dudes,

i got some time off work, popped a few clothes in the boot, and i drove to paris last night. getting lots of looks with my old LS400, because i think they don't have lexus in europe really. or no old ones anyway.
the lex is perfect for cruising in europe, just taking each day as it comes..

hope to give you a final report when i get back at the end of the week.

au revoir!

maneesh

Stay away from the snails mate, your breathe with STINK of garlic for weeks afterwards!!

You going near Montparnasse?... thats where i always stay when i go... beautiful

Went to France last week to buy wine and cheese ..............never saw another lex on the road, got quite a few looks though..........(probably due to poor driving!).....saw toyota garage, do they sell lex in france??

remember when I went to france last year when I first got my lex, loads of frenchies looking at it. The only other lexus I saw was british reg Is200 as well

Just back from a tour of France,Switzerland & Italy.

What a drive from my Lexus, superb does not do it justice.

3000 mile round trip and not another Lexus seen.

Planning next one already.

I've heard people bash one anothers bumpers to park

Enjoy your stay manny, will you be back for JAE?

my old 2CV van had two handle shape bumpers at the back-made of metal; you got the nose in to a tight space then 'lifted' the back in!. But yes, in the old days, when bumpers were metal not 'crumple zones', you heard the clang... and then forward-clang; FINE!
The old DS had quite a rounded front so it was easy to pull the front round-no corners of bonnet to worry about-take a look sometime! (And rubber pointy bits to bounce you off other parked vehicles!)
France is great for big LSs; lovely long sweeping, unpopulated roads! Lucky JJF1312!
Am planning to go camping in my LS400. plenty of boot space for tent etc, PLUS table and chairs!
French campsites, ANYWHERE, seem to be good! Even little villages have one, with hot water AND a bread van that calls in the morning! Fresh sticks and croissants with your coffee out in the countryside! Bliss!

you will get loads of looks away from the main tourist areas because it has strange plates on the car and its a RH drive ( dont u look at a lh drive car in the uk?) i still get loads in basel and the surrounding villages,went for a trip on sun thru the back roads and nearly everyone was looking at the car - get a bit annoying sometimes but u always get let in at jams so thats a good point.

dudes
now in antwerp. going to amsterdam now. lex was designed to cruise on motorways. eats up miles. lots of looks from merc drivers particulary taxi drivers with diesel e-classes:
tending to park in secure underground car parks.
car getting around 25mpg mostly cruise control at 80mph with some town driving.
yes, its cool people let u in coz u got a right hooker!!!

one or two is200s in belgium but aint seen one ls400, not even a british one.
i read somewhere that only 300 LS are sold each year in uk
seen more ferraris here than lex. now thats cool!!!!!

now way!!!! can someone confirm this?

Gald your enjoying your trip, enjoy the cafes in dam

PS nice to see you sig mileage rising

Raz they do that in most of europe....have to say that barcelona was the worst brand new cars with front and back bumpers scuffed.....was having breakie in hotel one morning and saw this women going back and forth into the cars infront and behind to get in to such a tight space it was so funny she was at it for almost 10 minutes wish i had my camcorder cause as soon as she got out the car the owner of the car infront came and done the same to get out

One of the best cafes in dam - the grasshoper, when your at dam square ask anyone and they will point you in the right direction

^^
Imagine if that happened to your lex

Yep, few of my mates have been me souveniours from the Grasshopper

im amsterdam now. parking is a fortune, but hey, the lex looks good by the canal.
i kinda scraped the side of the rear bumper against a lampost, nothing really serious, but annoying as i lost attention for a few moments..thats before i went to grasshopper!

this place is so chilled out..i cant believe it! yes, defo wouldnt take my car to spain!

better dash and make it to my touristy canal boat tour!

i cant hold it down - i had to blow away a belgian dude in a modded astra today on the motorway, it was funny, he tried to tailgate me bad, and i just flicked the ect/power switch!

