Seillans to Vence

October 2, 2018

Beware of the camelback cut off

The mornings are so "fresh" that we must have breakfast inside instead of out on the lovely veranda overlooking the surrounding hills of Seillans. This hilly area is really quite beautiful as the sun begins to shine on it. We find the French breakfast of breads, jams and yogurt (all homemade) with coffee and OJ a good way to start the day.

We began by tracing our route back down the very steep hill, up which last night's accomodation was located, to the entrance to Seillans where a familiar sign reminded us that it is also in "the prettiest towns" club. We rode along the lower streets and when the street began to turn sharply uphill Pat suggested the steep climb was too early in the day for her today. That's ok, there will be more climbing and more pretty French towns enroute to Vence today.

We are riding the old rail line out of Seillans and this is the old train station.

Some neat train track overpasses along the route.

We continued on the old narrow gauge rail line and stopped in the next town to pick up our daily lunch. The road became a busy highway here and the riding required full attention for the next 15kms until we could transfer to a smaller road. But this was still shared with lots of cars and not just the early morning commuters any more. We climbed steadily and then we hit a 5km run straight down into the valley.

Speeds were as fast as we could carry while holding a position right in the middle of the lane. Twisting and turning down the hill at full speed was exillerating for Scott while Pat exercised a great deal more prudence, as they say in France. When we hit the valley floor -a coffee awaited as we looked at each other and grinned. Perfect timing.

We are in hilly country. Beautiful but not necessarily an easy ride.

Over coffee we contemplated this busy traffic route and the climb out. We looked at Pat's "mapsme" and found a secondary road just a kilometre up the highway where we could turn off and take a short cut to the town of Le Tignet. We found a nice quiet road of 20 and 30 degree slopes!!! We rode the 20's and pushed up the 30's until we hit the top.

Pat trying to determine if the short cut route to Le Tignet would actually work. Conversation was inconclusive but we went anyway.

Off the highway and pushing up the hill.

Back on the highway enroute to Grasse the car traffic was busier than we would like but there are few roads in these hills. When you start seeing road signs with "Cannes" on them you know it is going to get even busier! As well, Grasse is a big tourist center. We had lunch in a main square and looked out at the Mediterranean in the distance. It was a wonderful view from the hills of Grasse.

Our first view of the Mediterranean. You can see it way in the distance.

We carried on the D2085 out of Grasse leaving the busy highway whenever the opportunity arose. This led us to our second ill-fated short cut that again required that we push our bikes up several hills over a couple of kilometre stretch of steepness. We were back on the highway for one last climb and then a final five kilometre twisting and turning hill down to Vence.

Riding the backroads we see many of these villages scattered among the hill tops.

Rode through Tourrettes-sur-Loup just before Vence. Busy road and fast downhill into Vence from here.

We quickly found our hotel and were pleased to find a bar right out front. We sat down and had a well deserved beer before checking in for the night. We walked into the old town for a dinner of tapas and back to our room for the night.

A great place for a beer at the end of the day.

Over the past few days, each one of our hosts has asked us where we are going on our bikes. We tell them our destination and they all would smile and chuckle and gesture wildly with their arms about the hills that we would encounter on our route. We now know what they were talking about!! Tomorrow we will explore Vence and then turn south for a well earned downhill run to Nice.

Heart

Comment

Link

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 403 km (250 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0