France, Nice and Alps

[Bucho]

All 7 of us (my family and our friend’s family), flew across the pond. Last leg of our trip we were in Nice, France. Its on the Mediterranean, pretty close to Monaco and Italy.

Everyone was pretty tired and nobody really wanted to do much on that last day. Just some pool and/or beach time.

So I had the green light to take off on my own for the day. The last morning I was going around to several places trying to rent a big scooter/small bike. One place required an International Drivers License (if you didnt have an EU license already). Another had only tiny scooters. 50 and 125cc. For the whole trip, in London, Paris, and Nice I had seen the majority of riders on “super scooters”. Yamaha XMax (300cc) is the most sold scooter in Europe. That is what I wanted to rent. But since I didnt have a reservation they only had smaller 125s. I was about to get one, then at last second I asked “Do you happen to have any motorcycles?”
They did!
They had a lot of really big bikes (I was surprised), but I settled on a Honda CBX500.

IMG_2301.jpeg (143.04 KiB) Viewed 6605 times

[Bucho]

Lately, my “big” bike is my WR250R, so the CBX500 felt substantial. But it was great to be on a bike and I took off into the city. Since I hadnt planned this, I was wearing sneakers and a T-shirt, with a borrowed helmet and gloves from rental shop. I was being fairly cautious.
The other biggest thing I wish I had was my bar mounted cellphone holder. I had to pull over A LOT, get phone out of pocket and look at map for a moment. Luckily, its totally fine to pop up onto the sidewalk.

The roads are super narrow and a few times I got confused bc I thought “surely this is a 1-way street…”, but it wasnt. Just crazy narrow.

IMG_2292.jpeg (164.27 KiB) Viewed 6597 times

This would have been tight for 2 bikes much less two cars. Luckily, it was a short road and I didnt encounter any traffic on it.

[Bucho]

I rode east along the coast, I stopped at La Petit Plage Afrique.

IMG_2295.jpeg (97.83 KiB) Viewed 6595 times

IMG_2296.jpeg (150.09 KiB) Viewed 6595 times

I continued east, rode 100 meters into Monaco (just to say Ive been there), and almost went to Italy. At Menton I turned north and headed into the mountains. I didnt realize how close the Alps were.

[Bucho]

The roads were already pretty good. I didnt really plan on anything like this. I would have been happy just riding a small scooter along the coast. But riding up into the Alps was amazing!

IMG_2303.jpeg (165.11 KiB) Viewed 6593 times

While I think Ive ridden roads as good in the USA. They were fairly short pieces of road. In the Alps they just went on for ALL DAY!

IMG_2305.jpeg (131.86 KiB) Viewed 6593 times

[Bucho]

Notre-Dame de la Menour, in the middle of nowhere!

IMG_2312.jpeg (145.73 KiB) Viewed 6587 times

So many switchbacks and curves. I was pretty happy with the little 500. You couldnt go that fast. Unless you had a passenger, I couldnt imagine needing a liter bike.

IMG_2318.jpeg (160.86 KiB) Viewed 6587 times

[Bucho]

IMG_2334.jpeg (186.25 KiB) Viewed 6585 times

Every road was pretty much like this. On one downhill switchback I encountered an RV coming up and he was taking the whole road to make the corner.

I wasnt even mad at the guy. There was no way the large vehicle could possibly make the corner without doing that. He was going very slow. And I was also being cautious, so I was able to get out of his way with minimal drama.

[Bucho]

Amazing experience. I would totally do it again. Just my little day trip was great. A purpose Alps moto trip would really be awesome.


I even found an unpaved mtn road. My French is pretty minimal, I didnt really understand the sign, but there was an open gate. It was some sort of government “fire road”. I showed a guy later and he shrugged when I asked if I was allowed to be on the road.

IMG_2328.jpeg (168.79 KiB) Viewed 6585 times

[Bucho]

I was very pleased with the Honda CBX500.
Was a great smallish street bike. Not much of an ADV/dualsport. Standing felt awkward. The exhaust was too close to the right peg and was in the way of my heel when standing.

But as a street bike that could easily go down a dirt road it was great.

Im not really a powermonger with bikes. I thought it had enough. At least for a solo rider.

[HuskyMatt]

Awesome ending to the trip. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Laoch]

Awesome trip Phil. That is a great looking place to ride.

I get a virtual tour of that area every year when I watch the Tour of France.

I really liked the CB500x that I had. It was the 17" front that made me get rid of it.