It was fortunate that we had the beach day in Nice because the ride to Comps Sur Artuby turned out to be more epic than I think any of us anticipated. At 75 miles it was close to the longest ride that Sasha had ever done, and I'm sure it was the hardest. I knew we would have to climb out of Nice but even I was challenged with the amount of climbing we put in over the day. We started by riding the tram line into the city (behind the tram), then along the promenade, then steady climbing on the urban outskirts. We checked out a chapel for Joan of Arc in a village and kept climbing past yucca and decorative flowers. You can see the one solid descent of the day on the elevation profile, around mile 27. Right about near the low point on that Sasha got a flat. When we changed it Anna noticed something on the cliffs above us, look hard in this picture below.
We weren't sure what it was, but it was sure high up there. We joked about sending Anna and I up to explore. On we went, up past a factory of lavender essence, up past fig trees, up into forest land with a view of a gorge,
up and up until we reached that castle perched on the cliff. It was massive and Sasha wanted to explore it. Patrick had been checking the map and had to remind us that we had a seriously long way to go yet and there would be no sightseeing except from the saddle. I think that all four of us were thinking of strategy of how to keep Sasha moving. This was a tough route for a commuter cyclist and 1st time bike tourer. Having seen Anna race for a few years, I figured she could hold her own, even without training.
We took a quick break for sandwiches and then headed up further yet into an open rugged land of observatories and named passes in the 1,100 to 1,300 m range. Not much traffic up there at all! Check out Anna's blog for more pics http://annaandsasha.blogspot.com/. Once we got into the high country, we rode along a gorge and saw some idyllic farmland and sheep. It was pleasant riding up there and I think we all enjoyed it.
At one point heading up a rise, Sasha mentioned some concern about a mechanical or asked if we were going uphill. Anna and I assured him that he was fine, we were on a hill, that is why we were barely moving. Indeed, now that my attention was drawn to it, it was clear that I was barely moving, stalled out in fact on a false flat even with mountain bike gears. After 50 miles my legs were heavy, my left knee had started to ache, and my ankle too. The miles from the previous week had really caught up to me. As had a stiff wind. We tried to organize a little paceline but had problems with the rear rider falling off as it was very tough to hear anything with the wind. At one point I looked back and the whole crew was out of sight, oops. That was the condition we were in when we started the final straight shot on a two line road. I pulled 16 k into a headwind and counted down every neatly painted kilometer marker. The last bit in open country, no cars, no buildings, just headwind and 1 k markers was an interesting mental challenge, I'll give it that. We did see an interesting bridge and ruined castle but passed on by to reach the hotel before dark. We came into the village of Comps Sur Artuby just in time to see the evening light play over one of the churches on the hill.
Top food of the day; stroopwafels (honey waffle cookies), one of the only packaged foods we ate on the trip, found them in Nice and not able to find again after that, though it wasn't for not looking
That village has 3 churches nestled in the hills and it's a lovely quiet place. We stayed two nights so Tuesday we were able to leave our baggage in our room and go check out the bridge and castle we had seen the previous evening.
Much of the land in that area is used by the military and we did hear some sounds of firing of weapons out in the scrub. We explored this scenic town for lunch (pizzas - mine had goat cheese and fig jam) and looked for a resupply of sunblock and ibuprofen.
We next cycled to a perched village with a view of a gorge and interesting ruins. Wandering there was rewarding, we came apon cats in the old cobbled streets and a sculpture garden with metal sculptures from re purposed materials. The artist was gracious and gave me a nice tour even though our only common language was pantomime of cycling (he had a nice sculpture involving a bicycle) and references to WALL-E (one of his pieces was suggestive of this Pixar character).
On the way back, Anna and I visited a farm to buy cheese and say hi to goats. Then up, up. Anna pulled me back into town for dinner. Patrick timed dinner at 2 hours. Since the night that we were riding in the dark, he has become quite concerned with schedule. This is Sasha's dinner plate. A collection of yummy things we ate for much of our time in France. Tomato, melon, ham, and cheese.
Top food of the day: nut pie
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