Trip Details - EURO2001: Mon 30/7 to Thu 9/8

Finalised Route Profile (26th June 2001)

DAY 0: Sun 29/7

The travelling day before the tour. The Le Havre group will leave Portsmouth at 10:15 in the evening whilst the Calais group get an early night.

DAY 1: Mon 30/7: Calais / Le Havre -> Evreux 200/100 approx miles

The start of the tour sees people arriving from several different directions - principally from Le Havre and Calais. The Le Havre group will get out of the port at about 7.00am and make their way to a Benedictine Monastry to pass the morning and wait for the Calais group who get in a couple of hours later. We will then make our way to a lunch stop at a restaurant which is 4km from Fecamp with adequate parking and a menu we can choose from on the day. The owner and chef is a car enthusiast and is currently renovating a 1927 Samson, which is a right hand drive drop head about the size of an Austin 7. Then onward to the hotel at Evreux. This day is quite light due to the early start. We will also meet our Ratrace (Caterham north London but they'll try to fix anything) support van and mechanic

DAY 2: Tue 31/7: Evreux -> Nevers approx 200 miles

We continue our journey further into the centre of France broadly following the Loire valley towards Nevers. This is wine country and there will be plenty of time during the day if anyone feels the need for a diversion to buy a bottle or two :)

DAY 3: Wed 1/8: Nevers -> MAGNY COURS -> Beaune approx 110 miles + track mileage

Our first track of the tour is the French F1 circuit of Magny Cours. This is a hugely wide modern circuit and should be ideal for those venturing onto the track for the first time. After we finish turn East and drive through the Morvan national park to the town of Beaune.

DAY 4: Thu 2/8: Beaune -> Sbarro -> Besancon approx 200 miles

From Beaune we continue East towards Pontarlier on the Swiss border - on the way are plenty of viewpoints and stunning views but we have an appointment at 2pm at the Sbarro car factory museum. For those that haven't heard of this imagine the engineering talents of DVA, the free time of Allan and the money of all of us put together. And look out for the motorbike with the "interesting" wheels... We then have a great drive north to Besancon , a historic town where we spend the night.

DAY 5: Fri 3/8: Besancon -> Shotz -> Seeween-Schwyz approx 200 miles.

Today sees us leaving France for Switzerland. We drive to Bern on more great roads and our first mountain pass. At Bern you may wish to stop off for a while or come to see the Swiss Caterham agent. This doesn't really do Freddy Kumshick justice - he races historic formula cars, owns Bugattis, Lotuses etc and tunes anything in sight! We will stay an hour or so there before continuing our journey past Lake Lucern and onto Seewen. We will then park the cars in a secure area provided by a wine merchants where we can sample a few glasses with platters of cheese while our luggage is ferried to the hotel a 5 minute walk away.

DAY 6: Sat 4/8: Seewen -> Les Diablerets approx 150 miles.

Only 150 miles? Easy! Except that on these roads a straight is about 10 yards, a bend has to be at least 180 degrees to be taken seriously and anything shorter than a hundred yards doesn't count as a tunnel. Andy lost count of the petrol stations he counted on this section so lets not worry about running dry and have some fun! We should arrive at Les Diablerets for lunch, or perhaps you'd prefer a sauna and a swim in pool first and then a bit of mini golf afterwards, or maybe a short walk to admire the views and then let the best in Swiss hospitality and cuisine take care of you.

DAY 7: Sun 5/8: Les Diablerets -> Geneve St Genis Poully approx 200 miles

Sorry to be boring but we have to drive over more mountains and through more tunnels today :) We drive in an arc to the west and South taking in the ski resort of Chamonix and Europe's highest mountain at 4807 metres - Mont Blanc. If you'd prefer a more gentle route the road around the southern side of Lake Geneva is about a third of the distance and takes you past Evian. We stay the night just West of Geneva in St. Pouilly.

DAY 8: Mon 6/8: Geneva -> Nantey -> Besancon approx 250 miles.

We only have one objective today - lunch. This will be hosted by Robert Grigsby's uncle who is determined to make sure that we get at least one "proper" French lunch on the trip with a full civic reception and all the trimmings. Following which we have yet more stunning roads as we cross the border back into France.

DAY 9: Tue 7/8: Besancon -> St. Dizier. approx 150 miles

A relaxed day after the rigours of Switzerland as we continue North up the eastern side of France.

DAY 10: Wed 8/8: St. Dizier -> Cambrai approx 200 miles

We continue North into a region that encompasses many of the 1st World War battlefields following the the River Meuse valley through Verdun to Charleville-Mezieres where we stop for lunch. We then travel north in to the Forest of Chateau Regnault for a twisty hilly section which takes us over the border into Belgium for a few kilometres returning into France and finishing at Cambrai.

DAY 11: Thu 9/8: Cambrai -> CROIX-EN-TERNOIS -> Le Havre / Calais approx 100 / 230 miles + track mileage

For those of you who have been getting itchy feet after the last couple of days of cruising may I present to you the circuit of Croix-en-Ternois. It all looks perfectly normal until you realise that it is just over a mile in length - this is a very tight, twisty, perfect for sevening cicuit! We then say our goodbyes as the tour splits up. The Calais group go straight off for a 9:15pm ferry whilst the Le Havre group head west towards their Hotel at Le Havre to await their ferry the following morning..

So by Friday morning once we're all home we will have done around 2000 miles, 2 tracks, countless tunnels, even more countless corners, made some great friends and probably finished planning next years trip :)

We look forward to seeing you all - The Euro Tour Route Committee Allan, Andy, Dave, Joanna and Nig, ACT 70 T, M 595 MFU, R 706 KGU and V 7 SLR

Background

1. Where possible we have tried to pick 'pretty' routes and to avoid Motorways and toll roads. This is particularly important in Switzerland where the cost of using M-roads is very high.

2. We have limited the daily distance to less than 250 miles where possible recognising that in the mountainous regions the cross-country time will be quite slow.