Laon Historique to Stelvio pass jaunt

Zsled

Zsled

Well-Known Forum User
Hi All

The Wife and I are taking the 240 abroad finally, after 3 years of attempting to do it before but something else always getting in the way.

We are starting off with a trip to Laon with a group organised through continental car tours, after that event we are making our own way on to Reims, St Bernard pass, lake Como and then the Stelvio pass. (not necessarily in that order)

I'm sure there will be other stops along the way but am wondering if anyone else has done this and can recommend any roads/places to stay in that general vicinity?

Cheers
Nick n Holly
:D
 
When are you going?

We're heading to the Stelvio Pass this year also, although we're coming up from Lake Garda having done France prior..
 
Friday 11th of May we set off for Laon, which means we will be leaving that event on Monday 14th for the drive towards the Stelvio area.
 
As per 'Top Gear' the road between Stelvio and Davos is awesome.
Route Napoleon between Cannes and Grenoble is also great fun.
Drop Cresco a PM he is based in Grenoble and is frequently off hooning around alpine passes :driving:
 
zman240uk said:
As per 'Top Gear' the road between Stelvio and Davos is awesome.
Route Napoleon between Cannes and Grenoble is also great fun.
Drop Cresco a PM he is based in Grenoble and is frequently off hooning around alpine passes :driving:
Click to expand...

if you look in international events section there are links to all the threads I've written with lots of useful info for anyone doing that kind of drive.

you will need to select all posts at the bottom of that section as they are a bit historic now. Also the threads are hosted on another forum which is now a closed forum so you will need to simply register to read the threads.

if your not going till May that gives you plenty of time to read through them..:)

any questions just drop me a PM..:D
 
vid update - hopefully

Well we made it with no major incidents, the Laon cobbled streets only managing to dislocate a soldered join to the headlight switch.
Only noticed it two days later when driving through the Swiss tunnels, at least I still had side lights...
gaffa taped it blue peter stylee and fixed it proper once home.

Still going through the photo's but have some video on the tube of you.. so here goes posting that! :D

[youtube]0NGRtcqjpmA[/youtube]

[youtube]jibDQ2q-R-I[/youtube]

[youtube]8TAb4lsu-Us[/youtube]

This has to be the best driving holiday i've ever taken to date, the scenery was amazing.
The roads were very empty, i guess because not very many people want to risk hitting the kind of snow we encountered on the Furka pass. :( dirty pants scary..

Glad i did it though and the views on the other side were amazing..

Pics to follow
Regards
Nick
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Zsled said:
not sure what happened there.....:smash:

Looked ok on the preview, do they have to be signed off by admin?
Click to expand...

Believe you have loaded all off the link in the you tube tag
think this might work

[youtube]0NGRtcqjpmA[/youtube]
[YOUTUBE]jibDQ2q-R-I[/youtube]
[youtube]8TAb4lsu-Us[/youtube]

Where you went wrong is you posted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NGRtcqjpmA

between the you tube tags and it will not show
What you have to post there is just this bit between the tags and it will then work

0NGRtcqjpmA

Hope that helps
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Zsled said:
Well we made it with no major incidents, the Laon cobbled streets only managing to dislocate a soldered join to the headlight switch.
Only noticed it two days later when driving through the Swiss tunnels, at least I still had side lights...
gaffa taped it blue peter stylee and fixed it proper once home.

Still going through the photo's but have some video on the tube of you.. so here goes posting that! :D

This has to be the best driving holiday i've ever taken to date, the scenery was amazing.
The roads were very empty, i guess because not very many people want to risk hitting the kind of snow we encountered on the Furka pass. :( dirty pants scary..

Glad i did it though and the views on the other side were amazing..

Pics to follow
Regards
Nick
Click to expand...
Nick
I dont know if you ever did look through any of my posts on Alp Driving but your videos help to reinforce some of the points I made in my posts. For me the experience beats any track day and due to the the inclines and decents allows you to explore the limits of the car far more than racing on the flat. the Views, the fresh air, the blue sky sunshine all helps to enhance the drive experience.
since being in France for the last 2 years I have now driven virtually all the best passes in France and Switzerland including those driven by yourself. the Swiss passes are top roads and IMHO make Stelvio look like a farm track. I would be interested to hear your views?

