“FRENCH RIVIERA”
Riding along the Route des Grandes Alpes in autumn 2020 was no bad decision. The roads had been nearly empty so far. The same applies to th Côte d’Azur. Usually the coastline of the French Riviera is a pain in the ass to ride due to the crowded mass tourism. This time, during the Covid Outbreak, the ride along the coastline was a constant flow without any remarkable delays, except the high populated area around Monaco and the center of the city Nice.
Last night it was raining nealry constantly very heavily. I was very glad …
about my tent, because it was doing a great job the last three years, sometimes along some very bad conditions. During the night, some peps showed up with a car and their rooftop tent which is visible in the background of this picture. I heard them jelling and arguing whilst unfolding their tent. Obviously they finally made it.
Whilst packing my stuff I had the first technical victim along my tour: When I mounted my navigation smartphone I recognized that wireless charging wasn’t working anymore. Luckily I had a backup charging cable with me, so it was no big deal at all. I just had to switch to cord-charging-mode.
Riding onwards the rising Sun my black beauty and I started with the …
first curves of the day and went down …
southwards to …
the official entrance of the Route des Grandes Alpes, which is the Casino in the City Menton, located directly at the Mediterranean Sea. Within less than two full riding days Чернотa brought us along the whole classic Route des Grandes Alpes. That’s not bad.
While enjoying the first sun beams, I had a short palaver with a local motorcyclist about the usual stuff: Bike, Route and Accommodation. When the talk was over the ride went on. Near …
the famous micro state Monaco the traffic was very dense, therefore I didn’t want to ride into the center of it. Instead, I bypassed Monaco via …
the hills just a few miles behind the coastline, what offered also some nice views.
With the rising sun also a stiff breeze of cool north wind, came up. During a brake I checked the weather forecast, what confirmed that it was absolutely the right decision, to push forward for getting over the alps in time. Whilst enjoying the sun down here at the Mediterranean Sea, alpine crossing-roads like Brennerpass, or the area around Monte Blanc has already sunk in snow!
Along some …
completely different vegetation, our ride continued to …
one of the biggest cities at the Côte d’Azur: Nice. It’s so big that it’s not possible to avoid riding through it in time. So we did what has to be done and crossed it.
At its west end I reined the pony at the impressive broad beach promenade, which expands along the whole bay of Nice. Staying here at this promenade in person made me sad, because I remembered the immense terror plot with a truck back in 2016. A very sad incident, where a motorcyclist tryed to stop the maniac behind the steering wheel only with his fists.
Along glamorous buildings Чернотa and I …
strolled comfy on along …
the azure blue coastline.
The picturesque coastline of the French Riviera is dense populated.
We also passed the designer bubble-building “Palais Bulles“, which is kind of a high society hot spot.
During a potty break I found a few sweet blackberries aside the parking lot. 😛
Following this beautiful coastline with …
Чернотa I …
wondered myself about how it would be here during main season? I mean, there are so many houses along the coastline and for sure there are much more tourists during a casual summer, but the coast itself didn’t offer many easy accessible beaches where people could go to the seaside. Also parking lots are very rare along the narrow streets. Hmm?
While riding along my route to Toulon I recognized a tasty smell which was coming from this little snack hut behind some shrubs aside the road. I instantly dropped the anchor, turned and parked Чернотa.
A look at the menu told me that stopping here was the right decision. Being ravenous I ordered …
their biggest cheeseburger with bacon, avocado, jalapeños and a proper portion of crisp french fries aside. Quite simply a perfect biker meal. *mhmm*
I had enough time and also because the man behind the bar was providing one of the best lounge beach music which I’ve had heard for a long time, I stayed there some time and enjoyed two coffees for dessert while listening to the beats. *PERFECTBEACHMOODMUSIC* *whistle*
Completely satisfied, with a full belly and a catchy tune in my ears, I jumped onto my pony and the ride along the last few miles towards the harbor in Toulon continued.
The cloud and light play which was delivered by the strong north wind was …
tremendous.
Just about an hour later …
the city Toulon …
was reached. I went straight to the …
harbor where the ferry to Corsica was already waiting.
With a few other french bikers with …
very interesting …
sidecar constructions, I waited until we were allowed to access the ship. I was surprised about the size of the loading bay of the ferry. No pic about that.
When the bike was safely strapped to the floor in the loading bay, I took my sleeping gear and a few personal belongings with me and went into the ship. I threw my sleeping gear into a nice free corner of a staircase floor of the ship and went for a walk.
This ferry from the company “Corsica Ferrys” offered two …
food court areas and …
two big bars/lounges in the front and the back of the ship. Aside this, also a little video game hall and a big playground for the little ones. I went …
to the upper deck…
and had a look to the harbor. The wind was very strong, therefore I went back into …
to the belly of the ship. On my way I recognized that the harbor employees just have started to remove the thick ropes of the ship. A short while later …
the crossing to the French Island of Corsica started. Now I went to the restrooms and changed my clothes. Back at …
this days “camping spot”. I hanged out the motorcycle gear and spread the sleeping pad and sleeping bag in my corner with a view. When everything was settled I went to the lounge at the back of the ship and enjoyed …
through the salt crusted windows this days sunset. The queue at the bar had finally shrunk, so I got myself two or free doubled …
shots of plain wodka on the rocks. Because the crossing was going to take about 12 hours I used the spare time for having a closer look at the next days incoming TET-trail on the island of Corsica on my navigation device. Later I continued reading my Scifi Book.
Around 22:00, I was already slightly drunk, I went to my sleeping corner. In the meanwhile about ten other people had also chosen this area of the ship floor for their night rest.
Thankfully I noticed that the half of them already slept and the others stayed quiet. (Nothing’s worse than having party folks around while trying to sleep)
After brushing my teeth I also called it a day and faded away quickly, while the engines of the ferry droned.
Total distance this day: 216 km or 135 mi.
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