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We managed to again blow the supply of electricity to our accommodation again and we have now lost count of the times it has happened on the BBA V3.Plugging the toaster in at breakfast seemed to do the trick.
The worst part was though that we couldn’t find where to trip the main to get the electricity flowing again.
Lucky it is our last morning here and all we will miss out on is toast. We did find the fuse box but everything seemed to be in the on position. We also checked the pole at which the electricity cable comes from and that seemed OK although it looked fairly lethal and didn’t want to play around with 230 volts or whatever they have in France.
It is another superb day and we are looking forward to our drive along the Cote d’Azur as the D559 is coastal all the way to Cannes.
We have driven part of this coastal road before on the V1 in 2009 but we were travelling west and not on the seaward side of the road meaning that the views of the sea were sometimes obstructed by cars going east. At least
going east means that the driver gets to see the view better.
Gretchen handed in the entry gadget to the office as we left and was asked if we had paid. It seems the owners of the mobile home park may not be aware fully that D is renting out his mobile home on Air BnB. We did wonder whether this was the case as we didn’t have to provide any ID when Didier met us and we are not sure that it is quite the right thing for ‘strangers’ to be living in a controlled park area. Who knows we might have been part of some terrorist cell!
Driving around the Gulf of St-Tropez on the D559 was a delight with the only nuisance being cyclists. The road is narrow and was reasonably busy especially in the small towns we passed through and the cyclists all seemed to be out training for a race or something as they cycled along at a pace and often towards the middle of the road. While the road wasn’t really up to the 70kph limit outside of the towns it was better than the 30kph the cyclists were managing.
Nevertheless
we made several stops to admire the view from the sea wall and looked down at the perfectly clear blue ocean lapping at the rocks. With almost no wind at all there were also practically no waves.
Like the road into St-Tropez and the surrounding area the coastal road had the same luxurious mansions with uninterrupted vistas of the sea. Most of the properties had electronic gates and were just tall enough to stop nosey parkers peeking in if they were walking along the footpath.
We took a break at St-Raphael for some shopping and the drove on a short way to find a lay by to park while we had lunch.
With the temperature warming up and the sun direct we needed shade and found it under a fig tree with last season’s figs still on the ground. Gretchen would love to have a fig tree in the backyard!
While we had lunch we watched a couple of divers doing what divers do just off the shore and were able to keep up with their whereabouts even though they were below the surface much of the time, by following the red buoys that we assumed
they had tied around their ankles.
The D559 left the populated coast behind as the hills rose steeply from the sea and the road and rail line somehow cling to the cliff face with the road twisting and turning while the railway disappeared into tunnels to keep a virtual straight line. This was one road we were pleased the road builders had decided against tunnels to push the road through.
The area leading up to and beyond Cap Roux provides some of the most striking panoramas of the road from St-Tropez.
The pinkish, terracotta colour of the rock on the steep hillside gave a sharp contrast to the azure colour of the sea with verdant green of bush in-between.
The road never actually got down to sea level but rose and fell over several kilometres. Yet in almost every little bay there was a house or two or a beach where people were sunbathing and we wondered how they actually got down there as in most cases there was no obvious way.
At the last bend of the road before we reached housing again we noticed Cannes in the distance and although we had thought
of going on to having a stroll around Nice we might just make it Cannes instead as it is closer to where our night’s accommodation is in the hills.
Cannes was busy and we were soon to find out just why.
We didn’t have any problem finding a car park near the station but just had to drive up 5 levels to find a spare space. Gretchen doesn’t like driving in covered car parks but at least she didn’t have to try and park next to another car at the level we went to.
It was just before 2pm and the pedestrian lanes leading down to the water’s edge were full of people eating a late lunch at the many restaurants. In fact it was wall to wall people.
We had been to Cannes before but in September and the place wasn’t nearly as busy as it was today in May.
