AutoroutetoSisteron,thenDigne.We
headeast,thendiveoffalonga bumpy,
jagged mountain road on the border
between Les Haute-Alpes and
Provence. Both bikes are bone-jarringly
stiff. “Ah,” says Si. “This is why people
get adventure bikes.”
At Digne we re-join the N85 beforethe
Route Napoléon shifts to the D4805into
Castellane, and the Verdon naturepark.
It’s a huge area of outstanding natural
beauty, stretching almost from Aix-en-
Provence to Nice. It’s too good to resist
a rip round — at Castellane we headoff
‘I’VEBEENTHERE!’
‘You won’t be
disappointed!’
Dave Heppinstall, Aprilia TuonoV4"My advice would be don't bother
with the boring bit between Gapand
Digne but instead, turn left afterGap
on the D900B and then south onthe
D900 to Digne. Cracking detour.
"And if you've got time, turn onto
the D952 at Castellane and ridethe
Gorges du Verdon to Moustiers-
Sainte-Marie. Stop overnight andride
back. You won’t be disappointed."Seasoned Euro-tourer
Dave Heppinstalltowards Verdon’s centrepiece, the
man-made Lac de Sainte-Croix, formed
in the mid 1970s by a dam project which
flooded the village of Les Salles-sur-
Verdon. The road to the lake followsthe
contours of the Gorges Du Verdon—
Europe's Grand Canyon; a colossalscar
in the limestone 15 miles long and halfa
mile deep. It’s an intense, challenging
ride, dashing along a river-
bed, twisting under over-hanging rock
formations and occasionally drippinga
spectacularly slippery mineral ontothe
road surface.We stop by thelake,thenstarttowind
our way back againalongthesouthside
of the Gorge to Comps-sur-Artuby, with
its phenomenal, eye-twisting views
across the dramatic landscape. And
then, as the sun sinks on another long
riding day, on to Draguignan. The townis
a Provençal gem; it seems in bloom with
cherry blossom all year round and the
air is thick with pollen and wood-smoke.Day Three
Draguignan to Dijon
486 miles, 12 hours 45 minutes
It rains in Provence. Damp and chilly, we
pad gently along the D562 to Napoléon’s
starting point at Golfe-Juan on the Côte
d’Azur, then turn onto the narrow
hairpins through Grasse, up to the
D6085 sweeping back towards
Castellane — this is pure South of France
chicanery, building a rhythm, rocking the
bikes back on forth as the road unwinds
along valley hillsides. As we head north,
now retracing our wheel-tracks towards
Digne and Gap, the weather clears and
familiar landmarks speed by as if it was
yesterday we passed. Which it was.
At a coffee stop just outside Gap, we
empty the panniers of both bikes and
see which will take a full face — we
squeeze an HJC in each Honda box
but it’s a bodge to get it in the smaller
exhaust-side pannier. The oddly shaped
Kawasaki panniers hold one no trouble.SPORTS
TOURING
SPECIAL
JULY 2019 | 47
Nearing La Mure on
the way north, back
from Provence