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Solar Tour 2008 – Day 9: When we arrived at the Côte d’Azur, we came through Tourrettes-sur-Loup. At that time there was a pottery market and the town looked interesting enough to visit it again. It was just a short drive from Pont-du-Loup but once in Tourrettes-sur-Loup, again we had a hard time finding a parking space. Most regular car parks were not accessible for a motor home like ours. The old medieval center of the town itself was touristy with many craft and fashion stores but still had some charm. As we arrived around lunchtime almost all stores were closed and we didn’t feel like waiting.

At this point we’ve had enough of the Côte d’Azur. It was just too busy and touristic for us. Since we were in the middle of our tour, we had to start thinking about the route back. We had reached the furthest point of our trip.

Solar Tour  2008 – Day 9: Since Grasse is known for its perfume industry, we’ve been wondering where all the flowers and other ingredients are coming from. Not far away from Gourdon, a small perfumery – La Source Parfumee – has opened its garden to the public. Truly is was the source of the perfume. When we visited, they were harvesting the lavender and also gave us some as present. The garden also has two viewing points into the Gorges-du-Loup, by itself already a reason for a visit. The best time to see this garden is probably in spring and early summer.
We also wanted to visit the Gorges-du-Loup and the Cascade de Courmes but again it was impossible to park our motor home anywhere, so we left and returned to Pont-du-Loup, where we’ve already been earlier in the morning.

Solar Tour 2008 – Day 9: Gourdon is an old medieval perched village high above the Gorges-du-Loup with a great panoramic view over more than 80 kilometers of coastline. One of our guidebooks describes it as a village, that has ‘turned itself into an unofficial theme park‘. We had to agree. The old center is packed with souvenir and craft shops, offering countless variations of Provence kitsch. We were able to get away without buying anything. More interesting about Gourdon is the restored castle with museum and garden, laid out by André Le Nôtre, who was responsible for the construction of the park of the Palace of Versailles.

[singlepic=25,200,,,right]Solar Tour 2008 – Day 9: Being at the Côte d’Azur, the Mediterranean climate became very obvious. Olive and fig trees full of fruit everywhere, palm trees with dates and in the morning it was warm enough to have breakfast outside. The reception of a campground is usually the place to collect information about the region and also this time there was a lot of choice. In the morning we wanted to visit the Florian candy factory Confiserie des Gorges-du-Loup in Pont-du-Loup, but it was impossible to find a parking space for our motorhome in the little village in the valley, at the mouth of the Gorges-du-Loup. So we had to be agile and adjust our plans. Not far away in Grasse one can visit perfume factories but we skipped those and instead went up higher to visit Gourdon.

Solar Tour 2008 – Day 8: The next place we wanted to see on the 8th day of our tour was the Gorges du Cians near Rigaud. The Cians is a mountain river that flows through the Alpes-Maritimes department. Special about this gorge are the red schist rocks. Most spectacular is the small valley below the bridge on the road to Pierlas with rapids and small waterfalls. Without knowing about it one could easily miss it when crossing the narrow bridge. There is no official path leading down to the riverbed, but with some effort one can get there.

This day has been a very busy day for us, but we’ve seen a lot of impressive places. After visiting the Gorges du Cians we followed the N202 towards the Côte d’Azur and went on a campground in Le Bar-sur-Loup. We usually avoid the Côte d’Azur with its intensive tourism and higher crime rate, but recently we’ve learned about some villages in the hills, which seemed interesting and hopefully worth a visit.