1st of August brings a lot of clouds. Not the best conditions to enjoy Cote d' Azur but fine for me since I would be able to ride from Nice to Monaco without the torturing summer sun that turns the helmet to an oven and makes the washing machine your best friend. I know that this kinda hazy day will ruin my pictures but I'm not gonna cry, I'm here to enjoy the ride first and foremost. Instagram can wait. Maybe forever.
I can't resist a short stop over Villefranche sur Mer for a couple of pictures:
Now you know why.
Unfortunately traffic doesn't allow much space for joy though the route is quite scenic crossing great places (with also great properties). Like this ones over Port Silva Maris:
There's numerous view points on the way that's hard to ignore:
I reach Monaco with high expectations being eager to finally visit the place I've been watching since I was a kid due to its Grand Prix and drive the same roads, not on the same pace obviously, but the (partially expected) extra heavy traffic didn't allow much margin for joy if any at all. I wanted to drive around this tiny state for a while and its tunnels that make the mountain look like Swiss cheese but finally left it rather disappointed. To make it up, on my way back to Nice I stop at a couple of view points I missed before:
Curious about the ride? Here's a video:
As I spend my days at this West suburb of Nice, I am thinking how it would look to other people the fact that I am staying literally a few steps away from the sea and never feel like taking a dip. The reason is that the beach in front of me (unlike the main one at Nice) is very shallow and swimmers are not allowed to go past a few meters from the coast due to intense water sports activity. Ideal for families with small kids but not for me. I am smiling only by thinking that this would be a side way to describe how nice the sea is back at my place:
"Is the sea nice where you live?"
"Well...I spent a whole week by the sea West of Nice and never felt like swimming"
As spoiled as it gets sea wise. On the positive side, I really like the fact that while walking Promenande des Angles and other places in the city I couldn't see any sign of the massacre that took place there a few years ago. Of course a local has so much more to say on this than I do. All these things came to my mind as I am staring at family pictures of my host, flooded by extra cute smiley kids. As if they had a "Best French smile 2019" contest. Don't expect pictures, I'm too discreet to take any but more than happy they didn't loose their smile and hope they never will.
Next day is really gorgeous. I'm luck to have Catherine's lovely airy place at my disposal. At night I have the fresh North Alpine wind to cool down the mild heat of the day and after sunrise it's time for the South wind coming from the sea. Every single day the same cycle. Amazing. Never too intense. Even the wind has French manners. I make my breakfast and set off to enjoy the menu of the day: Cannes, Saint Tropez and other beauties in between.
I start (as usual) early enough to avoid the heat and traffic and this is the case for the next hour which helps me to cross Antibes (nice!) without much drama. I make my first stop at Cannes where I have the chance to picture a top model:
This fine piece of Japanese engineering is so multitalented and trusty that someone with excessive biker audacity could caption this like "Cannes crowd to get pictured behind this Suzuki". Ι won't repeat all the positive surprises I had with this bike over the last 130.000km, I will just add this (which by the way is not the most impressive): Before leaving Greece I had the front brake pads close to the end and the drive chain unadjusted for the last 7000km. Finally I decided to leave both untouched and fix them when I come back. Spoiler: After 3200+km back home, they are all in the exact same shape. Even the chain - never tightened for the last 10000km in total.
Cannes is gorgeous but the heat and traffic is not so I continue West. Soon I stop again cause the beach outside the city is really nice:
My phone's panoramics are not but let's skip this for the moment cause at this point, right behind me, there's a guy in his late 70s with a fancy race bicycle and a rear flat tire. As soon as I start thinking about helping him and take the chance to apply my latest discovery on fixing flat tube tires using super glue, he pulls out the wheel, the tire and the tube in seconds and starts repairing under the melting sun. The whole scene looks so harmonically effortless, like drinking water, so I don't want to spoil it. I really appreciate such guys...better not compare them with our spoiled state pensioners.
I head West and decide to leave the coastline in order to avoid traffic and explore the mountain as well. If only I knew how super wise this choice was. Soon I find my self driving on the DN7 and...how can I describe this...What do you expect from a route? Good tarmac? Nicely curved corners? Low to zero traffic? Dense forest? Options for gravel roads? Lakes? Streams? This one's got it ALL. If prison is driving there all day long I commit homicide in a heartbeat. Obviously I had to make a stop for some pictures (video at the end):
A few km later I see a sign about a lake directing to a gravel road. Couldn't skip this. After 2 km of gravel downhill I reach the end where I leave my iron horse to graze,
and after a few meters walking I see this masterpiece:
Sun was no helper for pictures but lake Avellan is a little gem. There it was me, a couple of souls and the silence. Amazing. (Video at the end).
I go up the gravel road again and continue South West on DN7. Same joy on this road till I reach Frejus and meet the heavy traffic again. There are parts of the coastal road that I am overtaking idle cars for many km. After a lot of heat and traffic I finally make it to Saint Tropez. The summer sun made these 2 euros I spent for that granite look like the best investment ever:
On my way back to Nice, before Frejus, I find a race track for Monster Trucks. I never expected to see such a redneck thing in France. I am also quite lucky cause as soon as I stop for pictures one monster came out to park and show off to the people who driving by:
Of course the top model wanted a picture too so...:
All the above beauties plus a few more included in the video below:
See you on part 5!