MARITIME ALPS, FRANCE

On Saturday 30th June we set off from home in St Briavels at 4.30am to cycle 111 miles to Ivinghoe Youth Hostel 12 miles from Luton airport where we were due to fly the next day to Nice in the South of France on an Easyjet flight. This we achieved in 12 hours passing through Cinderford, Stow on the Wold, Chipping Campden, Buckingham, Winslow and Leighton Buzzard arriving at 6.30pm in Ivinghoe.

1st July - Had a day to kill as our flight was not until the evening. Watched model gliders being flown from Ivinghoe Beacon, ate at the "Windmill" pub in Luton and purchased picnic items from Tesco for the journey. From mid afternoon we plane and people watched at the airport. Bikes were not weighed in at the airport and were just wheeled to the outsize baggage area to be loaded onto the plane.

Luton Airport

Arriving at 12.30 am on Monday July 2nd we had nowhere to stay for the first night but found it warm enough to sleep on the beach just East of Nice airport at St Laurent du Var. The French police drove round but just checked that we were alright and left us alone.
The next morning we cycled out of Nice on the D2564 for a 500 meter climb to a fabulous campsite at la Plana overlooking St Jean Cap Ferrat. At 121ff this was a rather expensive campsite but hot water was free and the views superb. There is a bar on the site serving food and drinks but about 8km away there is the town of la Turbie with an excellent collection of small shops.

Eze

Tuesday 3rd we cyled down to Monaco and Monte-Carlo to see how the other half live. Swam in beautiful clear warm waters and gambled 1ff in the Casino.

Monaco	Casino	Monte-Carlo

4th July - Cycled on the D19 out of Nice. This route climbs steadily to Tourrette Levens levelling out slightly to Levens then with a stiff climb up to Duranus. This road started out with quite heavy traffic through a quarry then got gradually quiter past Levens. After a drop down into the Vesubie valley we joined the D2565 and climbed again gradually through Lantosque to Roquebilliere where we found a campsite close to the west bank of the river. Here we only paid 73ff per night. The showers are cold with the option of having hot for 9ff. With the weather being so hot we stuck with the cold showers.
Roquebilliere is a good sized town with all the main shops but arriving on a Wednesday we found this to be early closing day and only one shop open. Luckily this sold all that we needed. There is also a supermarket just outside the village closer to Gordolon.

Camp	Roquebilliere

5th July - Using the 1:25,000 map "La Carte de Randonee" 3741 OT Vallee de la Vesubie, we devised a route following signposts on the ground corresponding to those on the map that took us to a height of 1827 meters for a picnic lunch in a pretty alpine meadow surrounded by butterflies and wild lavender with views far down into the valley below. Water could have been a problem on this route but at signpost no.40 there is a water spout.

Vesubie valley	Vesubie valley

6th July - With aching muscles from yesterdays walk we had an easy morning and walked to the village of Belvedere perched high on the hillside overlooking Roquebilliere. This walk took us up through mixed woodland of mainly sweet chestnut, oak and fir to join the GR52A where it leveled off and sloped down to the village of Belvedere.
This is a very pretty village of narrow streets and red tiled houses with a small collection of shops. It was here that Alastair found an apartment he would like to buy.

	Belvedere

7th July - Cycled just 10 miles on up the Vesubie Valley to St Martin Vesubie. This is a lovely bustling little town with shops, restaraunts, hospital, large square and two supermarkets. The streets are narrow, steep and stepped with a stream running through the center. We camped at Ferme St Joseph on the left just at the approach to the town. We had to question the price as it was so cheap, only 42ff per night for 2 people, one small tent and two velos. Showers were 10ff. We made this our base for 4 nights and ate at a pizza restaraunt in the town where we could watch the chef cooking the pizzas fresh in an open fire oven. 40ff for a Margeurite.
A car boot sale is held in the market square on a Sunday and boules can be watched being played most days. The shops are only open until 12.00pm on Sundays.