Hey man-eesh!Don't forget, I run Bristol's best/only Veggie cafe.
You ain't chilled 'til you chilled at Royce Rolls Cafe, Bristol.
Just find the market....great music-Brazilian/Spanish/ garage/--hip hop DJ works Sat.....

grasshppper??!!! thats a toss place except if u want to see some bogtrotter get her waps out

the best one and where all the locals go is just off the top end of kalverstraat towards central station ( forgot the name tho)

but there are a lot better than the grasshopper.

Good choice taking the underground car parking in Paris. When I was there all the cars had scrapped and dinted bumpers. Would never take my lex to Paris and park on the streets.
There are three Grasshopper Cafe's I think. When I go over (not been for a bit) theres a small one thats quite good. The Greenhouse is nice but always full and struggle to sit down. A really dodgy but good one is called double reggae which is near the big La Canna.
Last time I went to the Dam was for the millenium. Complete insane in dam square on the build up to midnight. The dutch are mad - throwing fireworks ats each other and all sorts of mad stuff

Yeap that was good went there..and to la canna bought some bits from there

LOC meet to the dam !

yahoo!

oh yes mate

mat and I know am'dam well so we can be the tour guides!

Go to The Pancake Bakery ....pancakes are well nice.....its on preisengratch (name of road - probably spelt wrong) along one of the the cannals, im sure if you asked someone they will probably know Fluff???

yep the pancake bakery is nice, its at the top end of the prinsengracht canal - its about 300m from the anne frank house on the same side so that will make it easier to find, think it opens at about 1pm and it fills up quickly but they have lots of space.

tip: dont go on on of the normal canal bout trips, take the taxi boat, u can hop on off anywhere its cheap and the ticket lasts for 2 days.

Theres also a nice family run restuarant either on pier 10 or that is what its called, when you come out of the back of central station cross the road and it a little way down going left. food was brilliant

Well, drove back to London yesterday from Amsterdam via Bruge and Oostende.

What a great trip - every1 thinks I'm nuts to drive in the summer to European cities, but I've ALWAYS wanted to drive this car in Europe..

Had a 5 day eurotunnel ticket, otherwise would have driven a lot further out.
Pity I didn't check the forum after my last post, all your tips would have been useful around the dam. Yeah, let's have a cruise one summer to dam square. I defo want to do this type of holiday again!

I did about 900 miles since I crossed over the channel. I just enjoyed pulling up in the motorway services and you had families in Audis, VWs, etc. checking the Lex out and the kids pointing at the badge and stuff. You never get that here, with most people thinking "flash git"!

Parking was a small fortune in amsterdam, it's about 2 quid an hour (cheaper than london which is 4 quid an hour), but you have to pay until midnight, as it's only free between midnight and 9am. Paris was about 17 quid for 24 hours in the underground car park, and Antwerp was about 8 quid for 24 hours in the hotel's car park.

The red light district was a joke with mostly middle aged couples walking up and down, and the half naked girls in shop windows either texting on their mobile or having a ciggie and looking well bored!

I can't believe how SMOOTH the road surfaces were in france and the netherlands compared to the UK. Belgium motorways were okish apart from the E40 between bruge and oostende. Let's just say that I was having so much fun with a Golf down a straight stretch (he was a dot in my mirror at 140!), that I missed my exit and only noticed after I was about 6 junctions ahead! I WANTED to stay within the speed limits, but mostly the right two lanes were full of trucks, and staying in the left lane meant you had to keep up with the flow of the traffic. I passed a few police cars through Belgium and they just didn't bother doing anything.

Most of the time, I have been getting 26mpg but yesterday cruising at 100-120, I got about 23mpg. Let's see if you can squeeze that out of a J reg 735i/S420/XJ6. I am so in love with this car even more after this trip. It made cruising/overtaking completely effortless. Everyone I know keeps suggesting I buy a more modern car as this is really old, which it is, but I like my old girl

Did anyone manage to verify that approx. 300 LSs are sold in the UK each year?

Who's organising the Europe cruise then????

Glad you had a good time, get yourself down to JAE mate!!!