Page 16 - TT2018 Official Routebook

Day Five: Tuesday - La Palud-sur-Verdon Loop – 143miles

Day Five could be a day of many things…but I know what I am going to be up to.

 A day for the faint hearted , to relax, top up their tan, checking out the wild life and
massage their over worked right foot to improve its dexterity for their return run home.
 Perhaps a day to relax and froth in the bath in your room, no specific Toadsters spring to
mind!
 Potter into Moustiers-Sainte-Marie for a spot of lunch and shopping.
 Commit the heinous crime of washing your car!
 ..or, as any sane Toadster will be doing with French open roads in the neighbourhood, whip
the roof off, jump in, buckle up, hit the start button (and for those of less fortunate, turn the
key) and enjoy some of the most epic and deserted roads outside of the Alpine Passes.

There isn’t much I can say about this day’s run which will do it justice. Suffice to say, we will hardly
see any traffic all day, the roads are all twisty and the scenery is just simply stunning. Although we
won’t be going over any passes you can see below that there is nothing that can describe these
roads as flat. We have of course travelled through this area many times before and it is linked to
memories that are as vivid today as they were, in some cases, 13 years ago for me.
Thirteen years ago, on these roads in my Elise S1, I decided that I just had to buy a S2 Exige. I had
been following Rob Beaves in his brand new Exige NA in gunmetal grey and I just simple couldn’t
keep up with the bugger especially when he got the damn thing on the sports cam. Oh, I can feel the
frustration even now and, not long after I returned home, LBE was ordered from Wilsons Lotus. It
was my Exige epiphany road.

Another year, with Geoff and Rich, we caught up with a Lotus Caterham in Type 21 colours sat at a
set of temporary traffic lights on French plates. One of the lads jumped out of their Caterham and
started taking photos of the four cars waiting at the lights and Rich on the radio suggested that we
should get him to ride as a passenger for a while and purposely scare the shit out of him. As this lad
approached Geoff’s car, Geoff asked in his faltering French if the guy would like to be passenger to
the next village. The lad responded “Oui” and jumped in and started to buckle up. Geoff, nearly
exhausted of his repertoire of useable French said in his best French accent, “Comment est votre
Anglais?” to which the lad responded in perfect English “Good enough to understand what was said
on the radio!”. Turned out they were both from Manchester and had flown down to Nice and hired
the French plated Caterham for a blast in the hills for a couple of days! Honorary Toadsters!

A section of this road is so unfrequented with traffic that you will have to keep your eye out for rocks
on the road even long after a rain storm. You will also see a number of burnt out car wrecks on the
side of the road and it’s like something out of a Mad Max movie. Even Rich in the shed, before it was
all tarted up, felt uncomfortable that his car was going to be commandeered by a Frenchman
wearing a gas mask and hoodie from some future post-apocalyptic era.
What ever you choose to do, relax or drive, I am sure you won’t regret a minute of it.