Day 1 of our cycle ride raising funds for Ukraine

Day 1 of our cycle ride:

We left Paris on the on the night train and arrived in Nice on the south coast of France at 9am the next morning, the 20th May 2025.

Unfortunately, the weather had turned a stormy and on the way along the Avenue des Anglais seafront. We had to shelter for over an hour. The heavens had opened and we got absolutely soaked.

Finally, we were able to move on, but the rain was still coming down heavily when we got to Golfe-Juan near Cannes. After asking at number of cafes, we were final allowed into one Turkish cafe with our wet clothes. What a haven and what lovely people! During lunch, we asked the young waiter where the monument to
Napoleon’s 1815 landing was. Amazingly, it turned out it was about 100m away near the beach, so we finished lunch, went to the monument. We had arrived at the beginning of the Route Napoleon! The first stage of our journey through France.

Our first stop was at an ancient hilltop town of Grasse, with its narrow streets and tall buildings, quite a climb up on our bicycles. We stayed in an old mill house by gorge with a stream tumbling though it.

We have travelled just over 50 km, 539m of ascent. of our near 1,500 km journey!