Drive along Gorges de Verdon
We arrived down on the South Coast on Sunday. We had forgotten how in particular regions of France everything is closed on a Sunday including petrol stations! We left Aups in the morning and decided to take a circuitous route, avoiding tolls, via the north side of the Gorges du Verdon.
Didn’t expect so much snow
Very soon we were up above the snow line and travelling through small villages and towns where we noticed all the petrol stations where closed. No worries we have a quarter of a tank! Half an hour later fuel warning light illuminates, no worries at least enough for 60K! 15K later half reserves used, some worries! Check sat nav – 13K to nearest petrol station on a motorway with potentially only 2K of fuel to spare (but of course we have no way of knowing). Decide to risk it, luckily find a non manned credit card operated station 5K down the road, phew!
We initially stayed at a campsite approx 10K east of Cannes, on the edge of the Esterel. We cycled along the coast road to Cannes and cruised around the various marinas, even found some job opportunities for when we need to start earning some money again!
Posh yachts!
Just need to sort my CV!
bikes & boats – can’t afford the boat yet!
Seafront ride Cannes
Now thats just showing off!
Since Cannes we have made our way east along the south coast of France stopping of wherever we fancy along the way. The weather has been good but remained cold during the night and the Mistral has been blowing.
By the weekend of the 8th /9th we had made it to Six-Fours-Les-Plages just west of Toulon. Our choice of locations is somewhat dictated by out of season campsites and in particular those that allow use of an ACSI card which guarantees we pay no more than 16 euro a night including hook up.
The campsite owner raved about the enormous market in the town on Saturday morning so we duly walked the 45 minutes into the town centre only to find a ragged and not so large collection of not particularly good stalls feeling a little cheated we traipsed the 45 minutes back and decided a bike ride was called for.
Sanary-Sur-Mer just along from Six-Fours-Les-Plages
We headed down to the seafront where we knew there was a 10k piste cyclable along the coast. Although the weather was fine it was blowing a gale with the wind coming off the sea and initially slightly behind us. So we quickly tore up the first 10k with spray hitting us coming of the sea and a view of wind and kite surfers making the most of the conditions. We decided not to head back into the wind! Lets face it we had seen the sea view and had spotted a cycle route heading off in land. Whilst most of this was on quiet roads we did come across a little forested area with a few tracks and played in there for ½ hr or so. Once we got back into town we decided to tackle the large hill with a fort on to the north (220m to the top with a starting point just about at sea level). The climb up on a paved road was surprisingly easy and the descent on a variety of forest tracks and footpaths was a good reward for the climb. It’s good to do a non planned ride from time to time and just see what turns up.
Further walking and cycling Sunday and Monday culminating in the 1 ½ hour bike climb up to Notre-Dame Du Mai in the Massif Du Cap Sicie in what was at times a force ten gale, to be rewarded by a vertigo inducing view out to sea.
At top of Notre Dame du Mai
The weather down here has been great with clear blue skies albeit very chilly in the shade and at night.
Today (Tuesday) we start to head back up north and plan to stay 3 nights near Grillon – inland and closer to the mountains. The latest weather information we have shows highs of 1 deg C and lows of -5 deg C, I think we will be glad to get home to central heating at the end of this trip!
t5ontour 