Moustiers turned out to be a pretty village clinging to the side of a tall limestone cliff. A rushing stream runs right through the middle of the village, dividing it into two parts that are joined by two or three bridges. Above there are two tokens of religious fervour: a chapel perched on a rock perhaps 100 m above the village, and a gold metal star hung from a chain that spans the gap the stream has carved in the cliffside! I climbed up to the chapel, just because I wasnt already tired enough after 66 km of riding.
The next day we embarked on the challenge of the Gorges du Verdon. The ride actually started with a long descent from Moustiers to the point where the river emerges from the gorge, to feed a hydro reservoir. From there we climbed steeply for 10 km, gaining 750 m. A 7.5%!g(MISSING)rade may not sound like much, but its pretty challenging when youre hauling two panniers full of gear!
This brought us to the top edge of the gorge, and we rode up and down along it for the rest of the morning. The path of the Verdon river twisted
and turned down below, and at points the gorge narrowed to a cleft barely wide enough for the river to pass. We perched close to the cliff edge to eat our picnic lunch.
Amazingly, there was a caf by the road right after this, so we resuscitated ourselves with a grand crme and a dessert. Soon after this the road turned away from the gorge and we descended down another valley, but rejoined the Verdon - and now we were at the same level as the river. This part reminded me strongly of some of the river valleys in the Rockies. We were climbing again, still following the river upstream, but (fortunately for the very tired legs) it was a gentle climb.
Yesterday we rode from Castellane all the way to Nice - 93 km, the longest ride of the whole trip. Although the day started with a few km of steep climbing, from then on we had a very gentle climb followed by an exhilarating 30 km of steep descent to the outskirts of Nice. This descent took us through not one but two more gorges -
Our guide book did the best job it could getting us into Nice. It led us as quickly as possible to the seafront, where there is a bike path that runs all the way to central Nice. When we finally arrived, Lynn wanted to plunge into the Med, but was just too tired - so we performed that ceremony this morning.
