Mougins - 12 September 2019

12 September

Didn’t eat until about 9pm last night, so good that food was already cooked from previous night! Overall, was a peaceful night.

Today was bright and sunny, so walked into the village. The Boulangerie was shut, but a little supermarket further down provided us with a baguette and fresh milk. We popped into the tourist office, the young lady recommended riding the Route des Crêtes on our bikes - which we did.

We were out and about for about 3 hours. Went from 933m to 1,285m (352m incline). The route is a 23km loop with 14 belvèderes - or look out points. Not sure I can find enough superlatives to describe the views today! From the first view point we could see kayakers right down in the gorge, who looked so tiny as they were so far away.

At the next stop there were a bunch of youngsters rock climbing. They were English, taking a university gap year! Very brave - I have enough problems looking down at heights, makes my stomach turn over - as for abseiling down - forget it.

Next we were so lucky - saw up to about 10 griffon vultures soaring around - fantastic to see, especially against the backdrop of such stunning scenery.

We’re so glad we got the bikes out, electric batteries cope very well! So much better than trying to take Dave around there - not many parking places, was one way in places - and could concentrate on the views rather than Dave!

Had our baguette whilst surveying the panoramic views. I did have thoughts about how privileged I feel to be able to be retired young (ish!), seeing so much - rather than being sat in the office. My conclusion to those younger people is - don’t be frivolous with your money, save hard, retire early - the world is a big place with so much to offer!

The temperature has been over 30° today, but was lovely cycling as there was a breeze.

So today has been good, and also bad. The bad bit being my fault. I confess to having damaged Dave. I drove for about 2-1/2 hours this afternoon, and near the start I scraped the right hand side along a wooden barrier on a tight corner, when there was oncoming traffic. I just should have stopped and waited...

To be honest, I got a bit fed up with all the bends - also some of Napoléon’s route is quite narrow! Then we stopped off at a Casino supermarket in order to service Dave. Once again, the route in was very tight, Tintin had to guide me in - just about fitted. Then had to go into the supermarket and pay €2 to get a jeton to open the Flot Bleu service station. Really is a rubbish design - you put the token in, it opens the door, you then have to use their hose to fill up with water, the toilet cassette gets emptied into a difficult shaped hole - all in all a below average experience!

We didn’t think we would be able to park anywhere in Grasse, but tried driving through just in case. Another mistake! It has a population of over 50,000 (wish I’d looked beforehand!) Being a qualified aromatherapist, I would have been interested in visiting one of the 30 or so perfume makers - but it wasn’t to be. All we had was a sort of 5pm rush hour, rubbish pot holey roads, queues - and couldn’t wait to escape!

We’re now parked at Mougins - about 20 minutes drive from Cannes. The car park is now full, even coach loads of people descended, all dressed up and going out for a meal - let’s hope we’ll be able to get out in the morning!