Millau This was basically planned as a trip to see the fantastic new bridge/viaduct over the Tarn River Valley at Millau. However, it turned out to be a 2,192 mile trip across France, Luxembourg, Germany, Holland, Belgium and England, consumed 319 litres of petrol and incorporated some fantastic hotels (and some not so fantastic ones), the Magny Cours F1 circuit, a ski resort, the Nurburgring, a North Sea ferry and a 40th birthday party. Awesome.
Eurotunnel Day 1 - Good Friday. Left home late in the afternoon to catch the train to Calais. Straight blast down the motorway to try and cover some distance. Made it as far as Reims by around 10pm. Time for bed.
Magny Cours Day 2 - Saturday. Noticed that our route took us past Nevers, which is where the Magny Cours racetrack can be found. So we stopped in for a look.
Dark Skies Day 2 - Saturday. One has to be fairly determined to drive a convertible with the roof down under a sky that colour.
Vichy Day 2 - Saturday. We stayed overnight in the Sofitel in Vichy, which was very nice. Particularly the complimentary Easter Egg and two bottles of wine that we found in our room. We also had a nice view from our room over the park behind the hotel.
Ram This Dodge Ram SRT-10 was parked outside the hotel. I can’t even begin to guess how much petrol we’d have used if we’d covered our 2,192 miles in that.
Puy de Dome Day 3 - Sunday. Left Vichy. First stop of the day was Puy de Dome, a 1,464m extinct (I hope) volcano to the west of Clermont-Ferrand. It was very windy and very cold up here. This is the view from the top.
Puy de Dome Another view from Puy de Dome. It was so cold up here, there was still some snow on the ground.
Puy de Dome It wasn’t raining though, so no excuses for not having the roof down.
Puy de Dome I couldn't decide if I liked this one or the previous one best, so I've included them both :o)
Puy de Sancy About 30 miles south of Puy de Dome is Puy de Sancy. As you might be able to tell from all of the snow on the ground, it was quite chilly here.
Puy de Sancy Still, Judith seems to be enjoying herself. Probably because this is the closest she’s ever got me to an active ski resort.
Garabit Viaduct I can’t believe it’s still Sunday. Pushing further south, stopped off for a look at the Garabit Viaduct. It was constructed by Gustave Eiffel in 1885, four years before he built his slightly more famous Eiffel Tower. It’s 565m long and 165m high and when it opened it was apparently the worlds highest bridge.
Millau Viaduct Not long before sunset and we finally reach our target destination - the Millau Viaduct. And it’s just awsome. It’s 2,460m long and at it’s highest point the road is 246m high, making it the worlds tallest vehicular bridge. The tallest tower is 341m, making it slightly bigger than the Eiffel Tower.
Millau Viaduct
Hotel View This is the view from our hotel, west across Millau.
Millau Bridge It’s quite difficult to see, but there’s a white car on the road at the base of the tower. It gives some idea of the scale of the bridge.
Millau Bridge Day 4 - Monday. We’re staying in Millau again tonight, so we’ve got plenty of time to trawl around in the area.
Millau Bridge This is a view of the bridge from the bottom of the Tarn River Valley.
Millau Bridge Just to prove we were there.
Peyre I think this is a village called Peyre, a few kilometres west of Millau, in the Tarn River Valley.
Tarn River Valley A miscellaneous view.
Millau Bridge We couldn’t come all this way without actually driving over the bridge. Because of the large guard rails at the side, it’s quite difficult to see over the edge. And it’s still Monday.
Millau Bridge
Millau Thing A thing in Millau. Not sure what it is.
Tarn River Valley A miscellaneous view in the Tarn River Valley.
Tarn River Valley The bridge at le Rosier.
Tarn River Valley The bridge at le Rozier again.
Tarn River Valley
Grotte de Dargilan A view of the caves at Grotte de Dargilan. Very impressive.
Grotte de Dargilan Judith (not that you can tell) in the caves at Grotte de Dargilan.
Grotte de Dargilan I think this is the bloke who discovered the caves in 1880. The bloke on the right obviously. The bloke on the left is me. And I’m clearly not over 120 years old.
Grotte de Dargilan A view of the Gorges de la Nonte from outside the Grotte de Dargilan. And it’s still Monday.
Millau at Night Day 4 - Monday. Back at the hotel again. This is the view of the bridge from the hotel at night. Obviously. It’s strange that you can’t see the road deck at all.
Cluny Day 5 - Tuesday. Heading north again and we stop off in Cluny, which was very picturesque.
Cluny Me and a well in Cluny.
Cluny
Montchanin Day 5 - Tuesday. End of the day and we arrive at the not-so-picturesque Novotel near Montchanin, although the staff were very nice and dinner was most excellent. I don’t think they get many tourists here.
Luxembourg Day 6 - Wednesday. Basically drove straight up the motorway from Montchanin to Luxembourg and arrived at the lovely Sofitel shortly after lunchtime, which left us the rest of the day for sightseeing and not driving anywhere. Super hotel, fantastic service. We liked it here very much.
Er? Out and about in Luxembourg. I had to take a picture of this, mainly because I was having difficulty believing my own eyes. Never mind “Meet the Fockers”, I think this would have been a much funnier film.
Pont Adolphe The Pont Adolphe in the centre of Luxembourg.
Passerelle Viaduct Might be wrong though.
Cathedral Notre Dame Inside the Cathedral Notre Dame in Luxembourg.
Cathedral Notre Dame Outside the Cathedral Notre Dame in Luxembourg.
Statue Not sure who this is. But she was standing on a very tall plinth.
Nurburgring Day 7 - Thursday. Whilst planning the route from Luxembourg to Brugge, I noticed that we were only about 80 miles from the Nurburgring (albeit 80 miles in the wrong direction). It seemed wrong to be so close and not to go and have a look, so we did. The shape of the track, as shown above, will be familiar to many PS2 and XBox owners.
Nurburgring First we went to the F1 circuit, where they were practicing for a Ferrari GT race at the weekend. However, the only place the track could be seen from was the bar of the adjacent Novotel because, for some reason, all of the stands were closed. So we moved on to the Nordschleife. This is the view down the massive straight from the BMW Ring Taxi centre.
Nurburgring And this is the entrance to the track. Unfortunately the Honda was about a foot too tall to sneak under the barrier and the track wasn’t going to be open to the public until 17:15. This was about 11:00 and we were still about 250 miles from Brugge, so it wasn’t really practical to hang around.
Nurburgring Probably the safest way to see the Nurburgring.
Maastricht On the way through the Netherlands we stopped for a spot of lunch in Maastricht. Quite pleasant. Lots of bikes and pavement cafes. Very European.
Brugge Day 7 - Thursday. Finally arrive at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Brugge. Nice central location. Very close to the Bier Temple too.
Brugge It’s much warmer now than the last time we were here, so there are lots more tourists out and about.
Brugge The cafes have all spawned tables in the fresh air too.
Ferry Day 8 - Friday. A short drive from Brugge to Zeebrugge, then on to the overnight ferry to Hull.Day 9 - Saturday. Arrived in Hull. Went to a birthday party.Day 10 - Sunday. Drove the last 240 miles back home. Honda is back in my garage, where it will be staying for a couple of weeks for a well earned rest. Top holiday.