More Route des Grandes Alpes

More pix from the Route des Grandes Alpes...

Beginning our ascent of the Col d'Allos, north of

St. Andy of the Alps

Ever upward, almost past even the ski-lift

The Col; not all that high actually

View from the top

The road down the other side

Nice scenery along the way

We made it; 40 km of single-lane (with occasional passing

bays), great exposure, guard-rails that seemed designed to

show where you went over rather than restrain you;

hair-pin turns we could barely make on one go; the good

news is that there are no heavy goods vehicles nor tour

busses on these roads; Vicki handled it all fairly well,

taking hundreds of fuzzy pix, later deleted...

Interesting features near the Lac du Serra-Poncton

Route des Grandes Alpes

The Route des Grandes Alpes is a patch-work of roads, mostly secondary, tertiary, leading from Nice into the high country. We spent three days driving various sections of it, a couple of the high passes, spending a night at an aire in St. Andres des Alpes, another on a scenic lay-by near Savines les Lac, seeing bits of Barcelonette, Briancon, Grenoble, Chambery, another night at an RV dealer near Chambery, and then a couple more nights in a campground near Annecy. All this in the Pre-Alps, the Maritime Alps, the Dauphine Alps, the Bauges...lots of mountains around here. This and the next couple of posts provide some views.

The road passes through very deep and 
narrow limestone canyons of the river Var; 
note (click to enlarge) the netting devised 

to protect from stone-fall

A tree-lined, telephone pole-line, railway-lined road, with a 
car passing another, approaching us; the main point of 
which photo is the hill village on the right

Castle on the crag

One passes through innumerable villages along the way;

we were particularly taken with a little place called

Colmars, a walled-town that had been from the 16th

century a French border guard castle keeping an eye

on unfriendly Savoy; had lunch there

A portal; the town all spruced-up for tourists

Square and trough; the cute, colorful

pennants really add a touch class, no?

Church tower and exterior wall

One of the neater little Alpine shoppes I have seen; Vicki

stimulated the local economy here

Bike art

Corniches, Lower, Middle, Superieur

And, the next day, we drove from Nice to Menton, on the Italian border, traveling a bit of the lower and middle Corniches to Menton, then the superior Corniche back to Nice. We really like this part of the world. Who wouldn't?!

The harbor at Villefranche

Monte Carlo

Menton

More Menton, Italy in the distance, where the high bridges

enter the tunnels, then emerge onto high bridges...

A nice apartment building overlooking

Menton, where we had lunch; great view,

lots of road noise, especially as the

Lamborghinis and Lotuses downshift...

Never far away, a gun emplacement, trained on Italy,

which "stabbed its neighbor in the back" (FDR) in 1940

Monte Carlo again

In La Turbie, on the Corniche Superieur, the Trophy of the

Alps, presented by the Senate and People of Rome to the

new Emperor, Augustus, celebrating his conquest of the 40

nasty Alpine tribes

Returning to Nice, from the northwest

Nice Is Nice 3

The next day we returned to Nice, took in a bit of the book festival, had lunch (our deferred 42nd anniversay meal) at the Bistrot du Viviers--one of the few really good restaurant experiences we have had recently--then did more of the old town (which we had also visited the previous day).

We had seen signs and posters all over Nice,

certainly the best advertised book festival I

have seen, except possibly Edinburgh

The lay-out (for those interested) is basically a quadrangle

of these tents, a big tent at the entry for local antiquarian

sellers, three larger tents down the middle for readings/

interviews/discussions; the outer tents were all for

publishers and for their authors to sign and converse with

visitors; although well-supported locally (I think), it is

essentially a publishers' festival

An author interview

Ground-zero Nice, just across from the bookfest

Typical downtown street; note grill-work

In the old town

Ditto

Business opportunity?

Nice Is Nice 2

Later, we ventured down the hill a bit, to the Marc Chagall National Museum, basically a collection of 17 very large Old Testament scenes he painted, plus some other bits. I do like Chagall--very conceptual, in ways I can understand--though he was not one iota French. If you want a national museum, it helps to have the Minister of Culture (Malroux) as a close personal bud. After that, for us, it was time for the beach.

The Marc Chagall National Museum

Impressive Chagall painting (whose title

I will add)

In the auditorium, just a little of the stained glass he was

famed for (designing)

Chagall's take on Noah, the Ark, and the Flood

OK, so now we are at the beach; Nice has some 3 dozen

public beaches; and it was beach-weather

Sun worshippers on the plage

Closer-up; this is the place where many men learn to use

the zoom lens

The great old hotel Negresco, now under renovation

Nice Is Nice 1

We drove on, through bits of Provence and the the Cote d'Azur, landing finally at a campground in Cagnes sur Mer, just down from the hill fortress chateau...a small, very compact campground, but good enough, and with an enjoyable 20-30 minute bus ride to Nice. We stayed three nights, enjoying Nice by day and relative tranquility by night.

The park atop Cimiez, the older, that is, Roman, uptown of

Nice, still very affluent and nice

The Matisse Museum; no pix; none desired, actually

 

Roman coliseum

 

Roman baths

 

More Roman baths

Hotel Regina--built for Queen Victoria's visit

 

Flood!

We stayed our first few nights in Brignole, between Marseille and Nice, up in the hills, refitting, repairing, de-jet-lagging. Further up, 20-30 miles or so, the torrential rain caused flooding on the evening of the 17th. 25 people died and there was major devastation everywhere. We drove through the area, the Var valley, a couple days later.

Some of the devastation; gendarmes were everywhere;

power was still out, two days after the storms

The main roads were passable, but a mess

The scene everywhere

A mobile home lot; an RV sales lot down the road was

completely washed asunder

Back On The Road, Again, In Europe

And so, just like that, 10 time zones later, courtesy of United and Lufthansa, we were back in Marseilles, hauling luggage, reclaiming the Grey Wanderer, trying to unpack and set up housekeeping and get our bearings. We passed most of the flight watching movies we had intended to see in the States, but didn't--It's Complicated (amusing), Up in the Air (I love dark humor, George Clooney, and read Walter Kirn's novel back in 2001, when he appeared at the Montana Festival of the Book), and Alice in Wonderland (ick)--enjoying the free beverages and OK food, and sleeping. Marseilles was delightfully warm when we arrived, but then it rained, torrents, for the next two days. The Grey Wanderer seems to have weathered our 4 month absence all right (thanks to the nice people at Parka Bateaux) mostly. The water pump leaks, the macerator is not up to par (so to speak), the awning is broken, and, worst of all, we did not pack the power cord for the TomTom. After the initial panic, we located a suitable replacement at the LeClerc, and since have been navigating with our usual efficiency ("turn around, when possible"). 

We have been back for nearly two weeks now, and I have much to account for--Nice, Cote d'Azur, the Route des Grandes Alpes, Annecy, and now Chamonix, where we'll spend a few days. There is free internet at the Chamonix TI, so I'll post a bit more in the next few days.

Interior of the Grey Wanderer during unpacking; the

confusion is worth it, since

You get to camp at places like Savines le Lac, in the

French Alps

Or at the foot of Mont Blanc