The bikers paradise.

Pere Lachaise cementary Paris

I drove through many villages and visited some interesting places in Paris that I will keep uploading the next days. I also went to make some photos in the Pere Lachaise cementary where we can find the graves of Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Maria Callas, Fédéric Chopin, Eugène Delacroix, Oscar Wilde, Moliere and Jim Morrison amongst many others. It was something I wanted to do since a long time ago.

Rue Beautreillis Paris. Here lived Jim Morrison before he died in July 1971

Banyuls sur Mer France

Port de La Selva Sunsets

Almost 3.000 Km of fun with a Honda CBR 929 RR.

I will upload more stuff of my trips this August on the upcoming days.

Costa Brava: on the way to France

French Border

Port Bou last town in Catalunya

So here there are some photos from my last trip to the French border. The route was to drive all along the coast from St Pol, about 50 Km from Barcelona to Cadaques, which is a pintoresque Mediterranean style small village about an hour from France .

Costa Brava Map

The best partner for the trip was the Honda CBR 929 RR which is the perfect mate for long journeys, just 153 HP of pure power!.
I am really looking forward to make a long distance trip this summer around Europe and there are some possible destinations on the cards. I haven't decided where yet, maybe the Isle of Man which is a dream I have since I was a teen. Would love to get there driving first through Paris, Amsterdam and then get into Great Britain with a Ferry or maybe across the Channel tunnel..... we will see.

At the bottom of the hills we have France

Llança

Here is the missile

There were some stops on the route as I wanted to take some photos from the places I found all the way. First I pulled over in Empuria Brava then Llançá and the next village Cadaqués which It supposed to be the end of the trip, but somehow I missed it and appeared in Port Bou which the last town ever before you get into France.

A great blue Skies day!

Winter? What winter?

The further up you go the wildest the coast line gets, you only have to leave behind the crowded places in Costa Brava like Platja D´Aro, Lloret de Mar or Roses and no more massive constructions and overcrowded villages will be seen.

Getting closer to the border

A view of the Cap de Creus

The good thing to drive in the French side its that speeding radars wont work for Spanish plates so you can drive on a more relaxed way . The road was ace, and very curvy.

There are loads of unspoiled beaches all along the way, no one to be seen aside of me and the odd fisherman. Unfortunetly there are less and less places like that in the Spanish Coast line.

Great place to camp with a tent!

View from Port Bou

Port Bou

Honda CBR 929 RR

I did my last stop right in the french border. There was no one there, nor even Police border patrols or anything like that. Port Bou entrance to Catalunya isnt as popular as other border places like La Junquera for example. I guess its because there are no motorways there, just narrow curvy roads.
So you know now which way to get in Spain if you do not want to be noticed!.

No one land, right in the middle!

Unspoiled Coast

All the places you can see above Cadaques it proves you how Catalunya coast was 100 years ago, time before the massive crowds of Tourists choose d our place as a summer destination.

French side

In Port Bou coast is where the Pyrenees Mountains ends. There are routes to walk from the mediterranean to the other side in the Atlantic, but you would need about 15 or 20 days to do that. Sounds like a good plan though.

The beaches had pristine clean waters, and instead of sand you get those small round stones [Pebbles?], so I guess that helps to not to make this part very very popular when it comes to tourism.
You know what? ......better leave it like this!

So overall it was a fantastic trip, and a good test for my Honda 900 RR .......to get ready for what is coming next!

Isle of Man TT races official website link

http://www.iomtt.com/

By Pedro Vila