So I chucked my job, bought a van and am making it into a camper (blog here: http://itsridingitsfree.blogspot.co.uk)

and I plan a road trip to europe in the van this summer (presuming I get it finished :))
My first stop is Santander via a large boat from Portsmouth.
Next stop is Andorra (bike parks etc.).
Then I plan to drive along the south coast of france chilling out, playing a guitar very badly, and riding my bike, making it to a
hook up with a group of people in Italy end of july.

However, being the meandering sort I am, without a plan I will miss stuff.

So, what and where should I ride along the way?

Respect

That is almost exactly what myself and two mates are planning this summer, minus the guitar playing. Andorra, vallnord, la Molina in Spain, San remo Italy, finale ligure, prato nevoso, pila, Les deux alpes, alp dhuez etc… Can’t freakin wait!

Decided against the ferry to Santander due to the massive cost. Cheaper to drive though obviously less chilled.

I want to do that 🙁

playing a guitar very badly

Why? Why must people do this? You had a great little plan there, and you had to drop that in….

😉

I don’t like you, please stop posting on here…. 🙂

If your round Pila early July give us a shout, no wait sorry, I don’t like you.

Have a great time, did I mention I don’t like you.

No riding suggestions yet. Anyone would think stw is populated by middle aged IT managers (like wot I woz) who can’t get a pass from the trouble and strife for 12 weeks in th’alps….

Apart from kayakthat is, get yourself to sauze d’oulx (and the other resorts in the area) its proper nice, get weavin!

No advice here and I don’t even work in IT. If you don’t break yourself you’ll have a ball. Enjoy mate

How about this….. Ironbike

Nice one. Can I come? I play a mean bad guitar too..

Just buy some Rough Guides, always gems in them.

Watch the dudes of hazzard movie (Joe Barnes project thing) their roadtrip seemed to go all over the place and they rode at some brill spots.

I think I need to do a two week equivalent in the UK or something. Then when I grow up (turn 40) – do Europe for two weeks.

How do you square stuff like that with wives is the main question. And when you have kids I suspect it gets….eh…a bit harder.

Shit!

very jealous of both van and trip and time off 🙂

recommendations for places to ride:

Pyrenees:
Bagneres de Luchon (hard to find good riding without a guide)
Ax les Thermes (also might need a guide if you want to be doing anything other than simple loops)
Andorra – Valnord and Gran Valira (I preferred the latter, but both are very DH oriented, no XC to speak of)

Alps:
Avoid Morzine/Les Gets, or just go there for a bit.
La Clusaz (look for the bakery in town which does cut price bags of pastries at the end of the day – €2 for an assorted bag of about 5 lush sugary heart attacks)
Valloire (excellent place, highly recommended – very french and the riding is top notch)
Les Arcs and Tarantaise (maybe get some guiding to find the best stuff)
Chamonix (the riding is pretty good, and your sort of trip wouldn’t be complete without at least a cursory stop there).

On the van topic, is your gas bottle refillable? I used to have one I bought from gaslow, which I could fill from the LPG (GPL in france) pumps. really cheap to refill and much more convenient that hauling the tank out of the van and looking for a calor/camping gaz stockist.

I look forward to reading more of your blog 🙂

Dave

I spent from April to September last summer travelling around Europe in a campervan 🙂 I’m now sat in an office in Brizzle 🙁

Anyway, as for French recomendations, head for Lake Salagou:

http://www.computours.co.uk/places/salagou.html

Fair bit of biking all around, a fun waymarked trail round the whole lake, plus windsurfing, swimming, pedaloes, beaches etc. And if you’re lucky, like we were, you’ll get to see the forest fire-fighting planes practising their stuff over the lake 🙂

I highly recommend stopping at riviera bike for a uplift day or 2

I’m not sure how much that would cost but it will be worth every penny

near that san remo in that italy

Yeah, +1 for Rivierabike. And stopping at Lake Iseo in Italy. Don’t know about the biking, but it’s beautiful and the ice-cream’s lovely 🙂

Hello all, made some progress despite the weather on the mega mega white thing this week.

Thanks for the Pyrenees tips, done Les Arcs (and will be going back) and been going to the porte du soleil for the last 6 years hence the diversion….

also the gas tank is an underbody mounted LPG tank, so yes the French GPL (or local equivalent) is what I’ll use.

Just added 2 x 110Ah leisure batteries and a 100W solar panel so trying to make this as self sufficient as possible.

whoop 🙂

http://itsridingitsfree.blogspot.co.uk/