Days 52, 53 & 54 – SanRemo to Uzes

No, I haven’t missed a couple of days, I’ve just recounted them 🙂

Sunday 4th September we left SanRemo while everyone was still asleep and continued along the coast to Cannes via Monaco and Nice. From there we headed north and west by way of Grasse to our overnight stay at Fayence. A fairly hot and traffic busy day and even tho we only did 135 km we enjoyed the pool at the end of it.

Monday was an up early day because of another hot day forecast. Fayence to Apt was only 200ks but it was quite a busy track via the roads we took.

North to Castellane for morning tea through some truly lovely country. Why would you build a church up there, nobody’s going to willingly attend that church – well I wouldn’t 🙂

Then it was west through the Verdon Canyon where the Verdon River has cut a 25 km long gorge through the limestone creating a canyon up to 700m deep. This attracts many hikers and climbers during this time of the year. Most cars seemed to be driving along taking pictures, oblivious to anyone else on the road. We stopped to take ours although my co-pilot was sometimes a little perturbed at some of my choices.

It eventually runs into this amazingly blue lake – Lac de Sainte-Croix

Next was Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. Another village precariously clinging to a hillside.

 On through endless Lavender fields to Riez for lunch then north and west again to Forcalquier. All great riding from one valley to another via their connecting plateaus and sometimes these strange cloud formations.

We arrived at Apt in the mid afternoon, parked the bike outside the local cop shop, and joined in the usual siesta before venturing out and mingling with the locals in the early evening.

Which brings us to today, Tuesday 6th September. An intentionally short day was planned as we wanted to do a bit of sightseeing which started just west of Apt with this bridge. A minor but interesting Roman structure in the scheme of today’s non-industrial age monuments to man’s building abilities. Say ‘Hello’ to Route du Pont Julien – those two holes are to allow for the extra water when the river is flooded.

Breakfast on the road is always good with own brewed coffee, fruit, yoghurt and muesli and my lovely wife who never ceases to amaze me.

One of the great things about riding a bike is that you can ride right up to wherever you want to go, park, lock and secure, and you’re right there while all those car drivers and bus loads of tourists are trudging up the hill or fighting their way through the narrow sidewalks. Avignon was no exception. We stopped right there for a couple of hours and had a look at the Palais du Papas – Palace of the Popes. We wandered the byways and generally took it easy.

Just up the road is another famous landmark – Pont du Gard. This aqueduct is ancient Roman and part of a 50 km aqueduct running from Uzes (where we are now) to Nimes. It falls a mere 25 cm to the kilometer and through this sort of country that’s an amazing feat as a lot of it is underground. This structure is massive. There’s a quite a good museum – I got the sticker 🙂

Today like yesterday has come in hot and seriously windy – Norma doesn’t like the wind – so our hotel with pool was a welcome sight.

Only 135 km today.

Tomorrow it’s west to Millau Viaduct then we’re heading south to Spain.

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