Motorcycle Ride Through France And Switzerland On The BMW R1250 GS Adventure | The Journey Home

All right, we're back on the road today. We had a good rest last night. We have 45 minutes and we're headed to Grenoble, I think it's called. And we're gonna get some- For breakfast, indeed, yeah. We're quite hungry. Breakfast at the hotel didn't look so great, so we passed on that one. So yeah, just gonna jump on the motorway for 45 minutes, and then we'll be in Grenoble. Right, we're here in Grenoble. It reminds us a lot about Innsbruck. It's got a lot of character here, so it could be a nice place to check out. There was actually a nice highway road to here as well, and beautiful scenery. Got breakfast here at the cafe. Looks really good, so looking forward to eating that. Was just looking at the route for the Rue de Grande Alpes, and it appears it is all closed. In fact, there are avalanche warnings in the area as well, so it's gonna be a no-go for the Rue de Grande Alpes today. However, there is a really nice city a little bit north of here called Annecy, which sits on a lake, and there's a national park which we can ride through as well. So I think that's gonna be a good route for us to take this morning. So we're gonna have breakfast here, and then we're gonna head off. So we've got some biscuits, avocado toast, some pancakes. How are they, are they good? They're pretty good, actually. So, nice and fuel us up, and then we'll take Shadow to get some fuel before hopefully having a nice ride up back into Switzerland and tonight we'll be staying in Vervet. Vervet, yep, that's right. All right, we're driving through Grenoble now on our way to Annecy through a little national park. Being that Rue de Grande Alpes is a no-go, I made a mistake there, that's my fault. Don't worry about it, we'll do it again in the summer. Yeah, I think so. It's pretty cold too, it's not exactly like it's a warm day and it's snowing, it's not. No, it's like 16 degrees. Where have all these pedestrians come from all of a sudden? We parked just on the roadside, as there seems to be no official bike parking here. So, we'll have to do- We might get waved at by some angry French people in a second. Yeah, so they just stopped in the middle of the road. If in doubt, just stop. This way? Little market today. It's quite nice, isn't it? Wrapped at him. To be fair, the restaurant we stopped at, the food was very, very, very- Yeah, it was fantastic. You need to make a reservation. I think that's a French thing, isn't it? Yeah. So, we managed to get a seat outside. It was a bit cold, but it was well worth it because the food was lovely. We got nice and fuelled up, ready for this drive around Lake Geneva, which is probably my third favourite lake in Switzerland. It's very, very pretty down there. They actually call it the Côte d'Azur of Switzerland and in that region, because it gets really nice weather, doesn't it? It sure does, yeah. We actually went on our third year anniversary on a little road trip around Switzerland, and we stayed near Vervet, but not in Vervet. So, it's going to be nice to spend some time there tonight, spend some time on the lake. Yeah, well, Grenoble actually seems a nice town. It's surrounded by mountains, but yeah, possibly come back here in the summer. But you said it's quite a popular tourist destination. I think so. Annecy is the bigger, yeah, the bigger hotspot. The bigger one. Yeah. Have you been to Annecy before, Shaun? I have briefly been to Annecy. It was nice, the lake was nice, and there's a small, there's a little old town, which is a little bit like Colmar, but just not as big. Okay, let's go forward to it. Worth a stop, too. There's actually a really beautiful region here. There's a little waterfall there. We're surrounded by the Alps here. The Rue de Grande Alps pretty much covers all of those. Watch out for this guy, he's about to pull out on me. Well, yeah, it should be a nice ride today up into Annecy. As I say, it's a really nice area here. It's beautiful. You need to watch out for those priority rights, though, in France. Yeah, that's something you have to watch out for, is when there's no lines on the road, they have priority, and they will pull out on you. This is how you've had one of your biggest crashes, wasn't it, in a car? In a car, yeah. My little Renault Laguna was left in Dijon. Although, in my defense, I think he was drunk, and he was speeding quite a lot. This is a cute village we're driving through now. I love the stonework. It is, it's really nice as well. I feel like the further away in France you get away from the big cities, the more charm it has, actually. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Some of these small ones. The cities are getting really overpopulated in France. Yeah. And the countryside areas are beautiful. Look at this. It's a boulangerie patisserie. Yeah. I was just about to say, where's the pharmacy? There it was. Yeah, there is, there is. There's always three things in a French village. Yeah, a pharmacy, a boulangerie, and a fromagerie. And if you're lucky, you might get a supermarché. Ah, a supermarché. That's excellent. Ah, it's nice to get off that motorway. All day yesterday, wind blast. It's nice to be driving at a steady 50 kilometers an hour. Yeah, it's nice to have some seed. It's nice to see the mountains again and some greenery. