Dieppe to Nice - Part Four

Thursday 19th August

I woke up this morning feeling quite rough. I have to say I had another late night in Briancon, or rather Serre Chevalier. I’d thought I’d go to bed early but in fact that wasn’t to be. On Wednesday night at Serre Chevalier I arrived within about 20 minutes of another girl arriving – the only other girl that was staying in my dormitory. She had actually arrived by motorbike. She was also going to Nice, having left from Strasbourg. So she came up to the room and was introduced to me a few minutes after I arrived. I have to say the two of us were there and appeared to be the only guests in the youth hostel as well. To me it didn’t see right to have gone out and had dinner on my own and just left her behind so I went to the local restaurant, ordered my dinner and then ran back to the youth hostel and said to her, look I’m in this restaurant if you want to join me so you’re not alone. She came along and we had a good evening. Her name was Ivana and she’d lived in France for about 10 years but was originally from the Czech Republic and was living and working in Strasbourg. So we had good evening and were out till quite late. It was just a nice touch to be in Serre Chevalier with someone else who seemed very friendly but as a result I went to bed late. I was going to get up early and try and leave for 9o’clock, but instead I put my alarm clock back an hour and so everything was put back by an hour. I felt I needed to do that though as my back was aching and I was also quite worried about the day ahead and how I was going to get through it, given how I felt. I thought of all the different options but I wasn’t sure what to do. In the end when I woke up I decided to just take the public transport and just have to accept the fact that I wasn’t going to be riding up the col d’Izoard as I would have liked. I just had to think about staying healthy and not injuring myself.

I didn’t want to injure myself or do myself any damage so I made the decision to not ride any of the hard cols so I knew I would get either a train or a bus from Briancon, but I didn’t know what it was going to be. I didn’t know where they would be going either. In the end after having done a bit of sight-seeing around Briancon and taken photos around the old town I then I got a train ticket to Embrun. The idea was that although it was longer than if I went to Mont Dauphin and over the col du Vars looking at the map it seemed that it would be a flatter route and there were certainly not any cols involved so that’s what I decided to do. I’m glad I went that way as it was very pretty. I went past the Lac du Serre Poncon which was really very picturesque with lovely views of the moutains towering above the lake which had a really clear blue tint to it. Also along a certain part of it there was a beach with loads of people out sunbathing and loads of holiday makers. It was a shame I couldn’t join them. As far as the ride went the part out of Embrun up to the first village, Savigne le Lac, and the village that I got to later on, Les Sauzes involved a lot of climbing. I was almost regretting have taken that route. Then after that there was a lovely descent with brilliant views of the mountains while being right next to the lake. In the end I was glad that I’d made that choice. I then went along a main road to reach Barcelonnette. In fact that road was an uphill slog but it didn’t feel too bad as it was just a false flat. I was able to twiddle in my lowest gear without it being too taxing. I arrived at Barcelonnette and rang the hotel to let them know I was on my way. I was slightly nervous when the proprietor wished me luck for my ride between Barcelonnette and La Condamine. I was worried that meant the road would go up really steeply. But it didn’t at all. It was just a false flat all the way up to La Condamine Chatelard. In the end I did 42 miles.

In the end I did 42 miles from Embrun to La Condamine Chatelard which is just outside Jausiers and I didn’t do any of the cols – the col d’Izoard or the col du Vars which I had originally thought of doing. Here I am in the hotel. My back is aching still but not as much as it was yesterday. I don’t feel that I taxed it so much so I’m pleased about that. Of course the thing that I do have to do tomorrow is tackle col de la Bonnette. I’m not really sure how I could do this because really if I go over the col de la Bonnette it’s just one climb, 24km long but once I’ve done that I will have done most of my climbing for the day, which will be a total mileage of 81km. If I go via the other route that avoids col de la Bonnette, i.e. the col du Cayolle and col d’Allos, then I would end up doing around 105km and I’d rather keep the mileage as low as possible. So I’d prefer to just do the 81km albeit over the col de la Bonette. The signs today say that it is open, so I am assuming it will be open tomorrow as well as the weather has been good. It’s been hot and the sky has been clear so hopefully it’ll be open as well tomorrow and I can over that. I’m just hoping I can manage to twiddle a low gear for 3 hours and get it over and done with! After that I’ll just go downhill through the vallee de la Tinee and end my ride at Saint Sauveur sur Tinee.

