Alps again

along the Gorges Rouges

After taking in the modest Sunday morning "Flower Show Market" along the main street of sleepy-but-perfectly-enjoyable Beuil and purchasing two quiches for lunch, we headed south into the "Gorges Rouges"--a deep canyon of reddish stone with nearly vertical sides.  Yet another amazing road. Exiting the gorge we headed west to the medieval town of Entrevaux. As luck would have it, the town features a small motorcycle museum, which we just managed to catch open before its lunchtime closure. Lots of bikes from the 1950s and earlier.  In addition to the medieval town and citadel perched above, Entrevaux is on the Nice-to-Digne tourist train route, so we had to walk to the station to see it arrive and depart.

Heading west again towards Castellane, we noticed the Gorges de Daluis heading north and of course had to check it out.  Another stunning road! It brought us to Guillaumes (not far from our starting point at Beuil) where we enjoyed the quiche, along with yesterday's leftover pizza and a bag of greens, and cherries. 

To complete the loop to Colmars and on to Castellane, we had to cross one more pass--the Col de Champs (2015m). That was today's twisty challenge.

heading towards the Col de Champs (before the rain hit)

As we approached the pass we watched the skies darken in all directions and the lightning begin. Rain quickly followed. The road down was not in great condition, with potholes and no guardrails--not a pleasant ride in wet cold weather. (rde: It was one of the more challenging ones. Someday I should describe how Judy and I negotiate super-tight uphill right turn hairpins. To begin, it takes four eyes and then ...) We persevered, getting quite soaked since we had not suited up. Seeking dryness we finally stopped in Saint-Andre-les-Alpes for a break and coffee. 

Finally we reached Castellane and the Route Napoleon which we took east&south to Grasse where we hopped on the autoroute for the final leg to Antibes and our hotel for the next three nights.  The Route Napoleon, which we have intersected before, runs from Antibes to Grenoble, and is the 325 km route that Napoleon, after his release from Elba, took north in 1815 to launch a new campaign, which ended with his defeat at Waterloo.  This is the bicentennial of that event, and March 1 saw many commemorations of it.