Johnny's Jaunts: Calais to Calais 2 - The Italian Job

By John Commons

The story of my thirty-two day motorbike tour around Italy, once again taking in incredible views and amazing food, complete with photographs I took along the way. Set aside some time and enjoy the adventure with me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Commons
• Release date: May 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215480540

John Commons

Hi folks, I'm John and I'm the landlord of the Victoria Bikers Pub in Coalville, Leicestershire. Once named ‘The Best Biker and Trucker Pub’ by the Oldie Magazine, The Vic has featured on TV shows such as Holiday Showdown, Four in a Bed, BBC Inside Out, and was also chosen as Al Murray’s ‘Pub of the Week’. Famous guests include Chas n Dave, the Hairy Bikers and England World Cup winning captain and Leicester Tigers legend Martin Johnson. We have regular live music, weekend festivals and rock discos and are renowned for being friendly and welcoming. I started writing The House of Commons circa 2018, the memoir of my life and various careers before taking over stewardship of the Vic. I'm now working on my Johnny's Jaunts series, taken from my Facebook blog, which chronicles my motorbike journeys around the UK, Europe and beyond. I hope you enjoy them!

Book preview

Johnny’s Jaunts: Calais to Calais - The Italian Job

Copyright 2023 John Commons

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

This ebook is licenced for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Other books by this author

The House of Commons: A Memoir

Johnny’s Jaunts: Calais to Calais

Table Of Contents

Day 1

Day2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Day 25

Day 26

Day 27

Day 28

Day 29

Day 30

Day 31

Day 32

Conclusion

Welcome to Johnny’s Jaunts 2, a collection of travel stories on my motorbike taken from my daily blog on Facebook. I hope you find it amusing.

DAY 1

Left The Vic about 9.15 Sunday April 2nd, arrived in Folkstone 3 hours later. Went to the harbour where there is a magnificent chippy called Chummys owned by one of the trawler family that fish from here.

Went and found my mate Pete who lives there and had a coffee before we jumped on our bikes and he took me the route to the tunnel the locals use. So despite saving me a lot of time I’m still stuck in a queue to get on the chunnel chuffa…

When I eventually arrive in Calais I'll be heading for Reims but think I'll be staying somewhere en- route as its 3 hours and I have to find a hotel yet. It’s quite cold really, my hands are feeling it but the rest of me is OK and I have a few layers on plus my wet gear. I’ve not seen any rain yet (shhhh). I decided to come off the motorway at Saint Quenten about 175k south of Calais and look for a hotel as it was getting dusk. I’m not keen on riding in the dark as if there’s anything in the road, bit of tyre, lumps of mud etc, you’re less likely to see it. Anyway found a cracking hotel ran by the Camponile group, they’re in UK as well. So got my own chalet and my bike’s outside, bang on. I'll make Reims tomorrow but I don’t want to stop there, I need to press on to Milan, the start and finish point of my Italian coastline trip.

DAY 2

A good night’s kip, woke up to brilliant sunshine. Shall I put my wet gear on, zis is za question. I booked a breakfast but wish I hadn’t. Coffee stop 1 in between Reims and Metz. The toll roads in France are really in good nick, no potholes, repair patches, bumps or hollows, a joy to ride on. Still a tad cold and quite breezy but hardly a cloud in the sky. Called it a day at Strasbourg, had a ride round the city. Quite pretty with loads of interesting architecture. Traffic is crazy. At a standstill in places and everyone checking there hooters, I'm on my bike so care not a jot as I weave my way through it all. Wonder if they are papping me?? Came across an Ibis hotel in the centre so managed to book a room 60 euros cheaper than I could get on booking.com and parked right outside the front doors. Lost my credit card earlier. Left it in a toll machine. Got it cancelled OK, nothing more spent on it. Still got my debit card to lose. I’m having a lot of grief with these machines today, think I need to go on a course. If you’re going to France and using the toll roads I'd try googling info about them to give you a heads up. RAC has a good info site.

I'm having a coffee at the bar and asked