In reply to Ennerdaleblonde:
Having done several bike trips through Europe my recommendation is an old school road map atlas, pen, pencil, paper, masking tape, stove and coffee.
Ditch the sat nav. Mark in the map your destination. Draw a straight line on it (pencil). Find the roads that more closely follow that line. Now find points of interest along or close to that line, ideally within an hour or 2 from each other. Link them with straight lines and again, find the closest roads to them. That's your route.
At each stop write down waypoints in the piece of paper and tape it to your tank.
This guarantees you will get lost, you'll find beautiful riding roads, go through small off-the-beaten-path villages and avoid the autoroute slogs and 'faster' routes which motorbikes are not made for (if you are gonna take the motorway might as well use a car). Also will find random points of interest, viewpoints, etc where you can stop, brew a coffee, and enjoy being there instead of just zooming through.
Take earplugs and i also like earphones for playing some music.
Put some coloured electric tape on your right side of the handlebar or right mirror to remind you which side of the road you got to be on. After an hour of driving through country roads with no traffic in sight is easy to revert to the wrong side of the road unknowingly and play chicken wth oncoming indigenous vehicles, specially coming out of junctions
Post edited at 12:20