Escaping civilization

Goodbye Italy - I never thought you would be such a big part of this trip along the French Riviera, but I am glad we spent as much time as we did here. Today, we make the not-so-long, but challenging trek back along the coast, and north into the Pre-Alpes region. We get stopped at the border to France, because we are a campervan, and they are worried we have too much space where we could be smuggling immigrants into the country. The check lasts 30 seconds, and they don't even check our passports in the process.

We cruise along the Moyenne Corniche this time, where the views are much better, less obstructed, and there are actual pull-offs to view the vistas below!

After about a million rond-points and interchanges, we manage to escape Nice and find ourselves on the Route Napoleon, weaving our way up into the mountains. We stop every chance we get: 

In front of a defunct waterfall monument dedicated to Napoleon, just above Grasse, for lunch.

Once at a pull-off near the Vallon de Fontsèche, where we catch the most beautiful views of the valley before us, heading all the way down to the coast.

A bit further around the bend, near the picturesque town of Escragnolles, we had cold coffee and madeleines on the side of a cliff.

In the valley of Gratemoine, where the remains of a church beckon, but we are more interested in the bees buzzing around our feet, landing on tiny purple flowers hidden among the dry grasses.

A church on top of a cliff jutting out in the middle of a gorge drew us into Castellane, where we stopped by the river. This is also the Eastern gateway to the Gorges du Verdon area.

And somewhere near the Porte de Saint-Jean, we stopped and stared in awe at the most intense geological formations I think we've ever seen in this wild and crazy world, a wave of rock slamming into another, the physical representation of two tectonic plates slamming together at some point in the history of the world.

After so many twists and turns that Mario feel physically tired as I feel mentally tired(from navigating) from the 4-hour drive, we arrive just outside of the village of La-Palud-Sur-Verdon, and the amazing municipal campground where we will stay for the next couple of nights. Time to commune with nature, after communing with so much population. Tomorrow will be an early morning, so after a short walk into the village for bread and ice cream, we have dinner and call it an early night.