Zero Life: Beauty and the Beast Tour, 2023

Cannes to Embrun - 150 miles

A great day, one in which Beauty did hurt the Beast!

We started off with a slow cruise into central Cannes for breakfast:

...which, amazingly, didn't require a house re-mortgage. We then had a nice walk around the marina, planning our next yacht (there was an old rowing boat we could maybe afford).

On the way out of Cannes, I went halfway through a red light, slammed on the anchors and almost took out the police motorbike behind me! He wasn't too impressed, told me to take off my headset (you're not allowed to wear them in a car in France) and advised that it is a 90 euro fine for going through a red light. I put on a pathetic look, apologised profusely and he let me go...phew, close thing.

Next up, about 10 miles north of Cannes at Grasse, began the famous Route Napoleon. I was a bit worried about this; would it be rammed with wheezing Clios, motorhomes and trucks? Would it heck - it was bloody amazing. I'm not sure how long it went on for - at least 30 miles - but it was glorious; sweeping bends, a few little twisty sections, majestic views and those little stone blocks that are all there is between you and a 1000ft drop.

Towards the end of this blatfest, we got caught by 3 bikers who were, to be frank, mental. The first 2 went past me on a blind bend, one of them almost getting clipped by my front wheel. The 3rd guy, obviously deciding he didn't want to die today, got stuck behind me. After a few corners, I let him past - I really didn't want him doing something stupid.

My son was all for going past me and racing them but I put my worried dad hat on and he relented, sulking...

Which was lucky, because it was all too much for the Beast. It seems a known problem with C63s is that their gearbox oil overheats if you push it too hard for too long and the car goes into limp mode until it cools down again. Now limp mode on a C63 is almost enough to still keep up with Zedster - but not quite. So that's a win for Beauty and, who knows, one day I might let my son forget about it.

We stopped at the beautiful Castellane, which has a church perched on a huge chunk of rock that looms over the town:

Just after our drink, we went for petrol in a nearby supermarket and then went into the shop itself. By amazing luck, this was the first supermarket I'd seen with covered parking and because the sky had suddenly turned black and thunder was rolling, we parked up and ran inside. Seconds later, the heavens opened and half a reservoir fell out the sky, along with a large amount of hailstones. It was amazing - even the locals were filming it!

We shopped for 15 minutes and came out to just light drizzle. But I decided to put my roof on because the skies were still dodgy looking. Ten minutes down the road, just after our lunch stop:

... and the rain struck again, not quite as bad but enough to slow us down a lot and take it easy. A shame because the roads continued to be spectacular.

The rain stopped after about 20 minutes and we drove up a twisty delight of a road, alongside the huge Lac Serre-Poncon (catchy - never heard of it before). Possibly the best photo opp so far: