Photos from a recent motorbike trip through France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

After skipping our yearly ritual of spending a few weeks on the motorbike together last year, dad and I definitely wanted to plan a tour this year. Due to several circumstances, we had to opt for a shorter trip than usual, however. Since we really enjoyed riding through the Vosges mountains a few years ago, we decided to revisit this amazing countryside and explore it some more this time around. Dad planned a tour going up and down through the two French national parks covering the mountain range and then leading north through Luxembourg into the Belgian Ardennes.

We rode 1579 kilometres through four countries in five days and had an amazing time.

Both areas are covered with historic monuments ranging from castle ruins from the Middle Ages, through WWI battlefields and WWII tanks. We had suboptimal weather the whole trip, but the ride was enjoyable, the landscape as beautiful as I remembered and the food was excellent, naturally. The historic remnants of the past were a nice bonus for a historian like me.

Our tour took us from Germany through the Vosges mountains in France, then back to Germany via the Saarland, crossing Luxembourg into Belgium and the Ardennes (map data: OpenStreetMap).

Here are a few photos from our trip. All of them were taken with my trusty Nikon Z fc and a Nikkor Z DX 16-50 mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 VR. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed the wonderful time I had riding these roads. With this tour, my bike has now eclipsed 90,000 kilometres ridden since I got her almost exactly ten years ago.

Our bikes (a Honda CB 1100 RS and a Moto Guzzi V7 Special) at the first stopover in La Petit-Pierre.

We knew our first accomodation, the wonderful Auberge d’Imsthal in the Alsace region, from our bike tour in 2021, where it was also our first stop.

It’s a cosy little place with very nice hosts.

They even have a hitching post, in case you’re an old school outlaw and you’ve swapped your steel horse for a real one.

Do I have to mention that the food is excellent? I make a point of having escargot when I’m in the Alsace region.

Église Notre-Dame de l’Assomption in Phalsbourg

Statue of Georges Mouton, comte de Lobau (Marshal of France) in his native Phalsbourg

Lookout tower on the Champ du Feu (1099 m)

The weather was generally miserable (around 15 °C, lots of drizzle with some heavier showers) and comparable to our Scotland tour a few years back.

The Vosges mountains are quite beautiful and very fun to drive, because the roads are pretty good throughout and there is almost no traffic anywhere.

My Guzzi enjoying a well-earned rest while I use the improved weather to take some photos.

Preserved fortifications of the Battle of the Linge in World War I

German war memorial at the Collet du Linge; almost 20,000 German and French soldiers were killed here

This photo was taken sitting on my bike, stopped on the road. This is the kind of view I could glimpse through the trees on my right going down that mountain pass.

Another stunning view of incredibly green forests under the grey, low-hanging clouds; it has been raining a lot this summer and everything is growing like mad.

Dad looks on as I take a picture during a quick rest stop on the side of a mountain road.

More beautiful mountain views…

Note the magical whisp of cloud clinging to the pine trees over the road

Someone decided to replace the asphalt on this mountain pass with gravel, which made for an interesting challenge. Luckily, dad and me are used to gravel after travelling the Peer Gynt Vegen in Norway in 2022 on these bikes.

Looking down from the first mountain pass of the day back at Guebwiller, where we spent the previous night.

The Route des Crêtes, disappearing in the clouds

I just had to stop and take a photo of this amazing oak tree growing on the side of the road in one of the valleys.

Another rest stop on the side of the road; just taking in the beauty of the landscape

Castle ruins over Lutzelbourg

Close-up of the ruins of Lutzelbourg Castle

“Nous marchons sur la tête” — French farmers are turning their village road signs upside-down to protest government policies that, in their view, make no sense and turn established wisdom on its head. I can sympathise.

The National War Museum of Luxembourg in Diekirch

An American M4A1 Sherman tank with 76 mm main gun at the War Museum

US Army M47 Patton of the 3rd Infantry Division (left) and M24 Chaffee light tank (right)

Parked at the last stopover in Houffalize in the Belgian Ardennes, our bikes are starting to look like we’ve been on a week-long offroad trip.

Castle ruin overlooking La Roche-en-Ardenne

Old tanks litter town squares in the Ardennes (for obvious, well-known reasons). This is a Pather (PzKpfw V) Ausführung G of the 2nd SS-Panzer-Division “Das Reich”, now at rest in Grandmenil.

And here are the obligatory “Fab with a tank” photos. First off: Fab with an M4A1 Sherman.

Fab with an M4 Sherman of the 3rd Armoured Division’s Task Force Hogan at Beffe.

And finally: Fab with a Panther G.