We decided to go via the Tunnel to France, paid for thanks to Clubcard; went across Monday tea-time, ended up in Luxembourg Thursday after two overnight stays, first at a campsite in Ardres, second at a rather nice gite outside Landrecies. Spent all day thursday in Luxembourg doing the touristy stuff then started out Friday morning heading towards Paris to do the HDC Restless Runners rally. About 10 miles from Chalons-en-Champagne, the drive belt started shedding teeth, think I picked up a stone; limped it into Chalons, called recovery. Taken to the dealership in Reims, surprisingly they didn't have the bits in stock and since this is France and the shop closes Monday due to the stress of opening all day Saturday (except for the obligatory two hour lunchbreak) it would be Tuesday before they opened again, bits should arrive mid-morning and I'd be on the way by Tuesday teatime.
Our Chunnel tickets were for Monday morning, so we decided to take the offered hire car; except none were available till Saturday morning, so recovery found us a nearby hotel ( Enzo chain run by Best Western, surprisingly good for 55 Euros) then I took the bus and tram into Reims to collect the hire car.
So far so good, but we decided that the trip to the rally was scuppered now, so we'd do the day touring Reims, did the cathedral and a car museum, had a really good meal then headed back towards Calais. Camped for the night south of Valenciennes, wifey went to bed and I found a nearby nightclub and went off to drown me sorrows with a few beers.
Next morning, got up, it stated raining heavily just after we packed the tent up, and it got progressively worse. Headed off towards Calais again, picked up the A26 motorway and made fairlygood progress despite the dreadful weather; we pulled in at a McDonalds for food mid-morning, wifey was absolutely soaked but determined to make it to Calais. Got as far as Dunkirk, took the turn off to "la Manche".... then it went literally tits-up. Mrs. HM hit a patch of diesel or some debris, she wasn't quite sure which, lost the front end, thankfully managed to bring the bike down to about 25-30 mph but couldn't avoid sliding off, scraping the Armco and going over it.
Trust me, you really don't want to watch your missus flying off her bike.
I pulled over, ran over fearing the worst as she was laid flat on her back not moving. Couple of cars stopped (you don't always get that in the UK) and a lady phoned for fire/ambulance, they were on the scene within 5 minutes, took wifey to Dunkirk hospital, I followed by car. Thankfully only banged her head and knee, apart from a bruise and being naturally shaken up she's OK, but there was enough damage to the bike (right footrest mount broken and a few scrapes, but I've seen a helluva lot worse) to make it unrideable so that's being recovered home.
Got wifey out of hossie (very good treatment by ALL the French emergency services I have to say) and we packed all the gear into my car; phone call to Carole Nash, we ended up dropping the hire car off at Hertz Calais, taxi to the TGV station; hour and a half later we're in St. Pancras, guy from Enterprise car hire picked us up, took us to their depot at Kilburn, sorted another hire car and we got home to Carmarthen dead on ten o'clock last night.
Now sorting out my trip back to Reims to collect my bike, AFAIK Carole Nash are sending me by Eurostar on Tuesday so I will hopefully be able to ride it home.
I've just had a call tonight to say that Mrs HM's bike is back in the UK so I've now got to arrnge it to be sent for repairs.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Wed 4 Jul 12 at 20:46
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