D1 Bouyon(sh)

The route to this shoulder summit runs along a high ridge, next to the river Var. Along the way it collects all the hilltowns which look so enticing, when cycling along the river. Especially on the eastern side, this is an urban environment, and there are close to infinitely many ways to reach the summit point from the east. But this is the most obvious way.

The western side, on the other hand, is already a world removed from the urban congestion of Nice, with even more towns on rocky perches wait to be discovered from the seat of a bicycle.

1.(km0,320m)START-END NORTH: Roquesteron-Grasse 2.(km10,610m)turnoff to Corsegudes on left 3.(km20,634m)TOP: Bouyon and turnoff onto D8 4.(km32,370m)tunroff to nearby Bouyon 5.(km37,270m)turnoff to neaby Gatieres 6.(km42,60m)START-END SOUTH: jct D1-D2209

Approaches

From West. Roquesteron is at the start of this profile. It has two parts. Both parts are built from the same multiple varieties of limestone, and complement each other in color and shape. One one side of the river, a bank of houses sit in front of a huge limestone cliff. And then on the other side of the Esteron a cylinder of houses balance on a rock outcrop. The cylinder is topped off by a church, - maybe put there so that the rest of the buildings don't fall into the river. They are all still there.

That will have to do for medieval village viewing until the road gets to what feels like a summit. In dense forest without any sign of traffic it heads up to a gap between two hogback ridges. Consegudes sits slightly above the gap, as if to show "this perch is occupied". However the road does not really descend form here, but traverses along the ridge, directly across from D27 to Ascros. From this vantage point with good late light, the view of the zigzags up Mt Dial are especially impressive.

The next medieval outpost, Ferres, lies at the junction of two different rock outcrops. To descend the Col de Ferres (just a shoulder point along this route) would require dirt road or trail on the north side. Taking the right fork in Bouyon would traverse a higher point on the way to Consegules. But the route profiled here, stays left and reaches an almost imperceptible high point along the uninterrupted viewing platform the road has been following.

From East. (described downwards) Approximately at the summit traffic picks up considerably, and it all comes or goes to the coast. There are many ways descend from here. The scenically most interesting way is to stick to the ridge line and pick up more hilltowns. Their character is different from here eastwards. Yes - the origin of the towns is still medieval, but they have flourishing modern life in them. They are busy with businesses, creperies and tourists, and they are surrounded by hundreds of modern one family real estate investments. But you can still find the picture perfect pictre frame around them, so that the illusion of a picturesque distant past is preserved. And if the weather plays along, there is a perfect snowy mountain background too. The daytrip below stays along the ridge a little longer than the profile. But it also has more traffic. More detail and options to descend on this side are on the D1-D2209 Carros Village (sh) page

A Dayride with this point as intermediate summit is on page D27 Ascros s(u)