Ta Puki

From Grasse, it was downhill all the way down to Cannes and then east, along the coast throw Antibes and St Laurent du Var to our final destination - Nice. We’ll spend a few days here in Nice before flying back. It’s been a good tour: a few ups and downs but no spills, punctures or illness.

A surprisingly mountainous day’s riding from Castellane to Grasse (pictured). Very quiet roads wound their way up and down through pine forests and rocky heathland. Not so warm today, with a few spots of rain in the air. Much warmer and sunnier later in the day, after the long long decent down into Grasse.

A successful day traversing the ups and downs of the ‘Grand Canyon’ of France. The views of the turquoise coloured Verdon river, from two and a half thousand feet above, were quite something. Decent weather. Not too hot on the climbs. Chilly up high. Along the way today, and coming in the opposite direction, were dozens of Dutch people, driving assorted cars from the 1970s and 80s all of which had banks of airhorns on the roof. Quite an eccentric club from ...

A gentle day today as we made our way up to the pretty village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (‘basecamp’ for The Gorge). ‘Gentle‘ in preparation for tomorrow’s (attempted) climb of the Gorge of Verdon, which is the deepest gorge in Europe (& 2nd or 3rd deepest in the world). The 4,500ft climb should take us up to a the top of the southern clifftop. Much of the gain in height will be in the first 12km (of the 50ml stage). It’s interesting how this ‘Tour...