Today we closed the loop back to Geneva. We packed up and rode down the hill one last time and along the waterfront road to Cannes. We had plenty of time for breakfast at a boulangerie a few blocks from the gare. Here in Cannes it's a little different than in the smaller places: bakeries are more bakery-cafés and offer a "formule-déjeuner" that generally includes a boisson chaude, a pastry, and a glass of juice. We had that plus dessert: a yoghurt and raspberry parfait.

Travelling on regional trains with a bike is reasonably easy. Most trains have one or more cars with a designated place to hang bikes, though all cars on the one from Marseille had steps up from the platform. That wouldn't work well for wheelchair users, but it wasn't too difficult to get our loaded bikes up. We didn't hang them and nobody bothered us about that. In fact, Al's bike would not have fit because the hooks were such that bikes were to hang transverse to the axis of the car, three on either side, with glass barriers to provide a narrow aisle to the train driver' cabin. Al's bike was too tall (to the top of the saddle) to fit in the space allocated, as indeed were most of the bikes on the train. It was like this only for the middle leg of the trip from Marseille to Valence; the other two legs, Cannes to Marseille and Valence to Geneva, were on newer trains with roll-on access and internal ramps down to a wheelchair/bicycle area (and stairs to an additional deck of seating).

At Marseille we had about an hour and a half to find some lunch. That was easy since there were a few options in the station and nearby, but finding the washrooms was a different matter. On the train to Marseille, the facility in our car was out of order and a fellow cyclist said that was the case for the entire train. On arrival, we learned that the main Marseille train station, Gare St-Charles, has only one washroom.  Multiple modern toilets for both men and women, yes, and all very clean, but all accessed through a single coin-demanding turnstile that makes change. The line can be long!

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We had an hour or so at the Valence station as well. Nothing to do there but wait and eat ice cream on a stick.

Finally, Geneva. The elapsed time between leaving Cannes and arriving in Geneva was 10h40, compared to 6 or 7 hours on the direct TGV, but the regional trains are quite comfortable and it wasn't unpleasant at all.

From the train we booked a hotel in Geneva since we weren't sure we could get to the closest campsite before its office closed and booking online was complicated. The form even wanted the dimensions of our tent! There was a price listed on the campground website for a small tent site without vehicle, but it seemed to specify a maximum tent size of 2 metres by 2 metres. Our two-person tent is significantly bigger than that (2.3 x 3.5) so we weren't sure whether it would fit and wondered just what would be provided. And the pitch price did not include occupants; each adult was a further 17 CHF per night! So a downtown hotel it was. Hôtel des Alpes was about the best deal, 109 CHF (plus tax) on booking.com. Close to the station, but we still made a few wrong turns.

One advantage of being downtown is the wide range of restaurants. However, they all seemed very expensive. Pizza was the best option and, remembering that the last time we had pizza, when we ordered two (at 8€ each) and couldn't eat it all, we ordered one for 25 CHF plus a salad for Al. Granted, it wasn't a plain pizza, in fact it was delicious with potato, bacon, onion, and raclette cheese, but we were both still hungry after demolishing it.