Day 7 Nice Nice

Day 7 Tues. Oct 21, 2008


Off we went to Nice today. We took the route considered the highest route through the Alps via Col de la Bonnette. I am sure that not even my dearest friends would sit through the nearly 400 pictures that I captures of the mountains and mountain villages along the way to Nice. I am not sure I would.




There are probably a thousand possible national geographic winners in every three foot stretch.

Stopping is not easy on the myriad hairpin turned roads and yet snapping pictures through a dirty windshield or hoping for no bush encounters through the side window makes capturing these prize-winning photos almost life threatening.

This is especially true when I scream “slow down” or “Hey, curtsy “ (sorta stop)so I can get one of those tremendous shots right after I just yelled “left” or “Watch they guy on your right.”










Have you ever watched the movie “Twister”? The road conditions are much like that on those mountain roads without my scaring poor Ted with a “stop” “Please? For a picture?” Yet, if you saw all the stunning, dazzling, indescribable scenes that continuously call for a shutter action, you too might feel compelled to capture what you can endangering life and limb to do so.




Ted insists on Driving and since Halette does the guiding , my major role is digitalizing the unusual, the beautiful, the weird, and the “quintessential.”



I take this role quite seriously and feel badly when I miss the perfect shot, waiting too long for the right angle and then missing as obstacles obliterate the gorgeous photo, the flash swallows up the windshield, or I forget to turn the camera on. Errrggg

Here’s the good thing about digital photography. You can take virtually as many pictures as you want.
Here’s the bad thing about digital photography. You can take virtually as many pictures as you want.
Because of this dilemma, you become nonchalant, snap here snap there not fussy, and not putting the camera down to do other great travel acts like conversing or reading the map in case Halette takes you on a wild goose chase on a “mogul” road. You also forget to look at the books you brought along that suggest great attractions off the road a couple of kilometers. You become totally sucked in by the challenge of capturing it ALL.

This all obsessive compulsive behavior cost us dearly today. In two ways. First, I had noted two very special stops, but since their descriptions and locations were sitting quietly in the French elastic folder on the back seat (or possibly have slipped onto the floor after our last nasty curve), these places went unreviewed and unvisted.









The second way that failure to attend to other things bit us in the butt came on our return from Nice. On the “Aller” or getting to Nice, we had taken that scenic route, the one that was the Highest Route in the Alps.” i.e. the Scenic Route. On our “retour” we were trying to get back the fast way, simply letting Halette “do her thing” and pick the best route all be herself.

BIG MISTAKE. Actually, to give Halette credit where it is due, she did accomplish her goal, that is, getting us back to Jausiers Vacances. Furthermore, if fault lies with anyone, it would be human error. Somewhere on route (Ted has his theories, I have my own)





we took a wrong turn. Halette is programmed to make do with human diversion. If you take a different route (intentionally or by mistake), she will honor those “wishes”, finding any way she can to still get you to your selected end point.


And that is what she did. Instead of having us make a U turn to return to the canonical “Big Road” which she had suggested originally, we took this wrong turn and she found a way to make that work.















OMG! If we thought the “difficult” Highest Route in Europe way was full of turns and challenges, it could NOT hold a candle to the heart-pounding, white knuckle driving on our return from Nice.

A few days ago, I was reminiscent of a trip that Mike and I took a while back. I mentioned the wrong road that took, also in the Alps, that had us drive on smaller and smaller roads, then paths, and then rocky paths with rubble falling off from under the edge of the Alpe.Ted and I revisited these exciting and stressful conditions today, or more precisely tonight.












With one added “pleasure”, fog. On one path, we












had entered the clouds and could not see anything, - road, edge, signs, each other. Halette, trying to please by using “our” “choice”, guided us over roads with no markings, with more potholes than tar, and then paths and dirt ruts, bridges that were narrow enough that most SUV’s would not have fit through, let alone 2 of them trying to pass somehow. My guess is that 2 SUV’s up there trying to maneuver past each other on 90% of the roads we negotiated tonight would have performed a couple of kilometers of backing up by one of them or the other, finding a spot conducive for them to get by and continue on their Not-so-Merry way.

We made it “home” to Jausiers after midnight, taking far longer on the “Big road” - okay the non-scenic route- than we had enjoyed on the twisted and turned “challenging” route of the morning.

(OOPS Wrong - This was our first guess as to Jausiers)





The rest of our day as you can see by the pictures was quite nice (in Nice) and we enjoyed the day immensely even with our harrowing “retour” experience. Those “added” thrills make traveling something to remember - An Adventure.










BTW, Concierge.com has some nice videos and one of them is on “la Promenade des Anglais” the main walkway in Nice. Take a look at it and you will want to go there ASAP.





Just so you know, planes land in Nice, so you don’t have to take the “scenic” route or any other mountain mad mouse ride to get there.