Jour seize – La mer, Qu’on voit danser…(copyright Charles Trenet)
Castellane, for the record is lovely and I would definitely, definitely return. We had a really lovely evening in the town with lots of lovely Leffe and a meal which is easily in the top three for our entire adventure.
Unfortunately our stay is marred, for me at least, by two events. The first relates to a very strange rabbit themed fancy dress party which is going on right next to our campsite. In fact I accidentally almost stumble into it on the way back to camp….
…but manage to make my excuses and leave (the rabbit is “looming” Donnie Darko style to the right of the picture in case you can’t seem him). The music and French frivolity continues until around 5am….I am not sure what the French actually do for frivels (and not sure I want to know) but it was insanely loud and meant zero sleep….literally none for any of us. This does not I am afraid lead to a very happy trois hommes.
The second and perhaps even more seismic event is that when I return to camp I realise that I left my cycle shorts and more importantly my trois hommes cycle shirt hanging up in the showers. A quick check reveals both are gone…..beaucoup de disappointing!
Given we get little or no sleep until around 5am we allow ourselves a little lie in before heading into town for a coffee and croissant. Whilst Marc and Dan finish up I walk back to the camp recepetion to see if someone has handed in my stuff. Turns out yes they have but the campsite does not run a lost items service and I am told that they will either be hanging over the front gate or in the rubbish. I try to explain that maybe this is not really the way to look after your guests but to no avail. They are not hanging over the front gate and so I wade into three days of rubbish for the entire campsite hoping to get lucky…..i dont and to be honest I am gutted. It’s a one of a kind shirt designed just for us and it’s gone.
The route out of Castellane is, as we now expect, up and there is a good deal of climbing to get done before we get to Nice.
The scenery however remains spectacular although the closer we get to Nice the more we start to wonder whether by some weird quirk of geographical fate Nice is not actually at sea level. We are still bobbing around the 3800 feet mark with less than 20 miles to go.
Eventually the “down” comes and it is truly spectacular and exhilirating…perhaps (I said perhaps!) even more so than the descent from Mont Ventoux.
The drop down through Gorge de Loup (they really do seem to like their gorges in France!) is amazing and effortless. We lose over 3500 feet in about 15 miles, I cannot recall peddling even once.
As we get closer to Nice we start to return to civilisation in the form of more people, more traffic, more buildings….more everything that we have managed to escape and avoid for over 1000 miles. It’s a bit of a shock and it also makes each of us start to think about the fact we are getting near to the end of our incredible adventure.
When we get to the bottom I say to both Marc and Dan “that’s it, there is nothing left to climb…..we did it all!” I am sure it probably seems ridiculous to anyone else but it’s a really emotional moment…..we really have achieved something completely amazing!
Finally we see the Mediterranean for the first time….
…..and obviously we have to get in it. I should let you l know that we did not intentionally try to emulate Daniel Craig but you know, when you have got it you have just got it!
We lunch on the beach in Cagnes sur Mer and then head off to our campsite about 6 miles inland and which is ultimately, after such an amazing day, a bit of a disappointment. We agree to stay tonight but find somewhere more fitting to end our adventure tomorrow.
We are just 20 short miles from our goal now….we are actually going to do it!
I know I keep banging on about it but this has all been about raising money for Winstons Wish. Those of you that have kindly given already i would like to say a huge heartfelt thank you, it means such a huge amount to all three of us. To all of you yet to donate, and I can see that there are lots and lots of you reading the blog and liking our Facebook posts, then please, now is the time. It will take you less than five minute to do and whatever contribution you make will help make a huge difference….please don’t wait, do it right now!
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nick-white24
Thank you….massive day tomorrow, the end of the trois hommes adventure and the final (probably) blog post.