As Charlotte says Portsmouth to Cherbourg and down to St Lo and St Mare Eglise is a great route but as Gary says Portsmouth to Cherbourg is an expensive ferry trip now.
Bruges is a great place and a few of us 18 months ago stayed at biker friendly B&B where we were able to keep up bikes locked up in a secure garage. Bruges is a beautiful city with great cuisine and mad beers BUT be aware that it's the world's worst one-way system getting in and out of Brugges so we left the bikes in the garage. One of our group wasn't confident on one-way cobbled streets.
As we left Brugges we worked out a much easier route to get in and out of the city.
Timewise, allow 45 mins for Dover to Calais crossing (£40-odd as Gary said), allow an hour to ride from France to Bruges. We went the direct route but I'm sure the scenic route would be much more fun.
hotel place we stayed was Hotel Fevery. Check out their reviews on
www.tripadvisor.com, it averages about 4.5 stars out of 5 from loads of reviews.
Hotel is
www.hotelfevery.be
I've always fancied Ghent, about 2 hours from Calais? Ghent's meant to be a well cool place, very medieval but not as touristy as Bruges.
Got me thinking, anyone from UKMOC (i.e. CK, Gary etc) up for a trip to Ghent?
Cheers!
Marky