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this summer in Switzerland, hitting some of the passes. Yeah, it's gonna be great. It feels like this winter's been so long. It really does, yeah. The weather's been quite strange. We had a very mild start to the year, and then it went cold again and the snow came back. So hopefully it gets warm soon and the passes might open a little bit earlier than expected. We're on the D21. We're heading through some little villages soon. One's called Fournette à la Boyette, I think it is, if you're in this region. But these are super tiny, little twisty roads. They're quite a lot of fun and really quiet. It's got a nice area. Yeah, they've got lots of nice scenery, isn't it? Like, you're looking up into the Alps on each corner. The tarmac isn't the best I've ever seen. Lots of cracks, but it does get quite harsh weather here. Yeah, these are first-gear switchbacks as well. They're really narrow and tight. Oh, wow. That's really cool. Whoa! Well, yeah, we're getting some altitude quite quickly. Well, let's change down again. Oh, there's a car coming down. Is there? I see it. It's miles away. I got it. Close to your camera. Yeah. I feel like we're back in Spain. A little bit, yeah. The road to the campsite? Oh, yeah, definitely. The pinnacle of the Europa. Picos de Europa. That's it, the Picos de Europa. I think the road conditions are a bit better. They're getting better, aren't they? Oh, these are nice roads. Tight, uphill, blind hairpin. He was in the wrong gear. Oh, she's got it. We've got a reveal. Ooh, nice. There's some little bit of snow on the top of that hill there. Speed bump. Oh! You're in road mode, clearly. I am. That's fine. No, road is good. It's your best setting for these. Stand up. You should stand up as well, if you want to. You can't really do anything else back here. Film, stand up. Feed me. Feed you. Navigate. Nice cows, they've got their horns. Baby cows then, baby cow alert. Best stood up, which is good. Means no rain. Yeah, exactly. That's what my mum always used to say. If the cows are sitting, it's gonna rain. I believe that too, but they're quite often sitting. But in the UK, they're always sat. No car ever stands in the UK. A place to live. Going down here. Careful as they're quite... Nice house you've got there. Lovely. All right, GPS is taking us on some narrow roads now. We're on the D206. I don't think I'd find this place again. Although the BMW Connect app is logging it all, which is really handy. Yeah, it's nice to have that feature, as well as even if you stop the bike, you can merge the different sections of your trip. Because it's quite often where we've ridden roads, got home and completely forgotten where we've been and we can't actually get back there. So yeah, I've really enjoyed using the app this trip. And I think you can export them to a PDF and to a GPX as well. That's great. It also logs your photos along the way, which I'm not sure is the most necessary feature, but it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's not bad if you take them on your phone. Which I don't. It looks like this is a little path that we're about to take. It said open, but I don't trust any signs. Yeah, not the signs that look like they're all year round. No, it looks good, actually. No, it's really good on the map. How have they done that? How has he done that? Are they okay? Do they need any water? Do you think we should stop? No, they're fine. Oh my gosh, how do you do that? He's just ran straight, hasn't he? He's ran straight off the road. He must've been on his phone, surely. Because if he'd like spun off, it'd have been the other way around. He had a phone, so. I think he's just gone straight. It's only just happened that. We're lucky it didn't go into us or something. Yeah. Maybe he was like eating a petty pan and some of it fell and he went to grab it and then he went off the road. Petty pans. Are you sure we should go back and check on him? There was lots of other people. They seemed fine. They were just waiting for the assistance, I think. There's not much we can do. How do you think that happened? It looked like he'd just understeered. He'd come over that bridge a bit too fast and then went into the corner. It was a bit damp, wasn't it? It was really slippy, actually. So I think he's just understeered and come straight off. But it was nice that he put the warning triangle around the corner. Yeah, that's good. At least he did something right. Yeah, he was a responsible idiot. Give him that one, at least. But they did both look okay, so. Yeah, they looked fine. I think she was a little bit miffed, though. I reckon he was trying to impress her more like. You think so? Yeah. You boys tend to do silly things when girls are in the car or girls are on pillion. I do not. No, you never did, other than the time that we, you blew your back tyre out on our first date. That wasn't my fault. It's not my fault. I didn't even have a warning triangle with me. Didn't need one, got us safely to the