Considering a last minute bank holiday motorcycle trip to Fontainbleu. Is the fuel strike story something hyped by the UK media, or is this a silly idea? Anyone actually in France right now? is fuel actually available? With a range of only 150-200 miles I’ll need to fill up at least 2 or 3 times.

I’m in France, and as of right now it is becoming difficult, but not impossible, to find fuel in quite a few areas, including around Paris. Diesel is harder to find than petrol. There is a smartphone app (called Essence, I think) that is a community information thingy to allow people to update on which stations have and don’t have fuel.

Edit : Yes it’s called Essence by Ripple Motion SARL – check out the app stores

I have to cross from Cherbourg to Chamonix (and then on from there) in middle of June. New motorbike likes petrol a bit more than the old one and only has a 18 litre tank so I know how you feel right now!

Rachel

Yes in France now, yes its difficult (due to queues) but fuel still generally available (not all grades at all places) a lot of shortages due to panic buying. Some garages doing €20 or €30 max. If fuel started really running out the strike/picket lines would be broken and/or garages would just truck it in from elsewhere.

My guess @orange’s app is onky available in the French iTunes store so will need you to create a new apple id for that – easy to do

Sounds like an interesting trip – where after Cham? (Am a bit jealous, not ridden in the Alps yet)

Well, from Norfolk to the Horizons Unlimited meetup in Wales, then Ferry to Cherbourg, boring autoroute blast to Chamonix, over the tops and round via the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass, Aosta and down to Milan for a conference.

Then, south but I don’t have a plan as such. Probably ferry from Brindisi to Greece and then on as far as the Bosphorus so I can say I made it out of Europe this year. As long as I can camp and work on my laptop okay, I’m fine until another conference in Hungary in August.

Then home.

Idris and I are going to have fun 🙂

Rachel

@allthegear certainly living up to your login, custom stickers, dedicated twitter feed, bmw orignals the best 😉

There are three months of reserves in tanks but how much effort will be put into getting it out I don’t know. Things ground to a halt for a few days back in 96 before an agreement was found. It was great for cyclists!

Police breaking up demonstrations/pickets linky

My local fuel depot (Frontignan in the Languedoc) hasn’t been blocked, yet. 400 lorries were queuing up there yesterday. There’s been a lot of panic buying, which seems to be a bigger problem than the supply at the moment.

Deauville / Trouville (popular spot for Parisians) businesses on the tv reporting weekend trade down 30% 🙁 I can’t imagine the government will allow this to go on much longer.