DAY 2 FRIDAY 8TH JANUARY 2010
No rush to leave hotel as temperatures still well below zero. By lunchtime we realised that it was never going to warm up as all of France was freezing varying from-2 to -7 so nothing was going to melt today.

Leaving the hotel, it immediately became obvious that John was very wary of the icy conditions and was riding extremely cautiously, at no more than walking pace. Once we reached the motorway it was safe to get up to more normal speeds but John would not go above 40mph which caused congestion on the 2 lane motorway as all other traffic was traveling much faster. I overtook John and gradually increased speed to 45 then 50 mph but John resolutely stuck at 40mph which I personally thought was dangerously slow on a busy motorway.

Glen ahead slowed up to wait for us and then suddenly indicated to take the next exit off the motorway. I tried to signal that we needed to stay on this motorway but he turned off and headed down the exit ramp to the roundabout. As I had no idea where he was going, I had no choice but to follow him around this large roundabout which in turn meant I lost sight of John behind. Glen did a complete lap of the roundabout and then took the exit to continue on the original route. I waited on the roundabout so that John would know which exit to take when he came around. Only he didn't come round but instead did a U turn and was heading back the way we had just come! To say I was unimpressed by this display of riding and navigation would be an understatement. It later transspired that both Glen and John had been suddenly told by their satnavs to do a U turn on the motorway! I presumed that they must have set their twatnavs to avoid motorways.

Glen suggested that he would go and find John and I should ride direct to Orleans and we would regroup there. Apparently, Glen and John never did find each other and each made their own way south with with Glen arriving in Orleans around 5.00 pm and John missing in action somewhere around Paris.

By the time I got to Orleans, the temperature was falling rapidly so I opted for the very first cheap hotel I found. Glen phoned shortly afterwards to tell me he had checcked into a different hotel on the other side of town. So at the end of our first day in France what started as 3 riders together ended as 3 riders in 3 different hotels with 50 miles apart.