francis Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 (edited) Hi there guys Well got back last week from a big road trip around France over 11 days in the Supe... Quite an experience, a lot of driving, checked out a lot of places and took a few photos along the way So we headed over on the ferry with SeaFrance costing a very resonable 50 quid return. Our first destination was Paris which is a fairly quick 3 hour drive via the toll roads (which cost about 30 euros). Parked up in an underground car park (of which there are many - wouldn't dare try street parking with the Supe even if I did manage to find a space!) - this cost 45 euros for 4 days which isn't too bad compared to London prices... Did the usual site seeing things in Paris over 3 days.... Stayed at a hotel called the "Au Pacific" which was basic but central and about 70 euros a night for a double room which seemed relatively good value. Took a trip out to the palace of Versailles too which is just a few miles out of town... Paris ain't cheap with the pound as weak as it is! Main courses at the most basic of restaurants start at 10 euros, a McDonalds meal is about 7 euros and a Croissant about 1 euro at most bakeries. After Paris we made our way down to the Alps for 4 days of skiing in Courchevel. We stayed in Chambery to break up the drive (around 6 hours from Paris to Chambery) which turned out to be a rather nice place with a nice town centre with plenty of old buildings and character. The following morning we made our way up to Courchevel 1650 which wasn't quite as bad a drive as we'd expected, a bit twisty but well travelled roads and thankfully no snow and no problems with traction in the Supra. Parked the Supra up in the multistorey car park conveniently next to our hotel at the foot of the pistes (Hotel du Golf - highly recommended!) at a cost of 50 euros for 4 days. Had 4 days of fantastic skiing, even took a brief road trip to Meribel to check out the nightlife over that side of town! Again things aren't cheap here, 180 euros for 4 day ski pass, 380 euros for 3 nights at the hotel (which was half price!), and 5 euros for a machine made piddly chocolat chaud up the mountain! So on the last day we had a morning of skiing, there was some light snow but stupidly thought nothing of it... Got back about 1pm to find a small layer of snow covering the roads, it'll be fine I stupidly thought! We packed our bags and took the Supra out of the garage and of course as soon as it hit the road outside the covered garage it lost traction and wasn't going anywhere! Tried to fit the snow chains, but couldn't get the buggers on to save my life... we were in a bit of a fiddle. My girlfriend visited the local garage to ask if they could possibly tow the car down to a safe level and they quoted her 106 euros which seemed like a relative bargain compared to the 3 euro cans of diet coke! Considering we had a non-refundable Novotel booking in Monte-Carlo that evening we decided to go for it... I arrived at the garage and after a lot of waiting around we finally left for the Supe but not in the flatbed tow truck they had but a 4x4... it turned out there had been a miscommunication and they thought the car was broken! I explained the situation and they came along on the way there... Luckily the guy obviously had a lot of practice putting chains on and made it look like child's play and had them on in seconds.... They thought it would be ok and said he would drive the Supra down half way and check everything was ok, so off we went.... It was obviously a lot better with chains but a little unstable at the front on the Eagle F1s! We made our way down the mountain until just before a bend and traffic jam where they let me take over and we handed over the money... Well you can probably guess what happened next... As I gently rolled the car around the corner at just a few mph it started to slide, applied the handbrake but it kept going and off we went in to the side of the road... Thankfully the impact sounded and mentally felt a lot worse than it was! Didn't seem to be any damage (later found a very small dent in the drivers wing) and after lots of umming and arring we were eventually pushed away from the side by police and sods law, after that bend the roads were a lot better! After that we cautiously made our way down the rest of the mountain at about 20mph with crazy French cars overtaking us left right and centre! To be fair we saw a lot of accidents on our way down and the only other sports car we saw all trip was a 997.. There was a 30 mile traffic jam going the other way on our way to the Italian border too! Anyway I guess the lesson to be learnt from that one is probably don't take a car like the Supra up the Alps in winter, especially not on summer tyres.. If it starts snowing, get the hell out of there ASAP... and always take snow chains! It's a shame we did the next part of the drive by night, I'd imagine it's pretty stunning scenery. We took a 14km tunnel across the border in to Italy... On our approach to Monaco there were hundreds of little tunnels on bendy roads which I'd imagine would be a lot of fun in the summer! Finally arrived around 10:30pm.... Thankfully things were a bit warmer down there (12 deg C) and took a look around town. It's a nice place Monaco, checked out the casino and harbour.. The following morning had a bit of a raz around town which was awesome, again lots of nice tunnels! Over the next few days we travelled along the south cost checking out Nice, Cannes, St Tropez and stayed a night in Antibes which I'd thoroughly recommend. Beautiful places, leisurely and quiet this time of year but still plenty of sun... Briefly called by Aix-en-Provence and Marsailles but decided to make our way back up staying at a Formule 1 hotel in Saint Etinne. These places are about 30 euros a night for a double+bunk bed... very basic but cheap and a-plenty. To make up for the previous night we stayed at a Chateau near Paris (Chateau d'Esclimont). Despite them