One of the reasons we purchased a car here in Nice was to visit the surrounding area and, most of all, to visit a few harder to reach by public transportation hill towns.
We would begin our adventures with a hill town that is very close to Nice, les Hauts de Cagnes.
Before going anywhere new to me I like to use Google Maps streetview to see where we are going. It helps me anticipate, even if only a little, some of the details of where we are headed. In this way I thought I'd pretty well "mapped out" the trip and parking spaces around les Hauts.
It was a complex drive. Here in France the spaces and distances are much narrower and shorter than in the States. The travel times can be shockingly long, too. It took us an hour to get there when it was noted on Google Maps that it should take only 30 or so minutes.
Finally reaching the top of les Hauts where I had noted parking would be, there was none. No space at the inn, or should I say, no space at the chateau fort.
OK. There was nothing for it but do head back down the hill and make another tour to see if we couldn't catch an empty parking space on the backside of the hill.
Up and over the road next to the marie (city hall) at the chateau fort we went. Only to find that the street narrowed. Dramatically. With granite steps from doorways encroaching into the, um, lane. And a full sized camion (van) parked blocking the descent.
We're not backing up this steep, narrow ox-track. No way. No how. We patiently wait.
Things eventually clear and we slowly make our way off the hill, around the backside for a second time, up the hill and we find a parking space. But it is a long steep hike up to the top just to see things. And the hour is late. Rush hour traffic is piling up on the roads due to a 18h00 curfew that has been imposed on us country-wide due to Covid 19.
OK. OK. We'll let the GPS guide us off this thing and back to Nice. Maybe we'll come back another day.
Retracing our first ascent was quick and easy. When we get to the plaza next to the marie the sweet-talking GPS lady tells us to turn left and follow the road down a slightly different way from when we first ascended.
Only to find this shockingly steep path. It was very likely made for goats or sheep. Maximum two-wide. How man or beast or cart ever made it up this thing is well beyond me. If anything or anyone was headed downhill, they'd better have had outstanding brakes.
Ooooo... things are getting tight, now. The passenger is getting squeamish and isn't liking the "look of things." This is our new car, afterall. We don't want to scratch nor damage it during our first serious outing.
Yikes! Look at this, will you? We have a comfortable inch, maybe two, on either side of the rear view mirrors and the hard rock walls of the buildings on either side. One front tire gently brushes one of those damnable lane encroaching stoops. Whee... everyone take a deep breath, shall we?
I've driven some crazy routes in my life, but this takes its place near the top of my list of Insane BatNuts Crazy Adventures.
Wherein we relearn that nothing is ever as we expect nor hope, here in France where the women wear no pants. We just have to go with the flow. Even as it hurtles us down a path unfit for animal life.
For obvious reasons, no photos were taken during this adventure.
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