Motoroute du Soleil 2003

High passes and low temps
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I had solved some electric problems with the rectifier and was eager to see the result. I expected to have the Volt-meter exactly in the middle on 13,8V. But none of it, the bloody bike ('81 LeMans2) did not fire up. I phoned my compagnion on our rendez-vous gas-station and by the time he arrived, I had just found the suspect wire. ..."click and go" and there I had exactly 13,8V on my voltmeter. 

Learned by earlier trips we focussed on the Alps and didn't spend time in the Ardennes and Vosges. South of the Vosges we picked up the local roads and the river Doubs to Pontarlier and in the direction of the Col de la Faucile. It was getting really cold.
 

Shivering from the temperature and long trip we started looking for an Hotel and if possible with a resto near the Col de la Faucile. 
The adagium says: "Dirty inn, must be cheap inn" and we spend the rest of the evening in a not to dirty place at the N5, where the D991 goes to Mijoux.
The grumpy old bear replaced the waitress and served a breakfast as French as it can be, but we felt brothers in arms with him since we all liked staying in bed better.
The roads were covered with spots of ice and our saddles were one large ice-cube (on a place where you can't stand them).

Never the less the sun rose this day and so did the morning rush between Bellegarde and Annecy and after a few swift accelerations we got loose from the truck convoy and speeded up to Annecy.
Annecy is the door to the Haute Savoie, we headed for the first passes near La Clusaz and Les Saissies and back down to Beaufort for the Barage de Roselend and the Cormet de Roselend. I really love this high plain landscape. Especial the part between the refuge and the col.

The descend ends in Bourg St. Maurice. Our coffee -stop lasted long enough for a lunch and afterwards we checked at the Gendarmerie if the cols where "ouvert". "Tous est ouvert, messieur", he said like we were crazy, but until one week before the high passes had been closed for several days we heard in Jausier, several 100 kms further.
And on we went up to the Col d'Iseran(2770) near Val d'Isere. A truly deserted col whit only an English motorist to have a quick chat and share an Evergreen with.
So we went down and turned left in the valley up to the Col de St Cenis in the direction of the Italian border. This road to Briancon is not shorter, but the SuperStrada is faster than the Col the Galibier and Cal the Lauterette.

It was bitter cold on the Mont de St Cenis. The fog froze as Ice on my helmet and vizor and the sight was no more than approx. Auke's red tail light 30 meter further. Hardly able to move my jaws for a drink and bite, we stopped for the SuperStrada entry in the valley. Hoppa, short cold kilometers were replaced by warm tunnels so this Toll-way was really worth the money. We peaked on a small border Col and descended to Briancon. We must have gained an hour we estimated, optimistically. 

We probably would have stopped in Briancon if we had found a nice place, but we were not really going through the center and were climbing the Col d'Izoard before we knew it. At 2300m we found another high altitude desert. Cold, cold, cold,... you don't know how fast you want to come down again.

High altitude desert, col d'Izoard.

The good thing of the southward descend of the Col d'Izoard is that you get warm because you go down and because the Mediterranean climate slowly gets grip on the whether.

The 2100m high Col de Vars even had a comfortable temperature, but this was around 17:00 hours, the warmer part of the day.
In the village bar of Jausier the Bartendress told us that the Col de Bonette was the highest road of Europe and that it had opened again just a few days before after it had been closed the beginning of October. We were lucky, se said, because it was a beautiful road, but not for this day since it would be dark in 30 minutes.
We figured we were not here for the scenery, but to go to Nice, besides the forecast for the next morning was snow, so there we went again.

Darkness comes quick and the scenery at the Bonette was left for another visit. We went on and arrived around 21:30 on the final destination, which was a considerable improvement on last years result. Especial since we did take most of the cols this time.

With some luck, we stopped for cigarets exactly on the place where we needed to get of the N202. And look where we turned out to be next day.

And where we parked our bikes. It's better than yesterday.

On our way back we followed the route Napoleon. Marc accompanied us for several hundreds of kilometers before returning to Nice again and I think we more or less arrived in Lons-le-Saunier when he was back home again. Soaking wet of the heavy rain we parked at a Hotel.
The next day, was filled with long stretches at comfortable speeds, which resulted in a very acceptable average speed until I had a Minardi-like technical hick-up at the Ring of Antwerpen. The oil-line to the cilinder head sprung and the highway was turned in an enormous fog. 

The whole left of the bike was like the inside of the fried potato shed. My boots are water resistant for the rest of there lives.

Jeck...

The depannage came and shipped me and my bike homeward, where I replaced the line in 10 minutes after I had in house (a week later).

What a mess!

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