reservoir. We've just arrived in Annecy, oh wow, look at it. It's beautiful. The lake is a lot bigger than I thought it was. I feel like we're back in Switzerland already. Yeah, I do too. And the snow just on the peaks of the mountains makes it extra beautiful. Yeah. The water doesn't look too inviting just yet, though. I'm still not ready to get in. It looks freezing, doesn't it? It's 15 degrees at the moment. I'm hoping that summer is just gonna turn on soon and it'll switch to hot. What a beautiful lake. And I think that's the town centre at 12 o'clock now. Nice. We're just riding into the centre of Annecy now. Very sweet place. This might sound a bit crazy, but it feels very French. You won't be disappointed. I think if you look to the left now, you'll get a glimpse of what the streets are like. Okay. If this traffic light, which is for cycles, ever changes. Tick tock. Hey, green light. Green light, cool. Oh, it's busy. Oh, it looks like Cornwall. Oh, it is busy, but yeah. Wow, it's really sweet, isn't it? Lovely place. I guess it is a Saturday, so. Oh, nice GS there parked up outside the Grasserie du Europien. Do you want to walk in them or? Yeah, sure. I'll park it here then. Looks like the designated bike parking. Moat over. Oh, you're going to get through. Yeah, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good. Nice. Okay, let's go check out Annecy. So it is a Saturday here in Annecy, so it is quite busy. But walking through the city, it's got a very authentic French feel. We actually live very close to one of our favorite French cities, which is Colmar. And it's got a very similar feeling to that. But I think this is the perfect spot if you want to explore this region of France. I'd say it's not a bad base, actually, here in Annecy. Yeah, it could be. Very close to all of the roads in the Alps. Yeah, when they're open. When they're open in the summer, yeah. When they're open, you can do loads of routes and roads here. And there was a lot of motorcycles in the park, in the car park that we parked Shadow in. So it does show that it really is a great region for bikes. But check this out. Loads of roads to go through. Lovely, isn't it? It really is, yeah. So if you want to explore this region of France, I think Annecy would be a great base for you because you've got the Rue de Grande Alpes, you've got loads of other great roads and passes. And this is such a sweet, authentic little French village. It's really lovely. We've been to quite a lot of places in France, but there's not many places that are left like this. Yeah, this is definitely one of the gems. It will get busy in peak season, but that's for good reason. It's kind of worth it. It is worth it. Like, look at that. It does look like out of a set of a movie. It does, doesn't it? It's perfect. I think we'll just do a couple of little laps around the town and then we might probably head off from there, don't we? Yeah, I think get back on the road, get back into Switzerland and then see Lake Geneva, which is also a very special place. OK, that was a nice little coffee stop in Annecy. We're going to move on now. We're choosing to take the non-motorway way, which is about two hours around the east side of Lake Geneva all the way up to Verbay, which is where we're staying tonight. So hopefully the rain will stay off us and we can keep riding in our nice vented suits and not have to put the Gore-Tex on. Hopefully. It's looking good. It's looking good. It is looking OK. It's funny, Em and I were just talking about the security of bikes and helmets and stuff because obviously we parked up, so we locked everything up. And there's quite a few bikes where we were and a lot of the local registration plates, so the French bikes, they all had like huge chains on them. The helmets were all locked up every, even like the old scooters, they had chains on the wheels. But there was a couple of Swiss bikes that had nothing. Yeah, just like a little cycle chain lock on the helmets, like nothing heavy duty. Or even nothing at all. But yeah, it's a good reminder that no matter where you are, because it feels really safe here, but there obviously must be, there must still be a problem with bike theft. And then Em went to get two coffees while I waited with the bike. And like right in front of us on the main street, that street that has the little lake running through it, the little river running through it with all the bridges over it, somebody came and snatched a girl's handbag straight from the... In plain sight. In plain sight of everyone. No one did anything, because what can you do? He could have a weapon or something. So there's nothing you can do. And that was it. I mean, we are very careful. Yeah, I honestly don't expect that. It's quite shocking, really, that even like little remote places like this have become a little epicenter for crime like that. Yeah, I think in the past year, even as we've become more aware of the bike safety, because we tend to leave it wherever, but not anymore at all. I'm quite aware of it. I know you are as well. Yeah, I think in the last couple of years, bike theft has become so prevalent in Europe. Like before, I would happily leave the bike out and