Driving Routes Through Europe

[mackit]

I've always wanted to mix the enjoyment of what a holiday abroad normally brings, i.e. visting new places, relaxing, nice food, drink, etc., with the pleasure of driving through some fantastic roads and scenery.  Always been jealous of the Topgear guys running various supercars through Europe and i know a number of you have traveled through Europe in your cars.

As much as i would love to go the Nurburgring i think i couldn't sell that one to the wife.   

Has anyone got any good routes they've driven?  Looking at routes that involve running down various parts of France, routes down to northern Italy or into Luxemburg and/or Switzerland.

My parents are lucky enough to have a place just south of Angouleme, which is basically 1.5 hours inland fom Bordeaux.  Never driven down before but would love to pick out a really enjoyable route and stop over somewhere half way down.

If anyone has experience of this please share your routes such as how many days you ran it over, where you stopped over, nice places to stay, eat, sites to visit, any specific roads you went through that are really enjoyable/challenging to drive. 

Would be really grateful.

 

Chris.

[vRS Carl]

Have you got a TomTom?

If so you can drive the Stelvio Pass route they did on Top Gear as you can download the route for free.

[cmdrfire]

Drove to Geneva once. It was fairly monotonous, except for the bit going into Geneva - I avoided the tunnel and instead went on all the small twisty roads, right over CERN and the LHC. Great fun, except finding a French petrol station that was open on a Saturday! Had a few terrifying moments where I was down to 5 miles on the readout and a needle at the stop :S

[S2 Ant]

I was recently away in France / Germany / Lux on my bike with friends, we just put in the destination in the Sat-Nav then told it to avoid motorways and avoid tolls and went cross country all the way there. Road quality is superb, all as smooth as a babies bum, even the country roads in the middle of no where, nice twisties and some interesting villages and sights to be seen as well.

Just depends what you're looking for as i know what i find fun on the bike might not be the same for you in a car.

[mackit]

Have you got a TomTom?

If so you can drive the Stelvio Pass route they did on Top Gear as you can download the route for free.

Oh yes....what a route.  I have the factory Sat Nav but i guess i could find the milestone points in the journey and plug it in.

Drove to Geneva once. It was fairly monotonous, except for the bit going into Geneva - I avoided the tunnel and instead went on all the small twisty roads, right over CERN and the LHC. Great fun, except finding a French petrol station that was open on a Saturday! Had a few terrifying moments where I was down to 5 miles on the readout and a needle at the stop :S

Been in that situation before.  Must have been pretty damn nerve racking being in that situation on foreign soil!! 

I was recently away in France / Germany / Lux on my bike with friends, we just put in the destination in the Sat-Nav then told it to avoid motorways and avoid tolls and went cross country all the way there. Road quality is superb, all as smooth as a babies bum, even the country roads in the middle of no where, nice twisties and some interesting villages and sights to be seen as well.

Just depends what you're looking for as i know what i find fun on the bike might not be the same for you in a car.

Yes....i think setting avoid tolls in the sat nav is the best way to experience the likes of France, Germany, etc.  Very different experience again on a bike.

It does annoy me how poor many of our roads are compared to countries like France.  We pay more tax on fuel and thus you'd think this would be used to keep roads tip top.   

[S2 Ant]

As a biker you dont need to tell me that, the fact that we spent most of our time on the Euro equivalent of B roads that were in better condition than our A roads is quite shameful really, the moment we got back to the UK it was back to avoiding all the holes, cracks and craters - really quite depressing i have to say !!

[Janner_Sy]

why not head down to southern germany and bavaria. I spent a fortnight in bavaria last June in a place called Parten kirchen.  done all sorts there from rock climbing(on proper rock faces), kayaking, mountain biking, hiked up Mt Zugspitz, Mt WANK(yes that ios what its called) and even went into austria white water rafting.

Was absolutely awesome, and on the route there you will drive right past the nurburg ring and then an hour further on you drive past the hungaroring.  its just to much to say no to

[mackit]

why not head down to southern germany and bavaria. I spent a fortnight in bavaria last June in a place called Parten kirchen.  done all sorts there from rock climbing(on proper rock faces), kayaking, mountain biking, hiked up Mt Zugspitz, Mt WANK(yes that ios what its called) and even went into austria white water rafting.

Was absolutely awesome, and on the route there you will drive right past the nurburg ring and then an hour further on you drive past the hungaroring.  its just to much to say no to

Sounds like a fantastic route and what a fantastic name for a mountain!!!     As a matter of interest can you rent bikes at these places?  Would prefer not to stick the bike in the car and mine is a Halfords GT special so would probably break on the first small hill!!! 

On the funny name front, anyone who has been to Banff in Calgary, Canada, may well have been to Lake Minnewanka!!  Classic!! 

[Janner_Sy]

yeah you can. the hole place revolves around tourism.  skiing in the winter, adventure stuff in the summer.

[jimlad09]

Today whilst driving in lincolnshire for work stumbled across a brilliant piece of road id never seen before Grange Lane nr Newark haha its not your Stelvio Pass but it was fantastic in the afternoon sun!!

[mackit]

Some good roads in the UK...that's for sure. 

[jimlad09]

definately! having dumped the misses i can now enjoy them without "that was a bit quick for the corner"......"that gear change was abit jerky"....and the dreaded "oh look, he's got a nice car"

[mackit]

 

I know exactly what you mean.  I've had a few nice hot hatches in my time.  Always been very proud and fortunate to own them.  They're no porsches or top of the line Audis, Mercs, BMWs, etc., but to me there as good as.

I knew I was fighting a losing battle the day my now wife saw a previous generation Hyundai coupe and turned to me and said, "Why didn't you buy one of those...much better."     Needless to say there is nothing wrong with the previous gen Hyundai Coupe, in case anyone owns one, but you get my point.

I feel your pain! 

Perhaps there could be an association for those folks who work tiresomely on improving their cars in terms of performance , appearance, cleanliness, etc., and receive no appreciation from their loved ones!  Something like, The Association for Unappreciated People in the Pursuit of Excellence – the AUPPE.     

I'm sure there are better ones than that.  Suggestions on a postcard!!! 

[RedRobin]

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I've tried migrating (copy&paste the content) a long account of a Europe trip I drove from BIALI Motorsport, but it won't load on this site 

So here is a link:   http://www.bialimotorsport.com/ > Forum > BIALI Trips > Road Trip: Germany-Austria-Italy

There may be something of interest in there

[mackit]

Top banana.   

Just what i was looking for.  Great having pictures to get a better perspective.