Flanders did not get any more exciting since yesterday, so I continue my journey on the motorway. The motorways in France are mainly toll roads and you currently should expect to pay approximately six Euros per 100 kilometres. Another thing I notice is that the Marsupilami Mark II has a drinking problem; at a constant speed of 125 kilometres per hour the fuel consumption increases to 8 litres per 100 kilometres (29 mpg U.S. gallon, 35 mpg real gallons). The normal consumption would be about 5 litres (47 mpg U.S. gallon, 56 mpg real gallon). At this rate of consumption I will need to stop for fuel every 90 minutes.
I follow the motorways A26 (aptly named the "Autoroute des Anglais" by the French) and A4 until south of Reims.
From there I continue on National routes eastwards towards Nancy, where I then turn south along the Moselle river via Épinal up into the Vosges mountains.
The road goes onwards via Mulhouse to the Swiss border. As so often the Swiss border patrol is playing silly buggers and is checking every vehicle. There is a long queue. I know this area well, and should you ever want to avoid the border patrol (or carry something in your luggage where you don't want them to poke their noses into), then here is a detailed section of my tracklog that exactly shows you how you may entirely bypass the customs check, while re-joining the motorway 100 metres behind the checkpoint. The blue line is my tracklog:
I have nothing to hide, but simply want to show you how easy that is. By 1730 hours I am back home, after 720 kilometres and nine hours on the bike.
Below is the usual map with my GPS tracklog.