parked on the streets. I would still chain it, of course, but now it's... Yeah, I pay for the extra parking underground, because it's really not worth ruining your trip from your bike being stolen. No. And I'm even having second thoughts about when you stop at a city on the way somewhere, chain it up with your gear and have a little look around. I think the best bet is to plan your epic roads where you don't leave your bike in the daytime. And if you want to explore a city, you stay there overnight, get the bike put away safe, and then go and explore. And I would say as well, Shaun, I think you'll agree, trust your gut. If it doesn't feel safe, it's probably not. Like, trust, look around and see, do all the locals have huge locks and huge chains on it? Or is there even a bike parked around the region that you want to park? You really have to, like, use your instincts and your gut, because when we stopped at Annecy, which is a beautiful little place on the lake, I straightaway said to you, didn't I? I was like, I don't feel... I'm not sure about leaving the bike here. It doesn't... I didn't feel... It didn't feel great. And then, not 20 minutes after we just said, well, we'll just walk around, we'll grab one coffee, and then we'll hop back on. And I saw that. And then when you look around, you see all of the huge chains and all of the huge locks on the local plates. And you just have to be so, so aware. Don't think just because you're in France and it's quite a wealthy country that you don't have to be really safe. And you see, like, people just hanging around, watching. And it's like, what are they doing? They're just sat there, watching. I think it makes you wonder if there's, like, gangs where there's people just watching for things and then they get on their phones and someone comes. It's very organised these days, isn't it? It really is. Because sometimes you always want to think the best people. It's like, oh, they're just taking a photograph of the bike because, you know, it's a really cool bike. Or it's just, you know, someone likes bikes and they want to take a look at it. But you can't help but sometimes feel like, oh, are they looking to see if there's a weakness in it? Or are they looking to see... Yeah, it's horrible, isn't it? ...to take a picture to send it to someone? It's really... You have to think the worst now to protect your stuff. Yeah. And on this trip, we've done what Shaun said at the beginning of this, that we've planned our cities so that we can park the bike safely at a hotel or things like that. Because especially from what we've seen on all of the Facebook groups and all of Instagram is, it's a struggle in Italy especially, France, Spain, you know, just... Britain as well. Britain's really bad for motorcycle theft. London is like basically a no-go for leaving your bike outside. Yeah, London and Milan apparently are the worst too, so... Yeah, this is our word of warning anyway. That's our penalty. Anyway, we'll be back in Switzerland in an hour, which is possibly one of the safest places to leave your bike. It's quite good because in Switzerland, the borders are not entirely open. So they do check any suspicious-looking cars. And vans, etc. Which gives an extra layer of security. And it's very well-policed, Switzerland. Like back there in Addersey, you could see no policemen on the streets. But you go through any of the Swiss cities and they're patrolled. Yeah. Heavily patrolled. Yeah. So, yeah. Let's enjoy these nice roads now. And head back to Switzerland. Yeah, on our safe... Shadow is safer. That was our penny's worth of the day anyway. Yeah. Don't be too afraid to come though. I think it's just bikers in general, and even people with cars, we become attached to your bike, don't you? Absolutely. You fall in love with it. And when you're on tour... It can't just be replaced. Yeah, when you're on tour, it's got your whole life is in the panniers. Yeah, exactly. The bike gets stolen. It's everything gone. All of your equipment that you've spent a long time building up and selecting. Everything just can be whisked away. So, choose wisely and trust your gut. It's quite a spectacular view from up here. It is. That's basically all Switzerland, as you can see on the horizon there. And we'll be staying just on the other side of that lake tonight? Should be, yeah. It's 12 o'clock now. Okay, so we are on the French side of Lake Geneva now. I think we're driving through Evian. Is that right, Shaun? Yeah, I think this is Evian, the bottled water place. We will be crossing the border, I think, in 10 minutes, something like that. Not far off. And then we'll continue riding along the eastern side of the lake and kind of curve round and up towards Vivier. We'll pass through Montreux as well. So that's going to be a nice little route. Oh, wow. They're doing a lot of work over here on the French side. They are, yeah. It wasn't like that the last time we came. I think last year we were here the last time. Yeah. But this lake is just magnificent. All of the lakes in Switzerland are magnificent. Personal favourite for me is Lake Thun and Interlaken, but this Lake Geneva is also stunning. And it's even a cloudy day today and it's still beautiful here. There's snow. Snow-topped mountains everywhere, isn't there, Sean? There is, yeah. It actually feels like winter today. It's 11 degrees. We've been used to 33 degrees for the past few weeks, so there's a bit of a temperature shock today. Yeah, I've got my heated vest on under my suit and I don't know how you're surviving without one, Sean. I've still got my vented suit on. It's actually not bad, actually. 