Bordeaux - France
 

Just been to Bordeaux for the week, we took the car !! 900 kms coming home it was almost a sold traffic jam (Embouteillage) from Tours to Paris !! bloody end of holidays .... worth remember if your planning a trip this summer, avoid start / end of school & public holidays.

Anyway, on the D5 direction coast I was over taken buy a White / Red 3AJ Ténéré @ + 130 kms p/h was that anyone here ??

All around the cost line of Bordeaux is woodland owned by the National Forestry commission, plenty of tracks where you're clearly not allowed to ride, but does anyone know of tracks you can...... in France do you have the same "green lane" system ?

There must be plenty of places to play in the sand as every other vehicle is a 4X4 with snorkel and sand tyres .....

No system that I'm aware of. France, suffering the same general overpopulation problem as the rest of Europe, plus a horrendous bureaucracy, is progressively closing minor roads everywhere. Having said that, there are still some dirt roads and pistes where anybody can drive. But there is no map or guide I'm aware of.

I would guess that your best chances are in the more remote areas, i.e. Massif Central. In Italy there are still quite a few Alpine pistes open, although there it's getting less and less all the time, too.

Even the Ligurian Border "Road" now has solid steel barriers at the Western end, but bikes go around them.

The 4x4s you mention are a fashion symbol, nothing more. A guy who's into 4x4s more seriously told me that none of them you can buy these days can be drive through water any more: instant electronics death... A bit like the KTM Adventure that's said to have the electrics in the bellypan...

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

I've just been down there also- moving to Bordeaux for a while to escape UK. I am leaving my KTM 950 in a top secret location in that good city http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif with a hope of returning regularly for some fine rides in the region.

Saw a whole load of big trailies- particularly Affy Twins, Transalps and GSs. But then they are far more popular there than in UK. Found a selection of bike shops behind the Bassins a Flots/Base Sous-Marin, at the North end of the city- behind Boulevard Alfred Daney and on Rue Lucien Faure. There seems to be quite a strong biking community there. If interested there's even some ok 2nd hand trailies around there inc a Tenere I seem to recall.

Just outside the city are a couple of real specialists in the field, particularly- Baines Moto, Eysines (05-57-93-03-04)- a KTM dealer and apparently knowledgable about bike adventure stuff.

If you see a tatty Silver KTM 950 in the region (or beyond) give a wave. Jem.