TU4EVER

July 8th, 2022 : After one week in the mountains, we reached the sea !

Via del Sale - Briga Alta - Monte Saccarello - La Brigue - Ventimiglia - Menton - Monaco - Côte d’Azur

📏 Distance : 115 km
⛰️ Positive elevation : 3937 m (while starting at 2000 m and finishing at 3 m)

This was the last day of Alpinaraid. We went from Col de Tende to Menton city, on the border of the Mediterranean sea. A few more mountain passes to go, but overall we went down to sea level.

We kicked off from Col de Tende towards the Alta Via del Sale (“high road of salt”). It used to be a 56 km long military road, over 2000 m altitude. This track is limited to a low number of vehicles per year, and it was normally closed the week of the raid. Hopefully, we had a special permit to drive on it. It was truly a beautiful track that is also on the podium of the most pleasing roads we took during this week.

The scenery was so breath-taking that we forgot to take some pictures.

At the end of this track, we went downhill towards the sea, passing by the villages of Briga Alta and Monesi. The small winding road we chose to go down was empty but offered us great landscapes and sea views. It was weird but enjoyable seeing the sea and coast for the first time of that week.

We finally arrived to the sea in Ventimiglia. We were almost at the finish line. We kept on driving along the coast, passed by the customs towards Menton.

We passed by the Europe Palace in Menton, then we got in front of the Baie du Soleil beach. A few crossroads later and we were at the Menton Stadium, the finish line meeting point.

We had a cold drink with the organizing committee and greeted other crews that already finished. At this point, everyone will go back home using separate ways.

One last official picture of crews at the finish line. Our car was not on it, as it served as a promontory for the organization photographer. The roofrack was perfect for that (thanks again John-Steel).

We decided to take the road again along the Côte d’Azur on this sunny late afternoon, before going a bit further from the coast late at night to sleep.

After a needed break to fix once again the exhaust line, we drove through Côte d’Azur’s most famous cities : Monaco, Cap d’Ail, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Nice (“promenade des anglais”), Antibes, Cannes (“boulevard de la Croisette”), Théoule-sur-Mer and finally Saint-Raphaël. Here are some pictures.

Once we were in Saint-Raphaël, we branch off to a road going further from the sea towards Draguignan. We parked in the countryside on a backroad, and spent the night there.