11 degrees and I'm not really that cold. Despite basically having what is like a t-shirt. This is one of the last villages on France before we cross over the border into Switzerland. Cross over back home. Yeah, finally back home. I think the border is just around the corner here. There might be a little bit of traffic because a lot of weekend shoppers, they go and get some... It's a little bit cheaper to shop over the border. Right, we're just crossing the border back into Switzerland. Although it is a Schengen state, there might be some actual border guards there checking people to see what they've imported, checking your vehicle over and your licences. But today we're straight through. There is a lovely feeling of being back home, isn't there? There is, yeah. There sure is. It's time to stick to the speed limits and relax and cruise back home. Cruise control set to exactly the speed limit, please. Cruise control set to the speed limit. Everybody obeying the law. Nobody's cutting you off. All vehicles complying to regulation and emission standards. Happy days. We're just about to pass into Montreux. There's the Montreux Castle there. It's actually a really nice castle. We went to see that last year. It's quite famous for the Montreux Jazz Festival which is held here every year. They get some quite big artists come in here. I think the festival lasts about a week. I think if you want to stay in the best hotel in Montreux, it's this one. It looks pretty grand. There's a Ferrari. There's a Bentley. There's a Porsche. Maybe we should go there for a drink. Park Shadow right out front. Just for a park. We booked this hotel through Hotelcard which is a company based here in Switzerland but you get discounts off hotels in Switzerland and in other countries in Europe. It's 50% off for its members and we have used them for around three years, I think. I think, yeah. Three years we found them and they have saved us a fortune. Absolute fortune. There is no such thing as a cheap hotel in Switzerland as I'm sure many of you know. But tonight, I think this hotel cost us 130 Swiss francs which is by no means cheap. However, its full price usually is 260. So you're getting a very nice hotel half price. You just have to check the availability of them. But there was plenty available in the area so it works every time for us. We booked it this morning and we got our confirmation within an hour. So that's Bay Heading 2 now? Yeah. Okay, we are here at Tidbits which is a vegetarian restaurant chain here in Switzerland where you get a buffet and you pay by the plate. It's probably one of our favourite chains in Switzerland, isn't it? It's really tasty, really great food and we were hungry after the day's ride but we're going to ride back to our hotel now which we will show you when we get there. Good morning from a kind of cloudy and grey Switzerland. This morning we are actually going to be heading to central Lucerne for an event with the Ace Café, BMW Motorrad and Touratech. But we wanted to show you the hotel we stayed at last night because it's a pretty cool place here. We woke up to mountain views and we also got breakfast included in the room and it is a fantastic breakfast. It's a really good one. Really good breakfast. So I'll switch you guys around. See? I've got some hash browns, avocado, hummus, loads of fruit some fitness breakfast with some peanut butter and muesli you've got toast, cups of tea and coffee. So we're going to enjoy this breakfast and then it should be a really nice ride up to Lucerne. The weather's not too bad but I think we will need I will need my heated vest on definitely. You will indeed. So we'll catch you all on the road and maybe we'll show you the room actually as well because that's a really nice room. So we got this whole hotel with hotel card which is a link in our bio to get 50% off the membership price so make sure you check that out. So a quick little room tour before we head off. We're all just about packed up now. So this is the room featuring Charlie Chaplin. The whole hotel has a Charlie Chaplin theme because he's from the region and you can actually visit the museum. It's not too far from here but the best thing about this hotel is the views. You have the Swiss mountains and the lake is just beyond that house and we also have the cutest Swiss cabin and if you can listen very carefully you can also hear the cows with their bells. So we're just going to pack up and head to Luzern now. We like using these bellhops when we come to the hotel to stick all of the panniers on. Make sure that we're all ready, packed up and then we'll be home later today. So it's kind of a nice way to end the tour. Nice relaxed day all the way from Lake Geneva to Luzern and then Luzern back to Basel.