Ventimiglia to Nice; Bonjour, France!

Crazy morning of riding in rain by the beach and through highway tunnels.  We only rode 35 miles, but I was beat after it.  I think that the miles from previous days added up.  The crossing into France was unceremonious and there are so many pizza places in France, that the border area seemed transitional and undefined.  Menton was fantastically beautiful and I found this image on the internet http://www.colourbox.com/preview/4159673-402863-old-town-and-saint-michel-church-in-menton-french-azure-coast.jpg.  We did not take any pictures there as it was absolutely pouring down rain.  We did see the gorgeous plaza in front of that church.  We arrived there by descending a very steep narrow road and then were in a bit of a jam - climb back up it on wet pavement or carry the bicycles down 5 flights of stairs?  We carried them, or rather Patrick carried both of them, making two trips, I clung to the handrail as my cleats were slick on uneven stone.  Cap Martin was cool rain and delicious club sandwich on baguette.  Here I come from the sandwich shop to deliver to Patrick sheltering in a fountain. 

Monaco was fancy and I really laughed to think that I had ridden the beast at D2R2 (long hilly dirt road ride in western Mass)  just two weeks before, had not washed off the dust and now here we were in Monaco.  Unfortunately, we did not ride by the casino because I went into a highway tunnel and got lost under the city.  I didn't feel up to braving the tunnel system again to see the sights so we pushed on for France.  The rain stopped and we had a nice climb to the medieval  town of Eze.  Here is a view of it from the road.

I like seeing all of the small details of a place when traveling on the bicycle or foot.   I bet the people in tour buses and rental cars didn't notice these garden gnomes at all. 

Eze is a nice place in that it has an incredible view of the Mediterranean, a ruined castle, and a really nice garden of cactus and sculptures.  It also has a ton of tourists ( probably not helped by the weekend lunchtime timing) so our stay was brief.  Patrick navigated us into and through Nice to the guesthouse where we cleaned up and met up with our friends Anna and Sasha who had come from Germany via Paris on the train.  It was great to see them again and glad that they made it ok!  I told them we were looking forward to exploring Nice, but Patrick and I were not going to ride our bikes on Monday.  In fact we were so tired and hungry that we barely explored the neighborhood in the evening.  We did see a church for Joan of Arc that looks like a big marsh mellow. We also paid the first of several visits to the most wonderful bakery of the trip - tasty treats for all.

Top food of the day: Olive bread

Anna has posts about our trip in Provence here
http://annaandsasha.blogspot.com/