having 80 odd rooms, we had the place to ourselves which was amazing! Naturally had to take a few photos of the supe here, just wished I had my SLR and the car was a bit cleaner! Spent the last day in Paris and then went up to Lille before heading to Calais. A great little adventure. The Supra was faultless.. can't really blame the small accident on her. A fantastic gran tourer that covered the 2200 miles with ease... Oh and people loved the car over there, they obviously don't see many around - can understand why so many UK spec's are now going over there! I took the liberty of calculating most of the fuel economy along the journey too.. here are some of the figures: 305 miles, 63.3l @ 1.27e/l = 21.86MPG 334 miles, 57.0l @ 1.17e/l = 26.62MPG 180 miles, 36.7l @ 1.09e/l = 22.27MPG (in the Alps) 291 miles, 56.4l @ 1.13e/l = 23.42MPG and lost track of the rest... A map of the route http://tinyurl.com/akeozm Most of that was either high speed motorway driving besides the Alps part... Anyway hope to do it again some summer and hopefully when the pound's a little stronger! Photos to follow Cheers, Francis (UK Spec TT6 now with just over 130k miles on the clock) Edited February 17, 2009 by francis (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tboy42 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 you sleeped in saint etienne its my city! i hope you enjoy this trip A pleasure to read you post regards julien Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieP Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Sounds like a great trip, very jealous:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogmaw Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Sounds like great fun, did you get many admiring glances/comments of your car? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havard Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Sounds like great fun, did you get many admiring glances/comments of your car? In France, I would imagine lots!! We were beating them off with a shitty stick when we went to Le Mans..... Sounds like a great trip!! H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colsoop Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Exactly what the Supra was designed for. Can't believe you didn't take your camera ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbm Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Nice write up I like France, so I look forward to doing some additional travelling there, other than Le Mans, which is always a fun drive of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havard Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Nice write up I like France, so I look forward to doing some additional travelling there, other than Le Mans, which is always a fun drive of course. Maybe you can pull up in some awkward places during rush hour??..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsween Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Ive been in paris for 3 weeks now and yet to see a supe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbm Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Maybe you can pull up in some awkward places during rush hour??..... Who monsieur? Me monsieur? Vous etes mistaken monsieur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbm Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 (edited) Ive been in paris for 3 weeks now and yet to see a supe It's all Renaults, Pugs and Citroens. The French don't really do other cars- so to speak. Edited February 17, 2009 by Lbm (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havard Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Who monsieur? Me monsieur? Vous etes mistaken monsieur Whilst wondering WTF you were doing in my rear view mirror, I ended up being face to face with a fast moving tram, monsieur..... H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyT Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Sounds great. Snow chains on a Supe. Quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbm Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Whilst wondering WTF you were doing in my rear view mirror, I ended up being face to face with a fast moving tram, monsieur..... H. Well I suppose one more cheeky hijack of Francis's thread is in order- In your rear view mirror then- you you were simply stunned by the majesty of my TT ...However, I'm troubled by the thought that I was in your rear view mirror- surely shome mishtake? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsween Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 It's all Renaults, Pugs and Citroens. The French don't really do other cars- so to speak. Whats really worrying about here is we get the coach to work, we've overtaken one car in 3 weeks. Its getting a bit depressing............... Im gonna have to drive my car like miss daisy when i get back for a few days hahahahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesC Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Sounds fantastic. Something i'd like to do myself but i doubt my girlfriend would Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbm Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Sounds fantastic. Something i'd like to do myself but i doubt my girlfriend would Take someone elses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesC Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Take someone elses. I smell. No one elses would come with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogmaw Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 It's all Renaults, Pugs and Citroens. The French don't really do other cars- so to speak. Maybe that's why they have three major car manufacturers, while the UK has zilch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbm Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I smell. No one elses would come with me. After much thought, go in the Summer & keep ya windows down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.