A group of us (6) are planning a trip to Normandy on motorbikes for the landings celebrations, we are from the north of England and were thinking of going Hull to Zeebrugge and then driving down the coast to Normandy where we have a cottage booked. Has anyone done this route previously and could give us any advice it would be greatly appreciated.
I live in lincolnshire and have done france a few times with a modern bike. HOW far do you want to ride The only way i go now is on the chunnel 200 miles from home but only 20 minutes to cross from dover to normandy will be for a guess 200 plus miles .If you go from hull to holland i would say you will be looking at 400 miles from either the hook of holland or zeebruga. If none of you have riden in france before i would go from poole to cherbourg its about sixty miles to the beaches on mostly motorways. Two tips dont speed you will get done .And get booked in now. PS you will be on the hull boat 12 hours . poole boat i think about 5 hours.
It's an all night sailing leaving Hull around 18:00 and getting off in Belgium around 08:00 in the morning, looking at the distances we will have around 380 miles to our cottage in Normandy, it's almost the same as travelling from home to say Portsmouth to get a feyy to Normandy, either way we would have a long bike ride and we thought it may be a bit more interesting in Belgium/France.
That's a good long ride for a day, but its a lot more fun in a foreign country.
I seem to recall the coast road south of Calais is really nice, we found time for a quick stop at Dieppe and a couple of WW1 Military Cemeteries near Boulogne , but we were in a Landrover travelling up from La Havre to Ypres which was a lot shorter.
We're doing the same. after checking ferry prices for every available route, toll road prices, adding fuel costs etc, we've decided to go Portsmouth to Le-Havre with LD lines. Sails at 11pm for a breakfast arrival, then with 60 miles to our hired house on sword beach instead of the 270 miles from Calaise. We can be there and unpacked within a couple of hours, so able to get out and about the same day.
By coincidence I'm off over there on Friday. Will be calling in to see Adrian in Arromanches to see how its all shaping up.
Once over the Le Harve bridge look for signs for Pont L eveque and the D675. This is the old Route de Caen and brilliant for motorcyclists. Its nearly deserted with several transport cafes on route. Nice scenery too.
If you have a liitle time spare you can avoid the Le Harve bridge by heading in land a little and crossing the river at Tancarville on the old bridge.
Some good food stops there aswell.
Cheers, Mick.
