The planning:
I've been over to France quite a bit, several times in a car and twice on a bike, but knowing how (choosing my words carefully..) conscientious
the Gendarmes can be decided I'd check up on all the latest rules and reg's. Things to note, carrying any device that gives warnings of speed cameras attracts mega-big fines; must ride with headlight on at all times (easy one, seeing as the BM's lights are always on anyway); spare bulb kit, from what I can work out not fineable if you haven't got one, but if you get stopped with a faulty bulb & you can't replace it, then that's problematic, sorted courtesy of Les at Short Stop Tyres, who adpated the kit and even chucked in some extra micro fuses just in case; breathalyser kit, small fine if you don't carry one, I got one from Halfords for £5, having said that in many parts of France they're out of stock and locals tell you that there is a reprieve on fines until November; wearing Hi-Viz is compulsory on Bikes but not til Jan next year. Oh and need to watch my speed, French are removing the warning signs and are also putting up average speed cameras even on some of the D-roads. If you see an electronic speed indicator flashing at you then chances are it's recording your plate and the next one you hit wherever it is will calculate your average speed 
Also packed all my Doc's, passport, log-book, insurance, euro breakdown, MOT, again all required if stopped.
Pre-bike Prep
Freshly serviced, spare 1L oil, new front tyre, rear looks like it's got plenty of life left albeit was showing early signs of squaring off, baffles fitted, freshly MOT'd.
Route planning. (To be honest this was a bit of a rush).
Day 1. Southport to Bourth, Normandy
Day 1 - UK, weather sh*te
motorway down to Folkestone, got drenched all the way down but once near Folkestone blue skies & sunshine - Hoorah!! 
Tunnel crossing, pre-booked via internet £73 return & a 2 hour window either side of the ticket time gives plenty of flexibility, great service
Then using a car Tom-Tom in a Givi sat-nav bag, wired into the socket via a BMW socket to Car 12v adapter (courtesy of Nippy Normans). No French speed cameras on Tom-Tom just in case then set the route to avoid toll roads and select shortest route. This tactic generally worked quite well, it led me down some great country roads, mainly avoided the motorways which are always dull but sometimes handy if you need to make a bit of haste.
Weather was great in France, did get some some rain, but as luck would have it I only hit a few light showers. Only problem was the bright sun-shine made the Tom-Tom screen difficult to read, even at full brightness, and the Givi plastic window over the Tom-Tom screen meant that the touch-screen function wouldn't work properly. Whilst it's a lot cheaper to use the car Tom-Tom in the Givi bag it was at times very frustrating, e.g. if I accidentally knocked the screen I would have to stop the bike, take the Tom-Tom out of the Givi, reset it, replace carefully so that the touch screen didn't touch the Givi's plastic screen then carry on. This became a right pain in the proverbial
and on a couple of occasions I crashed the Tom-Tom. Fortunately I had taken a road map just in case so it wasn't a show stopper and later I managed to reset the Tom-Tom with a paper clip.
Stayed over in a nice littel B&B in Bourth, Southern Normandy. Great place, handy location, very biker friendly run by a couple from Norfolk, foods great, comfortable rooms and great value. Greeted me with offers of cold beer
can't beat that eh 
, good choice.
Day 2: Bourth to Charente
Sun was shining, Tom-Tom programmed to take me to Bourgeuil, roughly half way and has a bridge across the Loire river, therefore I won't have to navigate my way around Tours. This was a good choice, route via Tom-Tom was great and the smaller country roads had much less attention from speed cameras etc...
Stopped for lunch in the Trattoria great food and great value, lovely Pizza and the usual excellent French coffee with change from 10 euros
Similar afternoon but once I hit Poitiers the Tom-Tom took me onto the N10 (non toll road motorway) until I got past Angouleme, this was dull but nevertheless gave me the opportunity to make up a bit of time so that I didn't arrive in the Charente too late. Here's some snaps of my time in the Charente:
Unfortunately I wore my back tyre out & had to replace it before I started my journey back, not sure which bit was most painful - making phonecalls to several non-English speaking bike shops/tyre fitters trying to explain what I needed and seeing if they could fit it to my tight deadlines, or the 200 Euro price that I ended up paying for the privilege.
On the way back I pretty much reversed what I did coming, but saw some signs for a Dolmon so went to explore. What I really wanted was an ice cream but as it was Monday I think France was closed, did eventually manage to find a shop that sold mars ice creams though
Arrived at the tunnel 2 hours early, nearly went straight through but for some reason there was a delay in the passport queue that I was in so literally missed the gate by seconds. Nevertheless only 30 min's to wait then I was on the next train.
Reflections
Even though I hardly saw any Police and received no attention from those that I did see, taking the time to check the reg's and ensure that I had everything the law required is a must do, just not worth taking chances otherwise can get v expensive. Should've changed my rear tyre though, next time even if I see the slightest sign of squaring off I'll make the change, get one abroad limits choice, ideally I wanted another Conti but ended up getting a BT021, but it was a lot of messing & expensive.. not the end of the world though.
Tom-tom worked well with the Givi and the shortest route option does make the route more interesting, but if I was to do it again I would spend more time planning the route. Whilst I saw some decent roads, there were a lot of dull ones, and not many great ones where I could really push and have some fun with the bike. On reflection given that I had only 4 days of riding, if it wasn't for the fact that I had other reasons for going to the Charente and if the weather wasn't so lousy back home, then I probably would have had more fun blasting round Scotland or Wales.
Fuel stops, whilst Derv is a lot cheaper in France, the Petrol appears a similar price and sometime is more expensive. I tended to top up at the first place I saw after 120 miles for a few reasons, wasn't sure when I'd next see a petrol station, 24/7 is few and far between, the pumps don't always accept UK credit cards. Supermarkets tend to be a lot cheaper, e.g. Intermarche, branded fuel stations and anything on motorways are more expensive.
The trip was a great test for the R1100S, and it coped superbly, other long trips I've done have been on an R1100GS, R1200RT, F800GS and a Pan European. Each one of these has pro's and con's but for me right now the S has the best mix of comfort and performance, in fact strangely enough I found I had less fatigue on the S than I did on any of the others, I find with the sit-up riding position the old posterior starts to suffer after a bit, whereas with the more prone position on the S the only problem I've found is my right wrist starts to ache.
![[smilie=head bash.gif]](./images/smilies/head bash.gif "head bash")
