Well, you can't go wrong really.

Hotel accomodation is a lot cheaper than the UK - you'll be very pleasantly surprised, even with your falling currency (change your pounds to Euros now). Otherwise every town, even small ones have municipal camp sites maintained by the local council that are a bargain. Have a search on the HUBB - these things have been discussed before.

Have a look at

driving directions, map UK, route planner, road map, Michelin Guides, book hotel online: Viamichelin

for roads and routes - the ones marked with green are pretty.

The French like motorcycles. They are not associated with criminality, violence and oil stains, but with living an exciting life and being your own person - transgression is valued here, in all its forms.

Roads are good quality, and empty compared to your country. A 250 will be fine.

If I were in your position, I'd come into Le Havre and work my way down the Seine, then along the Eure river to Dreux, then Rambouillet, and then zipping into Paris on a hot summer evening to sip cold white wine and look at the people. But it's your trip, I'm getting carried away, hmmm.

As for driving, well, they do it on the right and have some odd rules that are always negotiable, and oft followed in the breech. Don't worry. Only the very stupid are punished. Just be polite; that's enough. They don't expect very high standards of driving from anyone in my experience.

Simon

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Simon Kennedy
Around the world 2000-2004, on a 1993 Honda Transalp