Lyon to Nice... or visa-versa

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Courtesy of Tourenfahrer magazine 3/2021.

Some very nice gorges, Provence and the Vercors, what more could you want?

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Download it from here or just use the map to do it yourself:

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/canyons-land-1011/detail/

I rode from Provence up very roughly the same way (I was probably a bit across to the east) in early September 2020. Excellent. I’ll dig out some pictures, as bods like pictures.
 
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Tapatalk has shuffled the pictures, so they are a bit ‘random’, as the kids say. But, they’ll be enough to give you an idea of what the run up from Provence (roughly from Apt) looks like. Some of the roads (all D roads) got down to only a car or so wide, with hairpins and gravel. But, if a lardy 1600 with a month’s camping gear can do it, anything can.

The eagle eyed amongst you will spot...

My travel wallet, an ‘essential’

My ‘little black book’ and GPS, two ‘luxuries’

The free ‘Shove your toiletries in here’ bag from security in airports.

From the other threads in the Travel section.



PS The Drome area, with its ‘Route remarquable’ * is worth the jaunt on its own.


* You do have to love French descriptions. They often sum it up so well. Not least, the regions take a pride in what they have to offer the visitor.
 
For those that camp I have a couple of recommendations, if I may.

1 - https://www.lecampingmoto.net/
There are lovely facilities here (bar, restaurant, pool, on site accommodation etc). It is also a motorcycle only campsite so there’s lots of information on ride outs and it’s perfect for the Drome region and Vercours national park. It’s a good place to go for lone riders as there’s a nice atmosphere in the evening, with like minded people, and you can, sometimes, hook up with others for a ride out.
One caveat, it’s not cheap.

2 - https://www.loubadareu.com/wp/
This is a farm campsite so a bit rustic, compared with the other one but it’s cheap. It’s in the Luberon and a good base for many of the gorges (Vernon etc) and also for day trips to Avignon and Aix en Provence.
It’s a 10 minute walk into the village of Curcuron which is one of the prettiest in France and has a twice weekly market.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=c...USXRUIHf03C2wQ_AUoAnoECBUQBA&biw=1269&bih=824
:beerjug:
 
It is indeed Remuzat, well spotted. I was there under a month after you.

I stopped there for a mid-morning coffee, having left Apt in Provence that morning, on my way to Chambery for that evening.

It’s a nice cafe / bistro sort of place and popular, judging by the number of ‘reserved’ markers there were on the tables for lunchtime. There’s a little tourist office next door, with some quite good leaflets on what to see and do and lots of easy parking.

An oddity I came across on the road through the miles of switchbacks and gorges before Remuzat, was a full blown, blue water, yacht.... in the middle of nowhere.... at least, nowhere near the sea.

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It is indeed Remuzat, well spotted. I was there under a month after you.

I stopped there for a mid-morning coffee, having left Apt in Provence that morning, on my way to Chambery for that evening.

It’s a nice cafe / bistro sort of place and popular, judging by the number of ‘reserved’ markers there were on the tables for lunchtime. There’s a little tourist office next door, with some quite good leaflets on what to see and do and lots of easy parking.

An oddity I came across on the road through the miles of switchbacks and gorges before Remuzat, was a full blown, blue water, yacht.... in the middle of nowhere.... at least, nowhere near the sea.

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Ha ha !
I remember that yacht too !

We seem to have had a similar route, though I was going the other way !

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PS The Drome area, with its ‘Route remarquable’ * is worth the jaunt on its own.


* You do have to love French descriptions. They often sum it up so well. Not least, the regions take a pride in what they have to offer the visitor.

Can anyone provide a translation for "route remarquable" please?
 
Looks like a good route, ridden most of it at least once, although I would suggest that after Valberg you abandong going to Nice and all the traffic and crap on the coast and continue East over col de Couillole and then head North over Col de la Bonnette and continue up Route des grand Alps, riding to the Med is on your bucket list....

...In which case I would probably still continue East and go over Col di Turini towards the coast.
 
Looks like a good route, ridden most of it at least once, although I would suggest that after Valberg you abandong going to Nice and all the traffic and crap on the coast and continue East over col de Couillole and then head North over Col de la Bonnette and continue up Route des grand Alps, riding to the Med is on your bucket list....

...In which case I would probably still continue East and go over Col di Turini towards the coast.

Agree about the coast and Nice in particular. Apart from that I wish I could afford to retire down there - love it.
 
Agree about the coast and Nice in particular. Apart from that I wish I could afford to retire down there - love it.

