Friday 17th June: Blue skies and very windy, 15°C to 22°
Menton: 6hrs Travelling to Menton. 9.56 bus to Cavallermaggiore, train to Menton via Savona and Ventimiglia
Accommodation: Hotel Parisien, Menton
Graham's new beanie
An early start as we're travelling 6hrs to Menton on the Riviera in France. The scenery changes from rolling hills and vineyards, to green forested mountains with the snow capped alps in the distance to the west, then down to the Mediterranean Sea at Savona where the train travels along a narrow strip of rocky shoreline beside the Sea, through tunnels to Ventimiglia where we change to a French train to Menton.
It's 5.30am when we awake feeling cold at the Hotel San Lorenzo in Alba. A cool change has swept through with the rain last night, and is followed by clear blue skies, and a cool dry wind. Still more packing to do before breakfast which is a little spartan with no muesli and only dried cheese and a warm cup of tea or coffee. Time to say goodbye to Donna and Milton who are heading off to cycle in France, and at 9am we're out the door carrying our backpacks and wheeling our suitcase full of business class plane attire and cycling gear.
Blue skies and alps in distance
Graham and Jenny lunch on train
Ian enjoying lunch on train
Wild and windy Mediterranean
Seaside villages Savona to Menton
Ian a sorry picture with spilt wine
The station is only 1k away and we're there in plenty of time. Ian buys a bottle of Barbaresco for 9euro, which sells for 35euro+ in any restaurant we've been to, and we'll have a picnic dinner in Menton on the beach with Italian wine. The bus leaves on schedule at 9.56am and we quickly change to the train at Cavallermaggiore for the train which takes 1hr 30 minutes to get to Savona on the Italian Riviera passing through very different country with green forests and Maritime Alps in the background.
From Savona, another change to a train going to Ventimiglia. It's a 2 hr journey and we've got enough lunch to feed an army – cheese, tomatoes, bread, ham and butter. It's a relaxing journey crawling along the Mediterranean coast through pretty seaside villages adorned with purple bougainvillea. It’s wild and windy and the sea is rough with wanna-be surfers trying to catch the waves. We arrive in Ventimiglia at 2.53pm, and go to the ticket counter to buy French tickets for the trip to Menton. No such thing as a through ticket between Italy and France.
Ian minds the bags while I buy the 4 tickets, and when I return - oh what a mess - our beautiful bottle of Barbaresco has hit the floor and smashed leaving a trail of red wine over the ticket hall floor, and all through our lunch bag. There's no time to clean up and we have to run to the next platform for the Menton train which crawls along as security police walk the aisles de -training any dark coloured passengers to check their credentials. There’s an refuge/immigration route from Africa across to Italy and many then try to sneak into France Across the border.
In 12 minutes we arrive in Menton and it's only a short 1k walk to our Hotel Parisien which I've booked on line. It's very clean and quiet considering it’s in the middle of town on a busy street. A quick unpack and clean up after the wine disaster, and we're back on the streets checking out La Poste, to make sure that we can send our suitcase via Colissimo, the French Parcel Post back to our Paris Air BnB. We can, and it seems easy, so on to Carrefours to buy a picnic dinner and another bottle of wine - another Italian wine and one of our proven favourites, a Barberela d'Asti.
It's windy and cold walking along the waterfront, and it’s not long before we find a set of concrete steps overlooking the Menton-Garavan marina to eat our picnic dinner of smoked salmon, mace, cheese and fresh French bread. With of course, our bottle of Asti. It’s cool to coldwalking back along the beach front.
Time for a cup of tea back at the Hotel whilst discussing strategies for hiking to Castellar tomorrow then bed at 9pm.
Hotel Parisien in Menton