Then as we made the street on the seafront we realised why it was so busy. It was Cannes Film Festival! At home we would probably have seen clips of the festival on TV news but as we have been travelling and not watching
TV we were out of touch with the world.
We wandered along amongst the tents set up for countries who were exhibiting films in the aim of winning a prestigious Palme ‘Or award and looking all the time for the New Zealand flag.
We didn’t find it along the path where a mere mortal like us without one of those tags those exhibitors who had access to an area that the New Zealand tent may have been located. We never did find out if New Zealand was represented this year.
There are large permanent buildings on the sea shore that are used just for the film festival but these were out of bounds without one of those tags.
We did stop at a restaurant where there were limousines parked and every so often someone would leave the restaurant to be whisked away in a limousine. For the short time we stopped we didn’t see anyone we knew from the world of movies.
A little further on there were queues of people lined up to get last minute tickets.
Then we noticed the security. Police in threes, one with an AK47 slung across his front
and that was when we thought perhaps this is not the best place to be for too long. For all of the high powered people in the movie industry who were there we thought that security was either quite light or just hidden. In fact when we were waiting to watch whoever leave the restaurant in limousines we did notice a guy on top of the adjacent theatre watching over the crowd below.
We had been an hour or so and lunch was still going on in the lanes leading back to the station car park. The amount of money changing hands in Cannes over the 10 days of the festival must be enormous.
It is a fairly narrow strip of land on the coast around Cannes and we were soon climbing the hills heading towards our accommodation on the Route de Cannes at the small village of Tourettes sur Loup.
Up and over what seemed like a mountain range (just an exaggeration) and down into a valley framed by steep hills with little villages clinging to the hillside amongst the forest.
We drove past the hotel in the first instance and then realised that there
was nothing else on the road which was running through a gorge we turned around and went back towards the village.
We then discovered that the hotel was part of the mobile home park but the sign for it was not prominent.
We got ourselves settled in and decided that although we had walked a bit today in Cannes we needed something more to stretch the legs. We had missed stopping in the village to check if there was a restaurant there and also to take in the viaduct just behind the village.
So we started out without thinking too much about the distance on foot and with no footpaths either side of the road and the speed of the cars that seemed now to be more frequent than when we were driving here an hour or so ago.
Somehow we made it and avoided the cars whizzing past us (every day there is a challenge on the BBA V3 adventure) only to find that the only restaurant there was closed on Mondays.
Having made the 3km walk from the hotel to the village and our direction tomorrow was away down through the gorge we
took time to view the viaduct against the impressive hillside.
The one metre railway was built in the late 19
th century to service the villages that are scattered through the hills behind the more populated coast. There was little in the way of roads in those days and the railway was the easiest way of getting around. Along the way in building the railway there were a number of tall, solid and long stone viaducts built to carry the line over narrow valleys including the one at Tourettes sur Loup.
However in WW2 the Germans used the railway to get troops moved more easily to control the locals living in the area. There was only one thing to do for the locals and that was to blow the viaducts up to make it harder for the Germans to move around.
The supported columns survived the dynamite but the viaduct has never been rebuilt and so the railway had ceased to run.
It seemed a quicker walk back to the hotel, even dodging the speeding cars. Perhaps it was the thought of a cold beer and dinner or was it just because it was all on a
gentle downhill grade.
Dinner ended up being in the restaurant that served the mobile home park and hotel and there we were served by a young woman who looked more Middle Eastern than French but spoke very good English. It turned out during our conversation with her she had been to and lived and worked in Australia for a year but hadn’t found time to visit New Zealand! We admonished her for that and she promised to visit our homeland next time she travels.
Gretchen went for the safety of a pizza while I tried the lamb sausages (why not in France!)With chips which were quite spicy (the sausages that is) but very tasty.
Tomorrow it’s onto Rapallo as we ready ourselves for a day at the magical village of Portofino, a place we have always dreamed of visiting.
PS :seriously don't miss the video of Cannes Happy on Youtube.It is infectious !Get in the swing!
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