Devall Travels

I am going to have a quick solo day trip to Vimy Ridge for the Centenary of the Battle of Arras. All along the front the allies attacked entenched German positions on the high ground around Arras. Despite terrible losses the Canadian assault on Vimy Ridge was a success. Many Canadians call this the battle that created their nation. A hundred years later we gather to pay our respects for the thousands of young men that came so far from home to fight and for many of them there is a corner of France forever theirs. Oh Canada. UPDATE: 10th April 2017 http://rocket3man.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/vimy-100-report.html  

The original plan for Easter was to spend the day in Belgium with the GS Club UK at the GS weekend at Kasterlee. As it was only a week after coming back from the US, I had to cancel those plans. But the bike needed a 20000km service before the Czech Trip... and so I decided to see about a service in France and use the ferry ticket for that instead. I searched on the BMW France site for a dealership in the north of France. Purely to see if it was cheaper than in the UK. In the end I booked in to Europ' Touring in Arras. In France both 6000 miles and 12000 miles services are about 40% cheaper than the UK. Even with the cost of a cheap crossing over or under the channel it would be cheaper. And as I was less than happy at the standard of the service done at SPC at 6000 miles, plus the place was in the middle of nowhere and had no loan bike on offer (to me at least!) despite buying the GS from them! SO, a dealership in a town had to be better. Patric...