After returning from Barcelona to Toulouse, France we were so excited and relieved to see our bikes safely stored and locked up where we left them in storage. It’s been a while since we’ve cycled and we’re anxious to get back on the road again. Early the next day we set out to explore a bit of the French Riviera while we had some sunny days in the forecast.
While cycling around the coastline towards a town called Hyeres we were joined by a group of French cyclists out on a day ride. We felt as if we were right in the pack of the Tour de France for about 10 minutes as they all cycled past us and gave us big thumbs up gestures!! We felt pretty proud of ourselves sticking with the group for about 15 minutes before our legs tired and they left us in their dust. French cyclists are the friendliest people we’ve met so far in France. It seems like everyone riding a bike here has common respect for each other.
The sunny weather was short lived with another big storm approaching that called for 4 to 5 days of heavy rain and possible flooding. This is the third storm to pass through southern France this month. We were lucky to be in Barcelona during the last one which caused major flooding in Nice and surrounding area. However the good thing about all the rain coming through is that the Alps have been receiving tonnes of snow. Conditions should be amazing when we get to Switzerland in December with our high hopes to get up snowboarding for a day.
Although we had planned to cycle from Toulouse onward to the Italian border we quickly realized that we needed to search for trains to advance further along the Cote D’Azur and find a place to wait out the storm. But first we had to head back to Toulouse to find a train that accepted bikes! We were lucky to find a train to Nice and booked a great AirBNB apartment to rent for a few days.
Our stay in Nice consisted of some great homeschooling time while it rained heavily outside. One day we caught a break from the storm to get ingredients from a local market and have our homeschool cooking day in the apartment. Another day we decided to catch a train (only 20 minutes!) to Monaco / Monte Carlo. It felt strange to quickly be in a new country of such a small area. We walked around the harbour to see the huge yachts, and loved people watching with hopes to catch a lucky glimpse of someone famous in their luxury sports car outside the Monte Carlo Casino.
After 4 days of rain we decided to extend our stay in Nice by a few days to find a sunny break and some cycle time. We had a great ride towards Cannes with a picnic on the beach, and of course… another soccer game tournament. Vea and Norrie won the ‘Nice Cup’ which made Kai call for another rematch in days to come.
We enjoyed exploring Nice by our bikes. It’s a beautiful city with an incredible cycle route along the coast and a historic old town with narrow streets and interesting shops. We also found a really amazing public fountain in the centre of town which was fun to cycle through on our tandems with the dancing water spouts.
Planning our next cycle days towards Italy required a bit of luck and intuition. We knew another rain storm was approaching southern France, but we thought we’d be able to skirt it by cycling across the border and catching a train further into northern Italy on the way to Tuscany. Instead we had an idea to skip the trains entirely and take a ferry from Nice to Corsica. We’ve had some pretty stressful moments on the trains with our bikes – so the thought of simply riding onto a ferry was very appealing! It turned out to be a good decision since the approaching storm eventually got larger and caused major flooding in Northern Italy – right where we would have been had we taken the train! Many times throughout this year away we’ve learned to follow our intuition with certain decisions, and this proved to be another example of following our gut.
Our ferry to Corsica landed in the north eastern port of Bastia – where we had 3 days to explore and cycle some of the coast. We found another fantastic apartment in the heart of the old citadel district of the city, on a hill overlooking the ocean and harbour in a 16th century building. We immediately loved the feeling of the town of Bastia. It’s very laid back and genuine here – and we felt such an Italian influence in the buildings, alleyways and shops. It got us so excited for the next chapter of our cycle tour in Italy!
We enjoyed a few days of good weather here and were able to explore north of Bastia on our bikes. One day we had a beautiful picnic lunch on the seawall with food we bought earlier from the weekend markets. This is one of the things we love about cycling – finding these amazing spots to stop and have a break or a picnic.
Our next ferry from Corsica sails to Livorno Italy – which will place us in the perfect spot to start exploring northern Tuscany. We’re so glad that we decided to travel through Corsica. It turned out to be one of our favourite spots in France – and a great way to get to Italy.
We’re now looking forward to some great Italian wine and food in Tuscany!
Here’s some more photos from our cycle tour through the French Riviera and Corsica.
All 4 now!!!
Wow beautiful shots 🙂
Thanks Craig! They are all Norrie of course!
Love those rare photos of Norrie! Good job everyone getting him in the pics. Sounds like a great adventure leg of the trip. See you soon! Time is ticking on our end. Can’t wait.
We all try to get some snapshots of Norrie but the photos just aren’t the same … and he is so fast with the camera! See you soon! xo
Enjoy and don’t drink to much wine bad for biking
If it is good wine, it gives you strength on the bikes! xo
So many NOW,S, rain or shine you guys find the best in everything!,Remenber,where ever you go,there you are,so true for you guys.
Love mama!,
So true! We are fully taking in all the moments and embracing where we are. xo
Absolutely brilliant photos.
All the creds is Norrie … all the good ones anyway! xo
Mrs. Law is going to be Vea’s teacher when she gets back. She is looking forward to having her. Class numbers finally settled 🙂 Mary
Thanks for the update Mary! Vea is very excited to be going back to school! xo
Some very nice photos and a happy family 🙂
We was in Monaco in 2012. You should see incensed to the guard in front of the casino when I came there with RV and parked it between some expensive luxe cars. we had lunch at the Hotel de Paris.
We all laughed thinking about your RV in front of the casino. We could imagine all the guards faces! Our lunch was baguette and peanut butter outside the casino. xo
norrie,
thanks so much for taking us on this amazing trip with you! the photos and stories help us experience even a little bit of the awesome time you are having on your travels!
It’s been quite an experience but we are now looking forward to Three Brooks!
hi kari!
wow! quadruple wow!!!! thank you for including us in you & your family’s AWESOME blogs!!! we’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading about each and every day of your trip. and looking at the beautiful photos while reading about the latest adventures was such a bonus! although we’re not world travelers we certainly experienced a taste of what an amazing world we live in thanks to your stories!
i thought of you many times as i played soccer and wondered which white sandy beach you were playing on at that very minute?!?
you and norrie have certainly set the bar high for quality family time – congrats!!
Thanks! We have enjoyed documenting our travels and look forward to reading them over the years. We’ve seen some incredible places and to experience it all with the family has been wonderful! Looking forward to home turf and seeing you on the pitch! xo