Monday April 24, 2023
Another nice day. We skipped the $38 Euro breakfast and headed east along the coast road until we found a local patisserie/boulangerie with a few seats in the sun.
The coastal road was in great shape but just two lanes. For such a wealthy and impressive area I am amazed that such a small road can manage. It was a sunny day but I assume the cool wind kept the beach goers away.
The scenery as we wound around the coast was great. It was hard to get good photos because stopping was almost impossible. Very rocky coastline with little beaches tucked in from time to time. Some of the residences were quite impressive. There was very little retail in view. In places the fast train followed the coast, and that was impressive.
We followed the coastal road about 6o km to Cannes. It must have taken 2 hours because it was busy, windy (as in lots of curves) and we stopped for photos when we found a spot. By the time we got to Cannes I was a bit buggered, so we parked in town - and - (surprise, surprise) found a place for a healthy lunch in the sun.
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| Lots and lots of marinas and boats all the way |
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| Lunch selection in Cannes |
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| Down town in Cannes. |
We needed to get to Digne at a reasonable hour, so we decided to give Nice a miss and head inland.
That was a good decision because the "road" between Cannes and Grasse was extremely hard work. It was only about 20 kms, but it took us over an hour and we got "lost" a couple of times. We eventually got through Grasse and the road opened up a bit as we climbed back into mountains. We both needed a bathroom stop and maybe a drink or an ice cream, but now we seemed in a service desert. But we eventually found a "shed" that met part of our needs, and we split an eclair left over from lunch.
(I like the eclairs my mum and sisters make. The French seem chocolate crazy, and the two eclairs I have tried are filled with gooey chocolate flavored stuff rather than fresh cream. Disgusting!)
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| Still eating our lunch selection, hours later. The French sure know how to destroy an éclair. |
Our route to Digne now took us through some pretty serious mountains (as usual, on a narrow and windy roads). It was becoming rather obvious to me that the French have not yet grasped the idea that the shortest distance between two places is a straight line. But we had plenty of time and the scenery was great.
Another thing. Once you are out of the city, the French seem to assume that you are not going to need gas/petrol food/drinks or a toilet. But eventually we found a place to stop for refreshments. (Maybe that is another reason why they are so slim?)
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| Afternoon beer and chips |
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| Lotsa big rocks |
Eventually we rolled into Digne and found out B&B for the night. Not quite what I had expected, but certainly clean and well furnished with a charming hostess and cute, well behaved dog.
We walked into downtown for dinner. It was Monday night so most places were closed. (Of course, silly me.) (We have also noted that the cafes in Uzes that offer breakfast don't seem to open until about 11 AM.)
We found one Brasserie open, but only offering "tapas" that night. We decided we could manage and ate well enough.
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| Approaching Digne |
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