Pexi's Moto Guzzi Weblog

Sunday, winter views from Nice

Sunday appeared with clouds. There was no risk of rain, but the sky was mostly covered. However, the temperature reached 16C/61F on the coast, so it was a perfect weather for riding. After a good breakfast I washed and polished the cars and the Breva, then headed towards Nice. The photos below are  not that great, but I think and hope that they give a good impression of the pale sunlight during the winter days here in Côte d'Azur.

Day after the wine connoisseur competition

Our company had a wine connoisseur competition on Friday evening in Relais des Coches in Tourrettes sur Loup. It's one of the best restaurants I've ever visited in the area, relaxed atmosphere, open fireplaces and the menu was so good...ahhh.  As for the competition: I recognized (or guessed) three wines out of seven, not too bad for a Finn, "LOL"!

Obviously, not too much riding next day, wine tasting is a bit tiring :) I only had a short blast to the coast before the sunset.

Saturday trip to Bordighera, Italy

On this nice November Saturday afternoon I rode to Italy. Started around noon and came back half past five, just before the dark. I really enjoyed the cool ride, and even saw another black Breva in Italy.

And - as usual - I took some photos. The album is here.

Cannes, France by Night

It's almost freezing cold here during the night. Breva's thermometer displayd 8 Celsius in Cannes, then dropped down to 5 C few kilometers inland. Otherwise it's perfect riding season, dry and no wind at all, roads are practically deserted in the evenings and even the Gendarmerie stays inside. Unfortunately, that also means that roads are free for drunk drivers and otherwise incapable lane crossers... saw enough of them again tonight. Aaarrgh! Why on earth some people just can't stay on their side of the road in the corners! Hey you, you white van driver in la Roquette tonight: cutting corners is a sign of total lack of competence in the wheel and it will not make you a better driver. It's just utterly stupid. Period.

Sorry readers, I just had to let it out, I was so pissed off. Bloody hell, I think I need to start a public hate-list about the driver stereotypes I truely hate, it'll do good for my blood pressure... wait and see.

Anyways, Breva seems to like cold weather, the engine feels remarkably stronger?! On the other hand the Pirellis do not have much grip when the road is cold. Not the safest combination, LOL.

Enough for the blaa blaa, some more photos from Cannes, taken tonight:

Another Sunday raid to mountains!

The mountain freak hits again! Let's start on the right: view from Courmettes towards Barres de Cavillare, over the river Loup. You may see the village of Gourdon on the far left - it's those tiny white spots at the edge of the cliff. The picture is taken at the altitude of 800 m (approx).

Going a bit downhill, the photo on the left was taken with longer tele and voila, Gourdon is now much closer. For me the light and the colors in this photo are something special. It's something that you can only see during the early winter morning in Alpes Maritimes and Provence. Ok, it might not be an absolute truth, but I like to think that that's the way it is.

Still further down, and looking to the south, directly to Baie des Anges. You might just be able to see the corner of the Nice Côte d'Azur airport on the far left in the horizon, almost in the see. Then another peculiarity: the white pyramids on the front of the Guzzi's headlight are the Marina buildings in Villeneuve-Loubet Plage. If you look closely to the road, you might see the loose gravel, which challenged my riding skills well enough. No scrathes, yet!

  Down at the beach of Cannes la Bocca.

Roundtrip Mandelieu - Frejus - la Napoule

Around three o'clock PM, after the mandatory Saturday routines, I was finally able to start the engine and do some riding. The weather was incredibly nice, temperature rose up to 21C (almost 70F) in the afternoon. I headed towards Frejus.

I took the forest road inside Massif de l'Esterel, which is surrounded by old cork oak trees and is blessed by smooth asphalt and hudreds of good visibility curves. Only drawback is the bouguets of flowers you can see in too many curves - the signs of memorabilia of unfortunate and too fast, now late riders. Helps to keep your speed in control, though.

There are a lot of WW II statues and monuments around Frejus and St Rafael reminding us about  August 1944, when the brave mens of Allies, mostly the American troups of General Patch, liberated the Provence. The roads and thoughts are free now, my Guzzi shows her respect on the left.

The sun started to settle already when I was riding the coastal road from St Rafael back towards la Napoule. I had the opportunity to shoot some nice pics. On the right: portrait of my Breva.

The branches of this old mediterranean tree are supported by steel bars, nice gesture! I stopped here to put on some warmer riding equipment - the temperature falled down really rapidly after the sun disappeared. I like the photo, it's like from the paradise!

The red mountain is the Massif de l'Esterel, enjoying the last rays of sun. You can also see the fog starting to develop in the valley. What a moment!

One more shot of the Esterel. Simply beautiful, non?

Feedback, please?

Troups! This is supposed to be an interactive web site, you can write here too!! While you are here, click on any of Comments link and tell me and other readers what do you think. Positive or neg... ehh, constructive, whatever you like. Don't be bothered about the email address etc asked on the comments form - you can post totally anonymously if you want, just leave those fields empty.

Any advices on my poor photography or English language :), suggestions for future routes, hints for good pubs or restaurants, or plain and simple "Hello, Elvis was here" would be much appreciated.

If you don't want to write in English, write in Finnish, French, Swedish or German.

Täällä puhutaan Suomea, prkl. Je parle Français aussi, mais pas beaucoup. Man spracht Deutch auch, ein bischen. Jag talar Svenska ocks°a.

Grand Canyon du Verdon

It's a bank holiday in France, sun shines and my eye is finally in that kind of condition that I dare to ride! After a brief reflection I decided to ride towards Grand Canyon du Verdon, even though the weather forecast said "rain". Verdon is one of the most beautiful places I know of. I've been there several times before, but never with a bike and never this late autumn. I had high expectations.

Yesterday the mountains looked white, so I dressed for polar expedition :), took the Guzzi out and ... 230 twisty kms, five hours, it was pure pleasure. Heated grips could have been nice, though.

Just for a reference: average consumtion was 4.3 l / 100 km (65.6 mpg), and I kept the revs around 4000 almost constantly! Don't laugh, it's a 750 Guzzi, not your average sewing machine :P

I took zillions of photos, have a look into the photo album, it's here.

Tampere, Finland

This post has nothing to do with riding or Guzzi, but as I still can't ride and am actually travelling in Finland, some 3000 kms from my current home, I thought I might create a new photo album showing some nice shots from my native, beautiful northern country. All shots are taken tonight in Tampere, Finland. See yourself, the album is here.

And by the way, if you ever are in town, remember to visit the Pub "Vanha Monttu" (Old Pit?). It must be some 15 years since I was there previously, and still, well... chances are you'll like it, too. Cheers!