Start: Grasse, Camping Panoramic
Left Grasse campsite at 10:40 am and
headed Southwest. The plan was to ride to St. Tropez and have lunch
and then head Northeast to Barcelonnette up towards the Italian
border and into the beginning of some mountains without getting to
high into the Alps.
Arrived St. Tropez after a great ride
through the twisty mountain roads leading down to the Med. The
approach to St Tropez is very beautiful, the town itself was pretty,
very crowded even this early in the season. Beautiful people. A man
stopped me in a bakery/patisserie (expensive), where I was buying
bread and pastries, and asked in French if my bike was from America.
He had little English and I have so little French, but he shook my
hands twice and seemed quite impressed that I had ridden all this
way, and I know I was. The weather was wonderful, sunny and 86F.
It is now pouring down rain, and
booming with thunder and lightening. I am near small town, Le Bourguet (Sp?). The lights have gone out in the
hotel room I have taken, as I had to get off the road at 5PM because
of the stormy conditions. Riding through the switchbacks in rain is
terrifying. I was late changing into my waterproof suit, so got quite
wet, at least in the pants, as rain rain went through the vented pants and down into my boots. The jacket worked very well. The
vented pants are great in the heat, not so good when it cools off or
rains. I think I'll stick to the Rukka waterproof gear unless it is
very hot.
I stumbled across the hotel and managed
to get a room, after marching around looking for a reception desk or
anyone to talk to. A little French man finally appeared like the
wizard of OZ and spoke no english, but we communicated with sign
language and for 60 Euros I had a dry room on the third floor of the
most romantic hotel you can imagine. I plan to have quite a date with
myself tonight, unless I get a headache.
It seems the lights are on a timer, so
I am not sitting in the dark in France, in a hotel, in the rain
getting depressed anymore.To save energy the lights shut themselves off after 2 hours, not a bad idea, much like the water in the campsites, which stays on long enough to soap up or rinse off.
There is no internet access, and the
phone is not getting a reliable signal. This would be a great place to
bring a date or a good book, or both.
There is a lovely restaurant
downstairs, deserted and like something out of a 1930's movie. I gave
up most of my Euro cash, so I said no to dinner and will live off my
road snacks and supermarket bounty tonight.
Tomorrow I can look for a cash machine
to reload my wallet, and I still need an AC adapter. I was able to
charge the laptop on the bike, but it takes a DC/AC inverter and a
bit of creative wiring and I don't like it. I do charge the iPhone
and iPad every day as I ride. The iPhone for communication (text and email), and the iPad so I can read myself to sleep if I am not collapsing after a long ride.
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