OUR ROUTE

Start/finish Calais Distance 1510 miles Riding time Five days

DAY 1

Calais to Avallon, 320 miles

DAY 2

Avallon to Alès, 350 miles

DAY 3

Alès to Millau daytrip, 210 miles

DAY 4

Alès to Joigny, 360 miles

DAY 5

Joigny to Calais, 270 miles

The route

This was a big trip, crammed into five high-mile days — brilliant fun but tiring... and possibly more difficult now the French have lowered the speed limit to 80kph on N and D roads. It needs a 9-10am tunnel out and a 4-5pm return crossing. You can build a more relaxed version (taking three days to get to Anduze, where there’s a daytrip that includes the Corniche des Cévennes and the D986 but not Millau) using the routes at www.ride.co.uk/france17