It’s a week since I left London. It’s been quite a holiday. I have to admit I keep forgetting about the things I’ve done. I’m glad I’m recording them. Overall I’ve really enjoyed it and being in France. I’ve had all kinds of comments from people all about how amazing it is that I’m doing this cycle touring on my own all the way from England. In fact in Briancon I had a few people come up to me and randomly start a conversation with me – which was quite nice really. People were saying they liked my bicycle and they were asking about my cycling and telling me about the area. One woman walked right up to me while I was trying to take photos of the citadel in Briancon. She was saying how she would like to do some cycle touring herself but she didn’t know what bike to get and could I give her advice. So people have been very talkative and it’s been quite a lot of fun. Of course I get the comments about my French. They are impressed with my language skill and can’t believe that I’m English and speak French so well! I always like that bit because in reality I don’t do that much work on my French nowadays – not as much as I should. I do try and listen to the radio and I have been to the French meetup groups in London. I could have done more, so it’s nice to have people still compliment my French and know that it’s still good enough! I have to say speaking French has been a really good asset for this trip. It has certainly helped to break the ice and facilitate communication and you just get so much more information about how to get things done quickly. So, hopefully that trend will continue. Tomorrow will be my last day really in the high mountains, so I will make the most of it by going over the col de la Bonnette which is advertised as Europe’s highest mountain pass, at 2802m.


Friday 20th August

This was actually going to be my last day in the Alps riding, with the piece de resistance being the climb up the col de la Bonnette. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. When we woke up in the morning it was pouring with rain – not quite what we’d been expecting. Supposedly the forecast had talked of early morning rain that would clear up very quickly. Then there’d be sunny conditions thereafter. But unfortunately it was just heavy rain and you could barely see the tops of the mountains. In fact in the hotel at breakfast time the locals were not at all in agreement with what the forecasters had said. They said when the sky is as it is you know that rain isn’t going away any time soon. We are likely to have this for most of the day. So that pretty much scuppered my plan to ride up the col de la Bonnette. I had wanted to go up the highest climb in the Alps – in Europe even, but I certainly didn’t want to do that in those conditions. So I was prepared to wait a while to see what happened, rather than setting off at 9am. I decided to wait a couple of hours and make some plans from there. The hotel was a bit strange. It wasn’t at all touristic. It was mainly local tourists – people who had been there for several days walking around the local trails. They exchanged stories about how tough the trails had been, how wet it had been, what a rainy week it had been etc. In fact for them, all this rain was nothing new, whereas for me it had been quite a surprise.

After breakfast, which I must admit was a pretty lean affair – very much in keeping with the dinner they’d served the previous evening I got a newspaper and sat in their café catching up on the local news while watching the rain. Then around 11.30am the rain seemed to come to a stop, unlike the false alarm I’d had earlier that morning. I was able to very quickly don all my waterproofs and get the hell out of the place. Sadly I wasn’t going to go up the col de la Bonnette. Even though the weather was not particularly inviting the col was still open, and I could have ridden up it if I wanted, and I saw some cyclists riding up the path. For me, really there was no way that I wanted to go up in those conditions. More importantly than anything, on those types of rides it’s the descent that is the problem. Descending in the wet with just cantilever brakes with 10kg of luggage would be quite risky considering that my brakes may not have even had the stopping power to stop safely on a descent that’s starting at 2,800m above sea level. So I had to go all the way back and retrace my footsteps back to Barcelonnette. This was quite and easy ride as the route was mainly downhill – just a steady descending false flat. I was actually really lucking with the timing for I arrived into Barcelonnette, having ridden around the town a couple of towns looking for the bus station I suddenly came across a couple of buses with people queuing up. I guess that was the bus station! Low and behold there was a bus going to Gap. It wasn’t quite the destination I was going to. I would have preferred one that was going to Digne les Bains. But it was a choice between get on this bus and head vaguely in the direction I wanted or hang around for about 4 or 5 hours to get to Digne les Bains and not really have much time to really find anywhere to stay or make further plans.