	St Martin Vesubie

8th July - Cycled up the valley for 8k climbing on a picturesque ride twisting and turning on the D2565 to reach Col St Martin at a height of 1500 meters. Here there are restaraunts, a hotel, cycle hire and ski centre. We locked our bikes up to a post in the car park and from there we walked up through conifer woods underlayed with yellow broom. Alastair stabbed his big toe with a tree root and had to be plastered before continuing. Our goal was the mountain Baus de Frema at 2246 meters but having got there we still had time to carry on the the Tete du Brec at 2566 meters. The views were incredible and Alastair found some snow to play in. We also found some Eidelweiss this morning along with blue gentian and pretty little yellow pansies.
Alastair got his foot stuck in a storm drain on the way back down, fell over, bent his thumb awkwardly and had a badly bruised hand for days.

Baus de la Frema	Eidelweiss	Tete du Brec

9th July - Venanson is a village similar to Belvedere in the fact that it perches high on the hillside. We had another easy day today and just walked up to this village. From our campsite we would watch and wait in the evenings for the church lights to be switched on in Venanson

Venanson

10th July - Cycled north again turning right onto the D89 to the end of the valley at le Boreon at 1500 meters. Locked our bikes to railings near the river and started the walk to the Col de Cerise. Water was again a worry but we filled our bottles at the Gite d'Etape and found that our route followed a strongly flowing stream most of the way anyway. At a crossing on this stream we saw a lone Chamois and later on a whole herd of them.
Had to cross a large snow patch on this path high up and the air was distinctly colder. After a very zigg zagged route we made it up to the Col de Cerise and the Italian border well before lunch. Here there were old derelict army buildings and the view down the glacier on the Italian side was tremendous. In only shorts and sandals we didn,t stay longer than was necessary to eat lunch.On the way down Alastair found an old coin.
Back in St Martin Vesubie we made it back just in time to shelter from the worst thunder storm we'd ever been in and the only rain we had during the two weeks in France.

Col de Cerise	Chamois	Col de Cerise

11th July - Had the longest downhill stretches of cycling ever and got back to Nice by 11.45am. There were only two climbs, first up to Duranus and then up to Levens. It was horrible to hit the noise, heat and busyness of the town again after the mountains and we headed for the first campsite marked on the map at St Laurent du Var. We were told they were closed when we arrived but as we only wanted two nights they let us camp for 50ff per night. St Laurent has two other campsites marked on the map, a long beach front, a huge airconditioned shopping complex and harbour with restaraunts nearby.

St Laurent du Var

12th July - Cycled down the coast following the busy N98 but also keeping away from it as often as we could first to Antibes where we admired all the millionaires boats in the harbour then wandered around the street markets that sold just about everything from car boot stuff to food and clothes. Spent so long there that we only just made it to Cannes and sat on the outskirts to have lunch and no time to explore.

Cannes

Friday 13th July - Temerature 31 degrees. Spent all day just lazing around on the beach watching the Volleyball matches going on, planes taking off from the airport and general people watching, to reserve our energy for the long cycle ride home from Luton. Spent the night partly on the beach and partly trying to sleep at Nice airport on a hard bench.

14th July - Temperature 11 degrees. Arrived in Luton at 7.30am and had our bikes packed up and were underway by 8.30am. Found a Tesco in Dunstable to have breakfast. It was hard cycling back due to general tiredness and a headwind. Very heavy showers at times especially in Leighton Buzzard and finally in Stow on the Wold. Stopped here for the night. The hostel was full so we camped at the Rugby ground. Food is very expensive in Stowe so we ended up with a chinese takeaway back at the tent and a bottle of wine

15th July - Got a good early start at 7.00am and made good progress over the Cotswold hills to Birdlip. We were there by 9.00am and stopped for breakfast. It was then a fast ride down the A417 and A40 to our route through Blaisdon, Littledean and Cinderford. Popes hill being the steepest of the whole holiday. Some more heavy downpours had us sheltering under trees and we made it home back to St Briavels at 1.00pm