Col de la Gineste (326 m.)

Route des Crêtes, Cap Canaille, Parc National des Calanques

My new season biker workout ride, practising skills on lots of different curves and straights, running each section a couple of times to enjoy the variety of camber, gradient and tightening. Got outclassed only once but it was big time: he looked to be at 45 degrees lean angle... the GP track at Le Castellet is not far away and there are club riders (at least) in the area.

Read more: Biker workout ride

Plateau de Valensole

The X-ADV 750 is billed as Honda’s bad-boy big-scooter for a ride on the wild side. A day out in Haut-Provence was an ideal opportunity to try out the reality whilst my CBR600RR was in the workshop for its annual service. The X-ADV 750 Special Edition has spoked wheels and the ECU features both Sport and Gravel modes; plenty of opportunities for both on these roads. Fortunately I didn’t need the Rain setting.
Kamikaze scooters have long ruled the roads in urban Marseille, riders who have their heads round high-powered scooters like X-ADV 750 can power out of trouble, ride the white lines on the often-blocked urban autoroutes and are usually first away at the lights.

More photos: Cruising Haut-Provence on a big scooter: X-ADV 750

Carqueiranne, difficult to say and similarly difficult to get to by road. The railway has long gone so it’s a bash down through suburbia from Toulon. But the ride on the old N8 over le Mont Sainte-Baume was a fine compensation, its banked curves giving plenty of sportsbike rider interest.
My visit was inspired by reading that the writers and lovers Raymond Radiguet (1903-23) and Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) enjoyed a fling here in 1920-21. A complicated liaison, intertwined with publications and performances in Paris. The presumed simplicity of the Mediterranean fishermen of the 1920s is replaced on the quays of 2024 by the similarly presumptive sophistication of millionaires’ motorboats.
I found Carqueiranne to be special nice so it was hard to turn round and ride back. So thanks guys for the inspiration.

More photos: Carqueiranne

Two bikes on my drive and snow up there with the clouds above 900 m. on Skiddaw. Cumbria all-weather biker Andrew C rode his Versys 650 over from Kirby Stephen on the Pennines for coffee and a chat.
That was semi-heroic riding, my garden weather station shows just 6°C (up from 4.5°C at dawn) and still gusts to 50 km/hr (30 mph). He has electric heated grips and seat plus wearing many layers, then a microfibre balaclava and skull-cap.
My bike was out of the garage so I could remove the battery, to store it warm in the house during the winter weather.
A sleet shower was getting going as he left to continue his ride round Lakeland. Heroic all-weather rider.

When I rode a Versys 650:-

• Corsica 4: Calanches, Vico and return