I caught the bus at Barcelonette to go to Gap. I think I was the difficult passenger he could have done with! I was the last person to arrive at the bus stop – just as he was getting ready to leave. I had a bicycle to dismantle to get it into the boot of the bus. In those parts they charge for carrying the bicycle – so I had to pay an extra 6 euros for my Planet X. Of course in true French style, where people mind your business for you people began to make comments – “Oh, here she is doing cycle touring, then she’s getting on a bus with her bike – what d’you call this, you lightweight?” I just humoured the guys along anyway. So the journey to Gap was about an hour. I was quite tired and wet and I have to admit I was quite glad to have been on a bus rather than out in the elements because the rain really didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon. It did at times seem to get heavier. The bus stopped at Gap train station where a lot of people got off. I was hoping I could catch a train straight to Nice. Of course, because so many of us got off at Gap train station the first thin you did was to join in a long line to the ticket office. These stations aren’t like stations in big cities where you can buy your ticket from a maching. You had to queue and then line up at one of the kiosks. As it happenend the people behind me were doing the same thing – they also wanted to get to Nice that day. The rumour was that there would be no train. I would have to get a train to Sisteron, then a bus to somewhere else. Then O’d have to get on a train for Nice.

When I did actually manage to get to the front of the queue and talk to the lady at the ticket office she said that there would be a train all the way to Nice. It would be a TGV and that would get me there for about 8pm. At that time it was around about 1.30pm so I could have got on the 2pm train to Marseille and then at Marseille get another train that would get me in to Nice, having taken me approximately 6 hours. I really didn’t fancy that and I fancied even less the fact that it would cost me 53 euros, so at that point I decided not to do this. I would just catch a train to Sisteron and then maybe find a hotel there, see a few of the sights. Apparently this town is a touristic area and I would just get on and see where things took me. Either way I knew I would not be going to Nice today, and it was gonna be a case of just getting as far as I could that day. The train journey was fairly straight forward, though I was a bit tired. It seemed a popular train. There were a lot of people on it, who looked like they were there specifically to visit Sisteron. It appears to be a good base from where people go hiking. Outside, the sky looked pretty threatening and grim, and I didn’t feel like going sightseeing there. I was also glad that I hadn’t gone down to Nice in the end. The other folks I was talking to in the queue at Gap train station also said there was no point going to Nice today as they had pouring rain there too. So I was abit naughty because I didn’t get off at Sisteron as my ticket had shown. Instead I stayed on up to Chateau Arnoux-St Auban. I then decided to head to a place called Chateauredun. However, after doing a number of circuits around the village asking directions I found out that I would need to get to Digne les Bains first and then after that, found Chateauredun. According to my map there was a short cut to get to this town, but on the road I couldn’t see exactly how I could get to it. Instead I just pressed on and headed for Digne les Bains.

The weather had improved by the time I reached Chateaux Arnoux. I wasn’t raining at all, and I was abit happier about cycling in those conditions. Nevertheless I did feel abit embarrassed that what should have been the big day of going into the highest mountain pass in Europe had been abit of an anticlimax and a damp squib. The rain had put paid to many things. I had had to go back on myself to Barcelonnette, where I’d been the previous day, then here I was going to a place that I could have got to quite a lot easier if I’d known the previous day what I know now! So it was a case of just going on and ploughing on to Digne les Bains. This place was actually quite a pleasant town. I felt really lucky because the first hotel I went was fully booked, but the second hotel I tried out, the man just said “yes, I have only one room left here – and it’s a single room – my last one. It’s 50 euros and you’re very welcome. He was the friendliest hotel proprietor I’ve met. He was keen to please, and said, yeah, yeah I can recommend these places to you for food. Oh, and there’s a dancing festival on tonight in the main square etc. So I made the most of the facilities on my last evening before reaching the seaside. Digne les Bains is a very pleasant town. There’s an old town which is nice to look at. There’s a cathedral. Also aside from the aside from the spa places you find in a spa town there is also a festival – the Festival d’Outremer where they were various cultural activities going on. On this particular night it was salsa evening, where there was a great big marquee. I think salsa is the loose sense of the word as the music they play was very much the kitsch end of the scale – La Macarena, all similar party songs that you wouldn’t normally be seen dead dancing to, but I was on holiday and no body knew me so I felt free to join in. I also probably danced to some of the other really trite French pop songs, I can't remember. But hey, I had a good time, as well as a few drinks. It was all quite good spirited.