By Ambassador Pier Francesco Macchi

A random van trip in Côte D’Azur to end 2022

A short story.

It’s Christmas. I hear most of my friends are taking planes for surf trips around the globe. I kinda envy them being a surfer myself.. but do I really? I’m also a biker and I have a van. I live in Liguria, Italy, just next to the south of France. I’ve been thinking for quite some time about exploring it. It’s winter, low season there, it’s the best time really. Predicted 15°C, ideal for biking. Ok, this is perfect I think.

I have a comfy campervan, and not long ago I lived for almost two years in it. This is a great occasion to go back to vanlife for a week, or maybe more, with my girlfriend Silvia. Maps at hand, the destination is Massif de l’Esterel (well, in vanlife you never know which will really be the destination). Potential stops: Sanremo (Italy), Montecarlo (Monaco), Menton, Nice, Antibes, and Cannes for France.

December 28, the engine starts, then stops not far away in Sanremo. Famous for the music festival that goes on national Italian television. We’ve stopped to check a coastal bike path: paved, flat, super easy, and ideal to warm up for the trip ahead. For dinner, we find a TooGoodToGo box in a Moroccan restaurant. It’s a great app to save still-good food that might go wasted otherwise. We arrive back at the van to eat. It’s parked right in front of the sea. I love that spot in Sanremo.

The morning after, Silvia jumps in the sea. Although I’m always in the water surfing, I can’t mimic her now, I usually wear a wetsuit, and she doesn’t. I really admire her. We drive to Cape Martin, and from there, we pedal up to La Tête De Chien. It’s a viewpoint above and beyond Montecarlo. From up there I watch those skyscrapers squeezed next to each other right next to the sea. It doesn’t add up. Anyway, it’s always nice to earn a panoramic view with your own energy. Screaming brake pads, burning disk brakes, the way back is all downhill except at one point we follow a route that makes us get off the bikes and walk, unexpectedly. We end up right in Montecarlo. Lots of lights, big brands in huge shop windows, and luxury cars showing off. I can’t stand this place. A quick stop in a grocery to pack our bags with food. We take the van and drive to Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, beyond Antibes.

That’s enough for today.

Another day. We wake up again on the seaside. We visit Antibes’ market, then we ride to Cannes. Bike lanes, we take it easy today after yesterday’s ascent. A beer at the end of the day, for that “minerals assimilation.” We like where we parked, we are gonna stay here another night. The beauty of vanlife.

Good night. Good morning. It’s the last day of the year. We drive towards the Massif de l’Esterel, and we find a cool panoramic spot for the van, quite high above the sea, facing Cannes in the distance on the other side of the bay. That night we’d watch the fireworks from there.
We bike some coastal road, we find an uphill gravel path, then it connects to a gritty road to go back to the van.

It’s New Year’s Eve! We decide to spend the night here in this spot. We try to stay up till midnight, but at some point we decide, realizing in other parts of the world people are already celebrating, to celebrate Instambul’s New Year’s Eve at our 10 o’clock. I switch on the car stereo, pump some silly disco music, all lights off but the headlamp, set to flashing mode, and here we have a 2-person disco party going on! The prosecco cork explodes through the van roof hatch.

We last less than one more hour, then it’s bedtime for us. We set up an alarm for 11:55 pm to wake up and watch Cannes’ fire show. Silvia manages, but I don’t.

2023

Little hungover from mixing beers and Prosecco wine. Silvia is a bit annoyed cause I did not watch the fireworks with her last night, and I am too. Damn alcohol mix. Nothing better now than to take the bike and sweat away this unpleasant feeling. Plain road cycle along the sea up to Saint
Raphael and back. We drive to another spot we saw while biking today: Le Cap Roux. Here we spend the night in front of the sea. The wind is blowing. Slow waking up. It’s still windy. We take the yoga mat, sleeping bag and a book. We find a small spot between the rocks closer to the sea and I spend some time reading while Silvia stretches. We contemplate the sun coming up above the sea and through the clouds.

Time for another ride! We explore the inland, it’s beautiful. Sprawling volcanic mountain range offers trails for hikers and cyclists, plus sweeping sea views. We must come back here. We move to Saint Paul de Vence for the night. We walk the deserted and silent cobblestoned narrow walk passages between the medieval houses tinted in orange by the warm street night lights. It’s fascinating and romantic I must admit, and it’s the perfect time to visit: no people around except a few locals.

We wake up and drive to Nice, we want to check out a bike café: Café du Cycliste. We manage to find a free carpark on the Colline du Château (the castle hill dominating Old Nice). Starting from the beautiful Café, located in Nice’s marina, we start our city bike-sightseeing tour. Of course, Nice is simply …nice (ehm, sorry). We find another super TooGoodToGo box for lunch to eat at the beach. We ride back to the van and we move to Menton for another evening sightseeing walk, then we drive back to Italy but we spend another night on the road. We sleep at Dolceacqua, another picturesque cobblestone small town a bit inland in a valley along a river with its typical thin arched stone bridge, its old castle on top of the village hill surrounded by stone houses connected by stone arches for structural support that becomes a characteristic visual feature.

It’s January 4th and our trip ends today. We drive back.

Once home I find a Panettone, and fresh from the bike trip a genius idea comes to me to make it bikepacking-friendly. But that’s another (silly) story for another time.