We start our day with a simple breakfast (coffee and a pastry) at the bar next door, and are soon on our way. We want to get an early start because rain is in the forecast. It’s due to arrive midday here, and late afternoon in Menton.
On the street, we’re happy to see the hound of the house waddling down the street, his handler in tow. The man is the brother of the restaurant owner, visiting for a few days. He walks up to chat for a few minutes, introduces us to his creaky and greying 15 year old friend, and asks about our tour (he heard of us from his brother). He looks at the dark sky, wishes us luck, and suggests we should hurry.
Like yesterday, we have abundant company on the road. It’s Sunday morning, and the weekend riders are out in number getting their miles in before the rains hit. This looks like another hot spot on the coast for the cycling crowd, and a few miles down the road we see why when we come to San Lorenzo de Mare. It’s the eastern end of the 28 kilometer old San Remo Railway cyclepath, built on the right of way of an abandoned rail line. It’s really a wonderful track, built right along the coast except for spots where it tunnels through headlands. The entire route is great, but the real star is the mile long Capo Nero tunnel that doubles as a museum honoring the San Remo Classic, the 185 mile, one day race from Milan to San Remo that marks the start of the professional cycling season here.
Not long before San Remo, the rains hit - first a few sprinkles, then it starts coming down hard enough that we break out the pannier covers for the first time on this tour. We’re just trying to decide whether we should stop again and put our rain boots on when we come to a bike cafe and decide to pull in and join several other bikers holing up there for awhile.
An Americano and a pastry later, the rains stop and we start biking again, making it a few more miles before they return again and drive us into a trattoria where we decide it would be good to stop for lunch.
Did I mention yet that we’re seeing many bicyclists here along the coast?
At San Lorenzo al Mare we leave the highway for this excellent bike path that continues to Ospedaletti. Converted to a pedestrian cycling route a few years back, this is the route of the old train single track line along the coast that was abandoned and replaced by a double track line further inland.
This is the first of about ten tunnels we passed through today, and a long one - perhaps a kilometer or more. It’s generally well lit, except for a few stretches where lights have burned out. We’re looking at about a third of its total length here. Be sure to check out the video of this and the other tunnels.
One nice thing about tunnels is that they’re dry, even when it’s raining. An alternative though is a bike bar beside the path. This one was a perfect spot to wait out a wet spell. It has everything you could want - a rack of bike tubes, Power Bars, and a WC.
The Capo Nero tunnel, over a mile long, is the last, longest and most interesting tunnel on the cycle path. Opened to cyclists in 2014, it is also a museum honoring the Milan-San Remo bike race, the longest one day bike race on the professional circuit.
Each of the overhead panels honors a different year in the Milan-San Remo race, which dates back to 1907. Each panel has a photo and an informational blurb about that year’s race.
After lunch the rains stop for good for the day, and we have a dry ride the rest of the way into Menton. Rounding the final peninsula west of Ventimiglia, the French coast comes into view - Menton, Monaco, Cap Ferrat, and I think Nice is visible far in the distance. We both feel the excitement as we near the border - it feels like a homecoming.
In Ventimiglia, crossing the Roya River on the pedestrian bridge. Rachael is just high enough up to see over the walls.
We’re staying at a waterfront apartment by the marina, about a mile east of the old city and just inside the border. It’s a bit out of the way, but it’s a wonderful accommodation at a very reasonable rate. Large, modern, well furnished, great view across the sea. We feel like we could live here very happily.
We’ll be here two nights, and would like to just have our breakfast in the room so Rachael is interested in finding the nearest supermarket. Our host says there’s one 500 meters to the west, toward town; but it’s closed today (Sunday). Instead, he proposes that she walk back to Italy, about the same distance in the other direction, where there’s a store just beyond the border. She treks there and back, but returns nearly empty handed because they have so little in stock.
It’s late in the day by now, nearing sundown, and too late to walk into town. We’ll see it tomorrow though. Instead we find a very nice, very small family-run waterfront restaurant nearby on the marina and enjoy a terrific meal. We have a lot to celebrate: new country, new GoPro (which so far looks like a step up in quality), first French meal. Wonderful to be back in France again!
A half bottle of Cotes de Provence, our first French wine of the tour
