Set of for Dover Wednesday night and made the Dartford tunnel/crossing in good time and no rain ,but the M2-A2 was a nightmare , Torential rain and many parts unlit which was where I had my first major scare of the trip hitting standing water in the pitch dark at 80 ish mph
The force of water ripped both feet from the pegs and according to my mate following on his Blackbird the Ducati did some quite interesting gyrations trying to stay upright , Decided to cool the pace after that 
No problems on the ferry and landed in Calais at 04:50 french time , It was dark,raining and they drive on the wrong side of the road
and to top it all my mate is adamant that he,s not going anywhere near Paris even though I point out that it will add miles to the journey 
So we spend the next 14 hours criss crossing France heading in the general direction of Limousin and eventually reach the Haute-Vienne and the little hamlet of Tersanne where we are staying at 7:30ish in the evening ,To say we are tired would be an understatement , with the ride down to Dover taking roughly 6 and a half hours plus the waiting to get on the ferry , the crossing and the scenic ride through France we had been on the road nearly 24 hours 
Yes you can fall asleep on a moving motorcycle and no I don't recomend it.the next eight days were spent touring round Haute-Vienne though unfortunately I had to take things easy as my mates wife plus my wife and kids had flown down and hired a car , it didnt mean I couldnt hare off at every oportunity though and my mate found out why I ride a Ducati and not a Honda .
Large capacity V twin with bags of low down grunt , light weight and exceptional chassis + twisty and well surfaced French roads versus overweight and over powered jap four = the italian thoroughbred disapearing into the distance
Though I suppose it was no contest really as it was a sports bike versus a sports tourer .The ride home took a more exceptable 16 hours but being stopped by a French radar trap after overtaking a stream of traffic whilst doing 120+mph nearly gave me cardiac arrest
I was desperately trying to think what the French was for "Do you take Visa ?" when the rather attractive lady officer gave me a big grin indicated i should slow down and sent me on my way 
