From France to Italy

30 June From Menton, France to Ceriale Baciccia, Italy

It was such a beautiful morning in Menton that we spent some time walking and exploring the waterfront.

Driving into Italy was crazy - very busy roads, many traffic lights, but here we are in San Remo .

The old part of San Remo was "a labyrinth of twisting lanes and steps".  Some alleys were covered over.  We loved exploring this old town.

Alassio on the Italian Riviera - how visitors spend a day at the beach.

The French Riviera

29 June - A drive from a high plateau of 1,000m down to the French Riviera coastline

We had camped overnight at Castellane - that's a church at the top of this huge rock bluff.  The only way to get to it is to walk!

Many hairpins as we drove downhill, dropping 1,000m.

The city of Nice - a water and steam "mirror lake" like we have already seen in Bordeaux.

We discovered an Iron Man event in progress at Nice

The beachfront at Nice - it was cold and raining.  The beach is coarse gravel.  Notice the huge cruise ship.

We drove on high above the coastline on the "Moyenne (Middle) Corniche" - famous for its views.
We then drove the "Grande Corniche" - even higher, but we thought the views were better on the first drive.

The Riviera is very built up

Menton - our destination and our last night in France for a while.  There is a New Zealand writer's residence somewhere here.  What a pleasant place to spend a year writing!

France - History, lavender and gorges

28 June - a full day's drive with many interesting stops along the way

Sisteron in early morning light.  We arrived too early to look inside the high citadel, but instead explored the old town centre, with buildings dating back to the 13th century.

A Saturday market was in progress - luscious summer fruits!

We are now in Provence - many fields of lavender.

Moustiers Sainte Marie.  We climbed up many steps to the Chapel Notre Dame de Beavoir.

Driving towards the Gorges du Verdon - "the Grand Canyon of Europe"

Views while driving the"Route des Cretes" - a 23 km circuit with many spectacular lookouts.  Part of the road is one way only.

France - Owen rides up Mont Ventoux

27 June -  One of Owen's goals on this trip was to ride up Mont Ventoux (1912m) - one of the famous climbs of the Tour de France.  It is a 21km ride - a long tough climb that took Owen about 2 hours 15 minutes.  There were hundreds of cyclists out riding the climb, many more cyclists than cars!

One of our first views of Mont Ventoux from a distance

Owen's starting point at the town of Malaucene

Nearly there!

At the top

Such a barren mountain

France - Wild flowers, gorges and the French Resistance

26 June - A very interesting drive through some spectacular scenery heading SE towards Malaucene where we camped for the night.

We drove through the amazing Gorges de la Bourne with many rock overhangs over the road

A visit to Grotte de la Luire.  A moving reminder of the courage and tragedy of French Resistance fighters in WWII.  Fifteen hospital workers were found by the Germans and killed here in this rocky grotto.

There was a tremendous network of caves, tunnels and tracks used by the French Resistance.

Quite a drive down from the Col de Rousset 1367m

Road tunnel through Col de Mente

The village of Chichilianne backed by the high block of Mont Aiguille

Our first day in France

25 June 2014 - We flew in to Lyon St Exupery airport and collected our Peugeot car - brand new, just 4km on the odometer.  We should have started using the GPS in the car straight away as we had a bit of navigational bother finding our way out of the airport.  Eventually we were driving in the right direction through some delightful French countryside and found a pleasant camping spot to rest and recover from our long flights.

A stop at this church to look for a geocache.  Notre Dame des Vines, excellent views looking towards Grenoble

Camping du Bois Sign, Lans-en-Vercours