Having left London, England the day before in glorious sunshine, we had continued our motorcycle tour of France, Andorra and Spain in similar weather, and now on the second day we were pushing further south to the town of Montlucon.
The riding was to be more varied today, some motorway but mostly back roads across country. I was looking forward to seeing how the Triumph Rocket 3 I was riding coped with the more twisty roads.
The only problem with the Rocket was all its chrome and polished parts. This was my first cruiser, (at 50 years old I am no longer comfortable on anything else!), and the grey sky and wet roads I saw through my hotel room window were disappointing! I guess age has turned me into a "fair weather rider".
As we were waiting outside the hotel for everyone to get ready, we noticed an ambulance crew wheeling out a dead body from one of the flats adjacent to the hotel. It was a sobering reminder of our own mortality.
No visit to leMans is complete without a trip to Mulsanne to ride down the famous 3.7 mile Mulsanne straight.
This race track is made famous by the 24 hour leMans race, a true road race in that mostly public roads are used. It is so unlike a race track in parts that if it was not for the Armco barrier that lines the road, I would never have known that I was on it!
After a swift stop for petrol it was onto the back roads for the first time, heading for the town of Richelieu, the home of Cardinal Richelieu who eventually became Prime Minister of France. He was also a central figure in the fictional "Three Musketeers".
The town is very picturesque, built inside a square with boundary walls and straight roads inside, leading to a massive square at one end, where we stopped for lunch.
As we ate, the sun came out and the temperature rose to make riding very comfortable.
The Rocket had behaved well around the lanes. We had been going at a good pace and I had lost ground to some of the guys on the entrance to some of the sharper bends, but the Rocket can flatter to deceive, as you can simply open the throttle out of the bends and make the ground right back up again. No one notices! It has to be set right for the bends however, so concentration is essential as the sheer weight of the bike gives it a lot of momentum, even after the excellent brakes have scrubbed off excess speed.
The massive rear tyre does squirrel around on uneven surfaces, being so wide it is subject to severe tracking in any ruts in the road, but you soon get used to this and gently leaning the bike over and letting it do its own thing inspires confidence.
Eventually arriving at our hotel in Montlucon in the evening, we were disappointed to find the town virtually closed, so sampling the local food and wine wasn't possible.
There was a government Orange official weather warning for the next day, which was ominous.
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