Today we visited 3 countries: France, Monaco and Italy. We travelled from Juan-Les-Pains along the beach until San Remo (and saw Nice, Monte Carlo, Menton San Remo and a number of other towns by the sea). It was a fantastic ride and Paula used up all the camera's battery. The pictures are gorgeous.
In Monte Carlo did the Formula 1 tunnel ... how cool is that ?
Click HERE for all the pictures for Day 14
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Posted by Armando
Day 13 - Cote D'Azur, France
Today we stayed in the Cote D'Azur area for another day. We spent most of the day by the pool, went to Juan-Les-Pains beach and took a dip in the Mediterranean and went to walk by the promenade and have dinner in Cannes, France. We loved Cannes ...
Click HERE for all the pictures for Day 13
Click HERE for all the pictures for Day 13
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Day 12 - Cote D'Azur, France
Blog in construction ...
Click HERE for all the pictures of Day 12
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Day 11 - Sisteron, France to Juan-Les-Pins, France
Today we travelled down from the mountains and into the sea. The Gorge de Vernon (also known as the French Grand Canyon) was on the way and it was outstanding riding. Check the pictures.
Blog in construction ...
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Day 10 - Yvoire, France to Sisteron, France
Breakfast in Yvoirre was done quite as we wanted to still take a walk in the city by daylight. It was a very nice experience as day visitors were arriving and town was starting to buzz with activity. We did have the chance of buying a flag of the Haute-Savoie which we had been enjoying over the last couple of days and take a picture of bike.
We then left Yvoire and took a short ride East towards Thonon before joining the national road and go back to Geneve. This was one of the most enjoyable short rides we had done as road was empty, the curves were just right and the effect of caffeine was still strong as I had had an espresso just before leaving. Sing in the helmet time ..
The day before when we we had past Geneve we had noticed a Portvgalia (pronounced Portugalia) restaurant. This is a well known chain of restaurants Portugal which we specially enjoy so we decided we would go have lunch there. It was great to speak Portuguese with local garçon Joao Paulo Almeida (which happens to also be our son's name). We also took the opportunity of buying the Swizerland sticker and flag to put on the bike.
After lunch we started the Route de Napoleon and went past the Prairie de La Rencontre (Meeting of the Prairie) by Lake Leffrey. It was here that on March 7, 1815 the 5th Battalion sent by Louis XVIII met Napoleon troops. Napoleon advanced alone to meet the troops of this Battalion and spoke "Soldiers, I am your Emperor, acknowledge me." He parted his coat and said "If there is among you a soldier who wants to kill his Emperor, here I am." At these words, the 5th Battalion laid down its arms and the soldiers rushed to Napoleon crying. On March 20th he took Paris.
For us it was all about the road, one of the most well known routes in the world. XXX
Click HERE for all the photos of Day 10.
Day 9 - Taillores, France to Yvoire, France
We had breakfast and then I called Didier and as he lives 5 minutes away from where we were, he came down and we went for coffee together. The walk to the small centre of the village and close to the lake was very pleasant.
We sat in an outside cafe had a cappuccino, enjoyed the perfect weather and view and spoke about life and how important it is to take time to live while we can. Live life, my friends.
While we were in Taillores, found out that the owner and his wife of the Logis where we were staying are fellow motorbikers. He rides a BMW R1200GS and she rides a Ducati Monster. He say that when they travel he carries the luggage and she goes ahead in a much faster speed. When I told him we were planning to go to Geneve and stay in a smaller town on Lake Geneve he suggested we stayed in Yvoire, France. We still tried to book an hotel with his help but all the hotels he knew were already booked. We decided to ride there anyway and make a decision on hotel once we saw them.
But first we went to the town of Annecy, France. We had been told that the old part of the town is very beautiful and it is known as the Venice of The Alps.
The way from Taillores to Annecy is very beautiful as we rode along the lake. As mentioned before this is a well worth place to visit and stay a while.
We had lunch in Annecy and walked the old town. Very beautiful and one of the places that it was still full of tourists, a lot of them Japanese.
Although we were enjoying it a lot, we had to move on as other shores waited on us. We took the highway, paid the peage and in less than 30 minutes we entered Switzerland which was a new country for us so looking forward to get flag.
We wanted to see Geneve, Switzerland which we did at peak rush hour without a proper working GPS (as somehow the maps of Geneve were not there). We really liked Geneve. It has a great combination of the old with the new. The promenade walk and drive by the lake is very beautiful. The Swiss organization and precision and in general a very business like feeling about the whole place.
We left Geneve and made our way to Ivoire in the French side which is a village with medieval buildings and beautiful flowers. It is considered to be "one of the most beautiful villages in France". We concur and you decide if you agree or not after checking the pictures of today (in the evening) and tomorrow (in the morning).
We were able to find a Logis (2-star) which turned out to be the lowest quality hotel we would have on this trip. It was perfectly located though as one side was inside the old town which we could see from our room window. We left stuff in the room and made our way into the town to still catch some pictures as the sun went down.
As we were taking pictures we witnessed a lot of boat traffic as two large boats arrived within minutes of each other. One of them was coming from Lausanne and the other from Geneve and they crossed paths and exchanged passengers as we watched and took pictures.
For the evening dinner we had a typical fish called persh. It was very nice specially accompanied by beer on tap.
We then went back to hotel to catch up with our blogs and picture downloads. It had been another very beautiful and full day.
Click HERE for all the pictures of Day 9
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