routes in 2018

I THINK I HAVE MADE IT REASONABLY CLEAR
that our routes are not straight jackets that we feel obliged to stick to (see below!),
but aspirational suggestions for our journeys across France.
We employ the redoubtable Michelin Road Atlas of France to plan these progresses; this year
that's the A4 wiro-bound 2014 edition again. It is probable that we will get a new edition in 2019.
This post is mostly for my benefit, but if you, my dear public, are interested,
here are our routes so far this year . . .

The second outward journey of 2018, just completed as I tap this out, is a classic example of our flexibility in matters of the route. We don't subscribe to dogma: that once a plan has been contrived then one has to stick to it because what's the use of a plan if you don't stick to it? No Sir! We set out with an open mind! We changed our progression from Pèrigueux to enjoy a new way to Brive; scrapped the idea of going down to the Med from Brive, instead reversing the return journey of the spring (see above right, Sunday 6 May) over the hills to Florac and Alès etc. We came slightly 'off the rails' when we found the Caderousse Barrage across the Rhône closed so had to detour south to cross the river at Roquemaure . . . so I have annotated the variant plan accordingly, post-event, to present you with how we transited, rather than the original scheme of progress. It is shown below the riverside snap that comes after the next paragraph. I trust you are following this.

As a result of our deviation, mentioned above, we were able to take our lunchtime sandwiches 'riverside' under the great planes in the tiny village of Cubjac, a typical find of the type that gives us a boost, en route.

Watch this space for more routes as the year rolls on. But, dear reader, do get a life, you really should not be soaking up this pedantic hogwash, and certainly NOT watching this space!  I mean to say, I am (I am reliably informed) past help, but you surely, have far higher aspirations than what is represented here . . .

In case you were wondering about the coloured bullets against the road numbers: these indicate the colouration of the roads as shown in the aforementioned Michelin Road Atlas of France with the variation that minor non-coloured roads employ a black bullet prefix, and Autoroutes are in bold blue, not the double line red used in the Atlas. So you see, these routes are designed to be used specifically with the Michelin, and nothing else.





Our anticipated return [displayed left] was not quite  the dash I anticipated and we were in Roscoff in time to secure a table at Le Surcouf for our departure lunch.

I foretold: Thus it is that we will be gritting the dentures and using some autoroutes. It may seem counter-productive to set out back to Blightey in a southerly direction, but experience has shown that the A9/A75 Millau Viaduct route is the swifter if longer way to our first overnight at Rodez . . . Thereafter we shall have to resort to the A20 to make Angers comfortably. And then we repeat our spring return to Roscoff [but excluding the third hotel enjoyed then].

 In fact, the above prediction, and the route shown left, proved flexible and variable as described in the broad and the narrow posting, so why not open that up and find out what we actually did? You know you want to.

The third foray in 2018 is described as a projection in the posting the third return so if you want to get the whole story of the 2018 transits you will have to steal yourself and visit that posting and, who knows further extensions to be attached to that one. Complicated.

You are not still reading this, are you?
 Surely not!

Get on with you now, there's all sorts of matters to attend to…


footnote: Don't complain to me that you can't read the route descriptors illustrated here: they can be selected and thus enlarged, just as pictures can. If you will attempt to read this on a 'smart phone', is it really surprising that it come out in pixie sized images?