I’m back in France, and damn did I miss it! This second stay is about 1 hour’s drive further west, right along the French Riviera in the Town of St-Maxime. There’s not as much elevation as Vence, but still plenty of lumpy hills to make me work hard.
This ride was 2 parts (stopped for lunch in Grimaud) for a total 97.22 km and 5000 feet.
There are a little more vineyards in this region. Here’s your typical French countryside home. Love the colorful shutters.
Super roads. Quiet, smooth, and fairly narrow to make it quite intimate.
Here’s a view to the north, it gives a good perspective of the terrain. It gets quite a bit more lumpy closer to the coast.
After an awesome lunch outside on a terrace (18-20 degrees C), I set off for a 70km leg. There’s quite a bit more elevation on the trip south to the coast. Thankfully the wind was subdued.
The start of the route was nice and flat, perfect to get the legs warmed up.
After ~30km I turned into some kind of national/regional park. I only saw maybe 2 cars over the next two hours?
At the top I finally saw the Mediterranean Sea. Beautiful!
Below you can see the road winding its way down to the coast. It was a really nice decent, fairly open turns, smooth pavement, and 4-6% grade to keep the speeds in check.
The coast line was quite rugged but beautiful.
Lots of designated cycling paths in the region. It comes in quite handy during peak traffic.
