FOAK: European tour

That must put 'em around Riberac or Brantome? The folks I'm thinking of are
the other side of Limoges, near St-Leonard-de-Noblat, IMHO they all live
like pigs in the Perigord, it's the truffles, I think, that does it to 'em?
Some superb roads around there, too - have you done the D703 Dordogne
valley, from Souillac? Cracking bit of road, some interesting places to stop
along the way, too
--
Dave H.
(The engineer formerly known as Homeless)

"Rules are for the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men" -
Douglas Bader

 

<peter wrote...

Cracking, ain't it?[1] Is the last-year's tarmac still like a billiard
table? And the run up to the lake's pretty good out of the tourist season,
as they're nearer St-Leonards-de-Noblat we approach from Champnetery,
assuming you know the area - work and pocket permitting g/f and I may be
heading out there in a few weeks for a bit of kid-free time... With luck one
or both will get bikes out for a bit of a ride - I'm wondering if you know
'em, they've been out there 5 or 6 years, he takes his name from a small
British bike of the 50's... rides a Harley for some reason, she I think has
a Suzuki Savage or similar, maybe the LS650?

--
Dave H.
(The engineer formerly known as Homeless)

"Rules are for the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men" -
Douglas Bader

[1] for values of "cracking" including scrape-both-pegs-on-the-VMax...

 

I did the charge across Europe (esp. Germany) sleeping on trains thing
quite regularly in the late 80s but I did it using BR passes rather than
Interail.

....and all because the Lady loved Simon.

 

The best run and most prosperous areas of Italy were solidly
communist. For some reason those regions with a lot of small
businesses, like the ones that produce most of the world's ski
equipment and suunglasses, are very red.

When my father was stationed in Hameln in the 70s, the barracks barber
was German and had a photo on the wall. It showed him on the barracks
steps in the uniform of the, eh, previous regime, in the company of

There wasn't any. The PCI decided to form an anti-fascist front which
contained all of the forces, up and to including the Christian
Democrats, who had been opposed to Mussolini, and that front made the
establishment of a non-fascist republic a priority. The communists
came out of the war with a lot of credit because of their role in the
resistance but they didn't try to take power by force. There was
almost a rising when a madman shot Togliatti (the General Secretary)
in 1948 and everyone assumed it was the beginning of a coup, but the
party maintained discipline. The election that year was rigged to keep
the communists out but up to 1991, there was a division of power so
that the PCI had the weight it deserved but was kept out of
government.

You can start a good fight with French people by mentioning unsavoury
facts from their past: the police murder of 200 Algerians in 1960 is a
good start.

 

I've never ridden a bike in Italy, but I can put together something on
Naples and surroundings and Sicily. It's a while since I've been in
Naples but nothing changes very fast in Italy.

Are you going to the EOSM?

Remember to look at the ferries into Naples and Palermo. You could
probably save a lot of time travelling overnight that way from France
or Genoa.

How silly?

 

One bike tour I remember stopping at a restaurant in the middle of
no-where (that seemed to cater mostly to the grape-workers) and having
a really really good meal (the 69F set menu).

The chef came out to shake our hands - I doubt it was an everyday
occurrance for 2 Dutch and 2 English guys on bikes to stop at the
restaurant..

The biggest problem was persuading them that we didn't want the litre
of wine that they plonked down in front of us. It was quite good (for
vin de table) but wouldn't have been compatible with the sort of
backroads hooning that we were wont to do..

Phil.

 

I prefer chorizo.

 

Dad used to say (having spent a lot of time in Italy) that people there
were either Catholic or Communist with very little in between..

Phil

 

Perhaps he read too many Don Camillo stories.

 

Me too, though I was doing it a little earlier than that - there's a
photograph *somewhere* of me wearing a Joy Division "Unknown
Pleasures" t-shirt mock-climbing over the wall.

it's a thought - only worth doing for a month and going fairly far
afield.

 

Unlikely..

Phil

 

aaaahhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa!

it's been bothering me for weeks what the priest/commie thing I used
to watch on telly as a kid - of course, it was "The Little World of
Don Camillo".

Cheers..

 

Or have a garage full of decent motors.

 

I loved those stories. My parents intorduced me to them. I always
remember Don Camillo as lacking the 'dono di coragio' (sp?)

 

If anyone is going, let me know. It's only an hour down the road.

--

Paul.
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird (Buen mueble de patio)
And a pushbike of some sort.
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24
OMF #15
UKRMMA #30

 

darsy () gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying :

Radio 4 have done several short series of them - last one was December last
year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/littleworldofdoncamillo/pip/archive/?2006

 

Well Algerians are an unsavoury bunch, granted

 

with all this moaning you do about Spain, you'd be better off moving
to somewhere more civilised, like the UK.

 

Unlike here in Spain, where our lord Zapatero is currently completely
shunning the US and Europe in favour of allying (sp) Spain with
Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico amongst other banana republics.

We're fucked.

--

Paul.
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird (Buen mueble de patio)
And a pushbike of some sort.
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24
OMF #15
UKRMMA #30

 

Well, he did "subdue" (aka "kill") quite a few, but there's plenty now.
They call themselves "The United Left" - but everyone else calls them
the communists. The next village down the road from me has a communist
mayor. Very popular but every town council in Spain is corrupt. And I
mean blatantly so. The whole Marbella thing is just a smoke screen to
take the heat off everyone else. Hell there's only been a couple of
hundred arrests in Marbella town council for corruption...

--

Paul.
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird (Buen mueble de patio)
And a pushbike of some sort.
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24
OMF #15
UKRMMA #30