24 April Brignoles to Draguignan

April 24, 2023

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/cdul18yuhzb

My accommodation at Brignoles was a fairly basic motel. Modernism so I'm expected decent facilities. On checking in the guy on reception gave me my room details. First floor! I asked if there was anywhere to store my bike. He shrugged and pointed beyond reception. I said in my room? He nodded. I made a face about my luggage, the bike and the weight (some body language too probably). He gave me a wry smile, shrugged Nd logged back into he computer and assigned me a ground floor room. Yes!A result. Thanks mate. All this done with pidgin French and pidgin English.

This might seem to be a minor issue but when I get to accommodation on upper floors it is a logistical nightmare to get bike and luggage up the stairs. It typically takes 3 trips. 2 trips for the luggage and one for the bike. So I have to consider is the bike safe whilst I leave it downstairs, if not I have to lock it. Can I get the bike around the spiral staircases most apartment blocks have? So being able to simply wheel the bike into my room was a delight.

During my walk the previous evening I spied a large and very modern boulangerie which opened at 0630 so breakfast should be easy. I find that all boulangerie serve coffee and nearly every bakery serves coffee. Checkout was late so I had time to get up go for breakfast and then return to the motel to change, pack and get going. This also allowed me to use the facilities of the room and not risk the discomfort of needing the loo once of the road!

I need to explain a little about my plans for the next few days as today's ride was shorter than normal. I am due a rest day and it was my intention to rest in Nice however Brignoles to Nice was a long and hilly day so I cut it short with a stopover in Draguinand and rest day on Tuesday. That gives me an 80km day to Nice where I intend to have 2 days off to be a tourist. After nice I have a short ride to Ventimiglia where I will take a train to near Cuneo in Italy. The train is necessary to get over the southern Alps. The official EV8 route is not yet fully developed and one of the roads suffered a landslide last year. From Cuneo I head towards Turin using the Po basin as route to Venice.

Today's ride was lovely with continuing beautiful countryside but with few stopping points. It was a short ride after all. I managed a coffee stop and then had lunch at the side of a very quiet road.

At one point my route took me off-road and down a pretty rough track. Thankfully it was long but at times I had to get off and push.

Draguignan is a nice looking town but with limited touristy stuff. Some historic structures but basically a town where people live rather than visit.