Day 3 - Wednesday 2nd July
What can i say?
Whilst everyone else sat around chatting about the day's route and had breakfast, i was waiting for the phone call about my car. The garage owner didn't really speak English so i fired off an email to them using Google translate and after a few emails, both front tyres needed to be replaced
The rocks had sliced through one tyre and damaged another. As we were in the middle of nowhere, the choice of tyres available right now was poor. I ended up getting the best tyres i could get same day and at 3pm the car was ready.
Everyone else parked up, having breakfast.
A few people had stayed at a hotel a short distance away and before long everyone was on their way. My daughter chaning cars and going with Alexander.
Whilst i thought about how to spend my time in the middle of nowhere, a little bit of TV.
Hotel owner Ludovic had offered me the full facilities of the hotel whilst i waited around and also drove me to the garage when my car was ready. This was much appricated! I spent the day having a walk around the village, catching up on some YouTube videos, having a bite to eat and an afternoon snooze. I wasn't always alone as i had company for some of the time.
The small village of Sainte-Marie
Wasn't long before i was attracting the local talent.......
Lunch.
The garage was a short drive from the hotel, but in the wrong direction! I needed to go south, but the garage where my car was, was north. This meant i had to go back over the mountain again and this time, avoid all the sharp rocks on the road and further rock slides. The journey to the garage gave me time to chat with Ludovic and his time in motor racing. He was a champion racer and still competed in historic races at Spa and other tracks.
Got to the garage at 4pm, inspected the car and indeed Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tyres had been fitted. Paid my bill, said goodbye to Ludovic, filled the tank and then set off to the hotel. The hotel on the south coast was 4 hours drive, including two mountain passes.
The two passes were Col du Vars and Col de la Bonette, so not tiny and would take time to pass. The good news was that by now, the roads were quiet and most tourists were at their destinations. The bad news was that as soon as i left the garage, it started to rain. I'd had glorious sunshine all day until 4pm. And it continued to lash down for the next 3 hours, only stopping once out of the mountains and on the road to the Mediterranean.
The mountain weather wasn't looking good for me.
A small pocket of good weather.
More bad news was that the heavy rain had caused some mudslides closing the road down Col de la Bonette. Myself and a line of other cars waited whilst the road was cleared. Before long we were on our way. Once out of the mountains the drive was uneventful and i got to the hotel a little after 8pm. Once all checked in i was looking forward to some food but my mood soon turned after reading the hotel menu. I was not impressed. The worst bit was that i'd already paid for the meal.
So as any proper Englishman would, i started on the beer. The bar was on the rooftop and gave a spectaculr view of Menton. Before long, i was joined by the rest of the group who were also unimpressed with the hotel memu and went elsewhere for their meal.
I needed this.
Thankfully, this hotel had air-con thus we finally got a decent night's sleep.
Hotel for the night.
View from the room.
Stats for the day.
That was my day, but what about everyone else?
