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Working on Camping Moto in Bonlieu
Page 1 2 3 4	July 11 to August 6, 1977

Introduction
This is a report of the trip I made to Camping Moto in Bonlieu in France. I worked there for a few weeks but unfortunately, for reasons I can not remember I made only a few pictures. Because it was an very interesting experience, I write this trip report anyway.

Monday, July 11, 1977
Sometime ago, I applied for a holiday job at Camping Moto in the small village Bonlieu in the Jura in France.
After a while I got a letter that I got the job and on Monday, July 11, I left my parents house to work in France for a while.

The letter that I got the job

It was a long ride to Bonlieu on my little Honda CB125s and I planned to do the trip to Bonlieu in three days.

My little Honda

I left home at nine o'clock in the morning (odometer: 9795.7 km) and at a quarter past ten, I arrived in Baarle-Nassau on the Belgian border. I bought coffee and apple-pie at a café in the venter and changed some Dutch guilders for Belgian Francs and at half past ten, i was on my little Honda again.

About an hour later, I had the next coffee stop at Veerle, twenty kilomneter North of Diest in Belgium. At ten past one, I stopped for lunch in Huy. At a snackbar I bought French Fries and some nice cold milk.

The bike was running fine and I enjoyed the ride. After another coffee stop in Bastogne (bad coffee) I went on to my final destination for this day, Camping Auf kengert in larochette in Luxembourg.

At half past four I arrived at the camping (odometer: 10169 km) and half an hour later my tent was ready for the night.

Camping Auf kengert (scanned postcard)

Somewhere on my way to Luxembourg, I had to break hard and the bike was slipping sideways. At the camping that afternoon, I saw that the rear wheel was not in line so that explains it. I adjusted the wheel and now it is in line with the front wheel.

Tuesday, July 12, 1977
At half past eight AM, I left camping Auf Kengert on my way to the South. After an hour or two riding, I stopped near Nancy in France to fill my tank again and to have a cola and a croissant.
After I filled the tank, I wanted to park the bike but because of all the luggage it fell on its side. The petrol was pouring on the hot exhaust and it started smoking but fortunately it did not catch fire. A scary moment.....

At half past twelve, I had lunch in Epinal, a cheese sandwich and a very cold cola. The people in the restaurantt were very friendly. I got water to clean the visor of my helmet and unlike some other French waiters, they realy tried to understand my French.

I liked riding in France. With the little 125cc Honda, it was useless to pay for toll-roads so I used the "Routes Nationale", the N-roads. Very good, mostly two lane roads.

At a bank, I changed some Dutch Guilders for French Francs and near Versoul, I filled the tank again and bought cola and an aspirin (I had an headache, probably because of the heat).

It was almost four in the afternoon when I arrived at the camping in Besançon. (Odometer: 10558.8 km) I had my tent set up, dumped my luggage inside and went to sleep for an hour.

It was not the best camping you can get. On one side of the camping is a freeway and next to the freeway is an airport with small planes pulling gliders in the air all the time. On the other side of the camping is a railroad but because I had a headache, I went to the first camping I could find.
The little Honda is not running very good. I hoped it would not give me problems on the rest of the trip.......

The scenery in this part of France is beautiful. Nice winding roads and beautiful views. Unfortunately, the little Honda lacks the power I needed to realy enjoy these roads.

Wednesday, July 13, 1977
This morning I was awake at eight o'clock and half an hour later, I was on the road again. After riding thirty kilometer, I filled my tank again and had breakfast at a roadside restaurant. I had coffee and a cheese sandwich and felt in love with the pretty waitress. But then I had to go again...... The weather was perfect and I was feeling great.

After breakfast I did not stop until I reached my destination, Camping Moto, near the little French village Bonlieu.

The road was great. The road surface was bad but the views were great. Somewhere there were workmen busy putting new asphalt on the road. The new asphalt was very hot and it was raining so the rain that fell on the road turned into steam......

While I was riding in the direction of St Laurent I saw a sign "BONLIEU 12KM". The road to Bonlieu was a wonderful road and part of it was on the banks of a big lake. I enjoyed the ride and soon I arrived at Camping Moto, nine hundred and fifty-four kilometer from home. (odometer: 10750 km)

The location of Camping Moto in France

The two kilometer road from the main road to Camping Moto was "adventurous". The first few hundred meter of the road surface was coarse gravel with two sharp corners in that part of the road. The next part was loose sand and then came a stretch of road with hard sand (much easier to ride on) and the last few hundred meters was a bumpy, rocky road.

Camping Moto had a great location in the the middle of a forest. Right behind the campground, are the steep slopes of the mountain, grown with lush forest. Unfortunately, due to the wet weather, the campground is a little swampy but I found a nice dry spot to put my tent, on the edge of the forest.

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Working on Camping Moto in Bonlieu