We woke on day 6 facing a decision: to tackle one last climb, the Col de la Couillole, or take an alternative route back to Puget, that being a 75km cruise along the valley following the river Tinee. One crucial contributing factor to our final decision was that we had not had any dinner the night before!! On arrival, Isola seemed like a quaint, pretty, but highly resourced alpine ski resort. Having checked into our hotel at about 3pm we managed to grab ourselves large baguettes and bevvies whilst watching a fair amount of life go by.
Then, at about 8pm, the whole town seemed to disappear. It was as if the lights had gone out on a model village. Apart from one little square full of village elders partying on plastic cups of wine, the whole town was dead. There were 3 or 4 restaurants, none of which were open. That left us with a mile walk out of a town to a nearby campsite, but all that was there was a canteen full of French holiday goers and it all looked a little too bizarre to approach. So we starved.
For that reason, we chose to avoid the Col de la Couillole and opted instead for the valley ride. It was blissful, and reminded me of something I learnt a couple of years ago when cycling from Land's End to Edinburgh - that flats are good for your soul. Don't get me wrong, I love mountains, and I really caught the climbing bug, but after 3 days of tough cycling, there is nothing like flat roads to put a smile on your face.
The ride back to Puget took us no time at all, and as we raced back into our home away from home, along the sunlit boulevard, we reflected on 6 beautiful cols, some stunning towns, great cycling and a fantastic trip.
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| The finishing straight, back to Hotel Alize |
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