Firstly Ron sold one of his bikes to a very happy man on the street in Nice! This morning Annette and Stephen left by train for Lyon.
This was more of a local train so it was a lot easier to get their bikes on the train although there was an elevator and a flight of stairs to negotiate and I helped out there. I thought that I should really be issued with one of the very fancy French rail guards hat and uniform.
One Happy Frenchman
Nomads – To Lyon
Made it into Paris, and have reassembled bike for walk to Gare Lyon. Bike was a problem in the corridor of the train until an inspector arrived to tell me “it is not possible” several times and then “follow me”
So I followed him with the bike through the tortuous corridors of several carriages before we came to the special compartment set aside for velos. Oh the relief.
Not the only place for bikes!
As all cycle tourists know getting your bike to and from the ride can be very stressful and demanding exercise.
Our departure from Nice is varied. Ron and Susan are flying out of Nice and these are their bikes being prepared for departure.
I am not entirely sure what is happening here.
Kit on the other hand is travelling by the overnight train to Paris to fly home.
He is transporting his bike in a bike bag and he disassembled his bike at the railway station.
He then took his bike onto the train and there was a 6 person sleeper carriage. There was no where on the train for the bike.
His carriage had four other people in it and three said he could put it under the bottom bunk and one said no. Meanwhile there were no guards to check on the luggage and the train took of at 8pm.
We will have to wait to see how he got on.
The cramped carriage
This what the ride end point in Nice should have looked like yesterday! But we cannot complain as we had little rain.
Once you get over the number of cars and people Nice has a lot of character with its old section and well preserved buildings and its parks and modern tram transport system.
Mushrooms in the market
Hit send before attaching photos.
Tuesday 27 October Castellane to Gréolières 47km
With wet weather predicted we all opted for an early start, so got our bikes ready and lined up outside the boulangerie which opened at 7am. Breakfast was great here even the luxury of an omlete for breakfast.
Our first hill started almost straight away a steady reasonably steep 7km including going through a village. After a bit of downhill we went into the second climb for 3km ending up at about 1180m. Breathing a sigh of relief that most of the climbing is over we ploughed straight into a head with along a high plain. It was pretty hard going however we spied a coffee place so had some not too great coffee and read that we had a spectacular descent to come.
Coming to the descent into Gréolières it certainly was stunning looking down into the valley and going through several tunnels and some tight bends. All the while we admired the autumn colours amidst the limestone peaks.
As we descended we spotted our B&B so even though we were early thought we would leave our bikes and gear and then go into the village. Daniel greeted us warmly and we stowed our gear and headed off. Town was quiet, we got the last piece of pizza from the boulangerie and sat looking at the view eating lunch. The castle had a continuous history of being built and restored and attacked and rebuilt over and over. It was getting pretty cold in town so we headed back.
Back at our B&B we used the WiFi and waited for our rooms to be ready.The rooms were worth waiting for even though not ready till after 4pm.
We had the dinner as they provided table d’hôtes. Martini and pate, veal casserole on pasta, cheese and canned fruit salad.
By the evening it had started raining and we had more overnight.
Stayed Villa Regain: Gréolières
Wednesday 28 October Gréolières to Nice
48km,
As it was drizzling when we left and we anticipated the rain to get worse we left around 8.30am.
As promised once we left town the route was down fairly steeply at first then more gradual as we followed a river.
Kits bike had a serious issue which caused much contemplation and it looked for a while like it might not complete the journey. In the end Ron worked out it was a broken spoke causing the problem and Claire was able to remove it. Kit continued on one less spoke but only for about 35km.
Around 26km out of nowhere a hill appeared as we were heading into town what a shock. We also had to cope with some quite heavy traffic and big roundabouts a change from what we were used to. We climbed up another short steep hill to get us out of town and then landed down on the Mediterranean Sea.
The cycleway followed the waterfront for a while then had to go round a couple of airports. While we had to cross a lot of roads the cycleway worked well and kept us separated from the traffic till we hit the Nice waterfront. We went along as far as the old town before we considered our journey complete at around midday. The obligatory photos were taken and we headed into the old town for coffee and lunch.
Geoff and Kit went to their B&B and the Jacksons and us went to Hostel Smith. They were pretty disorganised and had Claire and Ron and Susan in different buildings which wasn’t going to work so they went elsewhere. We had a little apartment in the old town.
After wandering around town around 4pm thunder and lightning appeared so we were glad we arrived early.
Steve and I went walking in the old town and the new town and enjoyed it a lot more than our memories of 1983.
So our St Malo To Nice tour is over. We had a great time and saw a variety of provinces in France. There was a huge range of scenery, plains, mountains, gorges, rivers etc. Our team was excellent, different personalities, ages, outlooks etc but we all managed to work together and spend 5 weeks constantly together without any problems.
Steve and I had dinner in our apartment.
Stayed Hostel Smith, Nice
We set of on our final day with the threat of rain in the air as we negotiated the mostly downhill section into Nice. It did rain a little but it was still a good ride alongside the river as we lost significant height. The arrival in Nice was a bit of a shock as there are lots more cars and apartment buildings than we have been used to since leaving St Malo. We have ridden 1,841kilometres on our journey.
Kits bike had a problem which could have ended his ride on the last day but our chief navigator and bike mechanic Ron was able to find the cause and to fix the problem.
We have been very lucky with the weather and also with the great variety of places that we have stayed in. The latter has been due to the fantastic organisational skills of Annette in organising our accommodation.
Team photo in Nice
We started today’s ride earlier than usual in anticipation of rain predicted for the day. As it turned out it did not rain until the evening, We really liked Castellane and arriving there early allowed us to go up to the church on the top of the hill and to sit in the pub enjoying a Grimbergen beer.
This beer is the winner of the best French beer from our extensive research. We then had dinner in a local restaurant that was great.
Our leisurely pace has paid dividends through our ability to really experience life in rural France. Cycle touring is surely not just about kilometres covered or time taken but is more about experiencing local communities and different ways of life.
We had omelettes for breakfast at the local patisserie before tackling the hills out of Castellane.
The dramatic ride into Greolieres was great but overall opinion is that it was not the best descent we have done.
Tomorrow will be our last day. What a great ride with a fantastic group of liked minded cycle tourers. We have experienced rural France to its full surely one of the best places on planet earth to cycle tour!
Sent from my iPad
Cycling in France - St Malo to Nice 