BergMeister Tour 2012; Another Magical Road Trip, Part 3

After a night of pizza by the lake and without a doubt the warmest night of the whole trip, it was off to Monaco via the highway up to Limone Piemonte. This leg was merely built in to get us to Monaco, so outside of some maverick gathering at highway intersections, it only got exciting once we reached the Col de Tende. This pass has been in use for thousands of years and even the tunnel was already built in 1882. It runs about 3,2 km and allows only one direction of traffic. So as we arrived we had to park for 15 minutes in line before the light would go green. There was a charming lady in a brand new white Cayenne at the head of the queue and appealing to her sense of “family” she agreed to let us rip through the tunnel ahead of the rest. Both the climb and descent were quiet and consist of sweeping turns. That made up for a lot cruising on the highway.

Instead of going straight down to Monaco we took the Col de Brouis instead to get into the mood for the Monte Carlo stage loops of tomorrow. There was virtually no traffic on the Col and we could let the flat sixes sing to their hearts desire. Definitely the roads in France have a je-ne-sai-quoi compared to the roads in Italy. Perhaps more of the roads in Italy have been put on top of trails which were ancient, whilst in France they were often modified to suit modern traffic. Hence the flow you find in many of the French mountain roads.

We were lucky enough to find a hotel smack in the middle of Monaco with a garage in the basement and after clening up it was off to the harbour of Mandelieu for dinner by the Mediterranean. Even if you would arrive in a gloomy mood to this unique site, within 2 glasses of rose you forget the misery of the rest of the world. Imagine if you arrive in a good mood! To me dipping my feet in the sea off the terrace of the restaurant says: wow, we’ve already come this far. Kind of a formal finish to the first half of the trip by Mediterranean baptism of the toes.

The next morning Jan, Gerd, Hamish, Nick and I headed out towards the Monegasque hinterland. The cars were empty of luggage, most of the passengers were by the pool and we had the Monte Carlo stage roads for ourselves. Nick was trailing the pack in his rental Cinquecento but kept up surprisingly well, although one after the other warning light started to come on on the dash…. Hamish’2.7RS started to deteriorate to the point where he was fed up with the loss of power and he decided to take the car back to the specialist in Antibes.

Thus, outside of a a brief encouter with Martin Gibson and his wife Lesley, Jan, Gerd and I were on our own. I’m not going into detail here, but it was one of our best driving days so far. No traffic, great curves and three very different early cars, each with their own characteristics. The Turbo would take off when there was 400 meters between hairpins, Jan’s back-date 3.2, with a standard gearbox did well on 300 meter sections and Woodstock, the 3.0 RSR racer, with its short gearing and LSD got ahead on the 200 meter sections. tires made quite a difference as well and the TB’s on Woodstock did their job admirably.

The next day we took the Col de la Bonette and the Col de l’Izoard direction Briancon. The views in this area south of the Charteuse complex are just stunning, horned sheep and all. Sweeping open roads up and down and plenty of great spots for pictures. Somewhere near the Col de Vars we lost Simon with Silverado and despite various phone calls we could not figure out where he was at. He had somehow gotten on a road into Italy and with the help of a brochure with three lines on it, he somehow managed to make his way to the hotel in Briancon before dinner. Top score for the Canadian team!

Hamish’ RS could not be cured in Antibes and Nick and him decided to have it repatriated to the UK. The final day Nick and Hamish joined us with their rental Audi which they picked up in Geneva, having flown from Nice to Geneva the day before, spent the night at our final destination, then drove down to Briancon to meet us for breakfast at 8 AM…. Talking about the grit of the boys from down under! All to be able to cross the final Cols with us.

The final route took us over the Galibier, the  Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Glandon and finally the famous Col de la Madeleine. Definitely the Tour ended on a high with this sequence of impressive elevations and spectacular landscape. To celebrate the crossing of the final pass we all posed at the peak monument on the Col de la Madeleine and awarded all those that passed this final Col a copy of the local milestone.

Upon arrival in Talloires we were rewarded with a dip into the refreshing Lake Annecy and relaxed a bit ahead of the awards dinner. The setting of the dinner on the edge of the Lake could not be better and the sun slowly set on a truly magical road trip with amazing friends. This early 911 thing goes way beyond the metal, doesn’t it…. Only 23 more months to the next one!

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