Yup, not a great fan of much on that coast.Nice is always packed (pre-covid) and St Tropez is stupidly expensive .
Do like Antibes though.
Stay in Castellane and take the Route Napoleon down there through Grasse.
On the return, head W/SW to get to Draguignan then pick up the D955 back to Castellane.Stunning !!!

It’ll no doubt be very busy around Cannes, but last time I did it I was two up on my T-Max and just filtered like the locals.Great fun.

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I love Castellane.Could definitely have a house there if I had the dosh.
So many ride outs in all directions.Such as the one above.
Or head west to loop around the Gorges du Verdon:

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If you do this loop, DO NOT MISS the Route des Crêtes,shown above in orange.Easy to miss the turn off but it’s utterly stunning as gives you the best views of the gorge and often you ride along the eagles soaring.
Or NE and ride up around the RDGA for the day.

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Ride via the highest road in Europe at the Col de la Bonnette (1) .Look out for the best lunch stop in the alps just north of the summit by a few miles and then stop for a coffee in Roubion (2) on the return.

The options are almost endless.

Oh, and apologies for possible thread creep.....:)
 
I friend of mine, the former risk and insurance manager of IKEA, lived in a house in the hills to the back of Cannes or Nice, I forget which. His next door neighbour was a very elegant, elderly French widow who owned a magnificent property. It was advertised for sale at a couple of million. He bumped into her and asked how the sale was going. “Oh, it’s sold but rather strange”.

“A couple came to see it, very young. They looked around and said they’d buy it. They then said they’d buy all the contents, too. I explained that the contents would be half as much again as the house. ‘Oh, that doesn’t matter’, they said and left. They are very young but very polite, I hope they have the money. Very strange.” It later turned out that they were the Beckhams, who of course she had never heard of.
 
I friend of mine, the former risk and insurance manager of IKEA, lived in a house in the hills to the back of Cannes or Nice, I forget which. His next door neighbour was a very elegant, elderly French widow who owned a magnificent property. It was advertised for sale at a couple of million. He bumped into her and asked how the sale was going. “Oh, it’s sold but rather strange”.

“A couple came to see it, very young. They looked around and said they’d buy it. They then said they’d buy all the contents, too. I explained that the contents would be half as much again as the house. ‘Oh, that doesn’t matter’, they said and left. They are very young but very polite, I hope they have the money. Very strange.” It later turned out that they were the Beckhams, who of course she had never heard of.

So steer clear of looking for a house there!
 
Yup, not a great fan of much on that coast.Nice is always packed (pre-covid) and St Tropez is stupidly expensive .
Do like Antibes though.
Stay in Castellane and take the Route Napoleon down there through Grasse.
On the return, head W/SW to get to Draguignan then pick up the D955 back to Castellane.Stunning !!!

It’ll no doubt be very busy around Cannes, but last time I did it I was two up on my T-Max and just filtered like the locals.Great fun.

f8ab8f27148f615ab27c91d1fb093888.png

55988ceb8685b00fcab50dc128d60274.png



I love Castellane.Could definitely have a house there if I had the dosh.
So many ride outs in all directions.Such as the one above.
Or head west to loop around the Gorges du Verdon:

443488e2f9f8fba93b1db15fc09d0989.png


If you do this loop, DO NOT MISS the Route des Crêtes,shown above in orange.Easy to miss the turn off but it’s utterly stunning as gives you the best views of the gorge and often you ride along the eagles soaring.
Or NE and ride up around the RDGA for the day.

800ec98e182511637adb5d22e765f2a6.png


Ride via the highest road in Europe at the Col de la Bonnette (1) .Look out for the best lunch stop in the alps just north of the summit by a few miles and then stop for a coffee in Roubion (2) on the return.

The options are almost endless.

Oh, and apologies for possible thread creep.....:)

Yeah, that is the area I would most love to Miss, the road out of Castellane back up into the Alps is one of the best sections of tarmac I have ever encountered, and as you say you have Gorge du Verdon and some of the best bits of RDGA on the soorstep, if I can get away for a few days this year it would be to bomb down to Castellane and do those two ride outs - Loop around La Bonnette (OR Sampeyre if I am feeling adventurous) and another one out to Gorge du Verdon and back.
 
It’s not compulsory to go to Nice :comfort :D It just happens to be where the bod went.

That being said, we see enough appeals for routes to Nice / Monaco / that quarter of the French Mediterranean coast, to indicate that lots of bods do want to end up there. Coastal strip roads, like those around big lakes, hemmed by mountains are often not the most exciting. Arsey though woukd love them, posing on his Road King and stopping for a brew :augie ;) :beerjug:


PS Nice is also convenient for the ferry to Corsica.

PPS Lots of good roads up above, for sure.
 


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