France: Bas Corniche and Monaco

Yesterday

Back in France again and set off yesterday at 7.30 on a Friday morning along the Bas Corniche towards Monaco, thinking the early hour might beat the worst of the traffic. Big mistake: the first three km was a succession of roadworks and traffic hold-ups, all in a sweltering heat and humidity. After passing Ville-Franche I took a right onto Cap Ferrat and did a quiet lap of mansion land to regather my thoughts. The Cap is always quiet, as Elton and his buddies are rarely in residence and it makes for a leafy, fairly level circuit of about 4 km.

Decided to bail out and, back on the coastal strip, took a left at the first opportunity and climbed up to the Moyenne Corniche at Eze and then a right to the Grande Corniche at La Turbie. It was noticeably cooler at 500 metres so I continued climbing on the Paille road, heading for the Col de la Madone. I've ridden the Col twice from the more famous Menton side. This was a first from the opposite approach and a nice ride it was too. After four introductory hairpins ("lassettes") it settled into a long rising traverse of the mountain at about 6%, with several tunnels through rocky ridges. Most of it is single track, with a cliff on the right and a low barrier separating you from the drop to the left.

The village of Paille from the northern approach to the Col de la Madone.

From the Col it was downhill all the way back to Nice. I find these long downhills vaguely dissatisfying. It's really pleasant swooping through the corners, and then you think how much faster and more exciting it would be if you eased off the brakes a bit. And then you think you're on holiday, it's not a race, how much it would hurt if you miscalculated, how inconvenient the hospital stay would be, how the expensive new Assos gear might have to be replaced - and you squeeze on the brakes just a bit harder.

Four hours, 72 km and 1,192m climb. http://www.strava.com/activities/152965152   

Today

The less said the better. 6.15 start on a Saturday morning, so a traffic-free ride along the Bas Corniche to Monaco. What a dump Monaco is (with apologies to all the professional cyclists who live there and the Grand Prix etc.). It's a jumble of apartment blocks, steep one-way roads, death-defying tunnels that you think might just irreversibly dump you on a motorway - in short, it's not a great place to ride when your only navigational aid is the tiny screen of a Garmin 810.

The intent was to find the back road up the hill to La Turbie. After quite a bit of up and down and back and forwards I did this, get several hundred metres up the road and found a barrier across: closed for something or other on Saturday. So back down through all the rubbish to a, by now, quite busy coastal road and back to Nice.

Went shopping with Helen in the Marche au Fleurs (or more accurately the Marche au Legumes) and bought the ingredients for this evening's meal - it's not difficult to live a healthy lifestyle here.

Two hours, 50 km and around 500 metres (Strava reckons 1,901 metres but unlikely).

 http://www.strava.com/activities/153257462