You mention Snow on Furka pass, this is always a problem at this time of year but usually only at the highest point of the passes. let me tell you its actually a good thing because it keeps everyone else away and keeps the pass traffic clear so you can press on as shown in your videos. leave it till June and the Snow will be gone but will be replaced by great big packs of Cyclists, idiots towing caravans over mountains and tourists in general.

Glad you had a great time, great videos mate.
 
STEVE BURNS said:
Believe you have loaded all off the link in the you tube tag
think this might work
Click to expand...


Cheers Steve that's cleared that up so i'll know for next time..:bow:


BuckarroBanzai
Yep i read some of your postings, there was an awful lot lol, very helpful indeed and helped me out immensely. really really helpful and the roads were out of this world. I knew there was a reason why i bought this car...

Arkwright
Thanks for your kind words
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Zsled said:
BuckarroBanzai
Yep i read some of your postings, there was an awful lot lol, very helpful indeed and helped me out immensely. really really helpful and the roads were out of this world. I knew there was a reason why i bought this car...
Click to expand...

I would be interested to know which passes you drove.
I'm guessing if you drove Furka then you must have done Grimsel and Susten while you were there?
 
Ok I got the pass names a bit wrong so here is the corrected route,

The road to Furka was pleasant enough but we had to take the Furka train, the road was closed due to an avalanche.

Then we took the Oberalp pass, then the Lukmanier pass.
We stayed in Faido that night in a monastery, which was pretty cool.
Drove the wife a little mad as I had to find a jet wash to clean the car off.

The following day we drove to lake Como via lake Lugano. Just gorgeous.
This was a change of route due to me not enjoying the previous days conditions.
I really hated the drive after Furka at the time, but don't regret it, a hell of an experience
I've never driven in anything like it.

We used lake Como as a base for 2 nights and drove to St Moritz via the Foscagno pass.
Then Bernina & Maloja back to Como, we retraced Maloja the next morning taking in the Julier & Lenzerheide pass through Liechtenstein and staying at lake Konstanz.

This was our homeward bound leg and we stayed in Reims before the ferry at Calais.
We would both love to do it again, so as to take in the passes that were closed.

Hope that helps :D
 
Zsled said:
Ok I got the pass names a bit wrong so here is the corrected route,

The road to Furka was pleasant enough but we had to take the Furka train, the road was closed due to an avalanche.

Then we took the Oberalp pass, then the Lukmanier pass.
We stayed in Faido that night in a monastery, which was pretty cool.
Drove the wife a little mad as I had to find a jet wash to clean the car off.

The following day we drove to lake Como via lake Lugano. Just gorgeous.
This was a change of route due to me not enjoying the previous days conditions.
I really hated the drive after Furka at the time, but don't regret it, a hell of an experience
I've never driven in anything like it.

We used lake Como as a base for 2 nights and drove to St Moritz via the Foscagno pass.
Then Bernina & Maloja back to Como, we retraced Maloja the next morning taking in the Julier & Lenzerheide pass through Liechtenstein and staying at lake Konstanz.

This was our homeward bound leg and we stayed in Reims before the ferry at Calais.
We would both love to do it again, so as to take in the passes that were closed.

Hope that helps :D
Click to expand...
you did have a good look about..:thumbs: Como and Lugano are stunning.

the snow is late clearing this year which can be a pain when you make such a big effort to travel all that way only to find passes closed..:rolleyes:
I was in France this weekend and this would have been my first weekend back into the mountains, but I can see by the amount of snow on the mountains from the hotel that I would have come back disappointed so I didnt bother.
I'm back in the U.K from this Friday and wont be back in France till late Summer so that will be my next chance.

Try and remember the names of the passes you couldnt drive and I'll drive them for you...:driving: :D
 
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