After more than 40min of pure fun and adrenalin we arrived at the top to take pictures and do a walk to the peak. The view was awesome and the temperature very warm. We were considering, when it is already too hot on almost 3000m, how hot can it be in Nice? Kylie was already complaining about walking up to the top at half way, but finally she enjoyed the selfies on top the most.
After taking pictures and selfies we descent back to the cars and drove towards Isola. There Enrique decided to leave us and hit the road back home via highway, which I could not understand, as the way back over La Bonnete would take him may be one hour more but be much more fun.
Without Enrique and his beautiful RS2 blue 485R we drove on towards the sea, until we turned sharp right to take the "road through the red rocks". It was a very narrow but breath taking connection of hairpins and serpentines finally leading to a green landscape. After 20km we turned left back down towards Nice. After passing the Vallon des Pierlas we turned left and found a carwash. What looked like the solution for our mud problem turned into the nightmare. Whilst flushing off the mud, it reflected off the car and spilled into the interior of the Se7en and made all instruments including the gear shifter turning brown. The sun was burning down and only a limited pieces of paper towels were left to make inevitable reversible. The mess was in the car and it would not go off but rather be burnt in until we reach a place to clean it. As we could not change a thing we took the hot road towards Nice, which took us over an hour under the sun with rather boring roads. Arriving in the capital of tourism we parked the cars in the Grimaldi parking downstairs and walked to the pedestrian zone and visited the sea side. Every inch was covered with a bathing towel and a tourist sitting on it and defending his space. As umbrellas cost 21 EUR and the beach was more stone made than sand, we went for a crêpe and some panini, which tasted delicious. As the heat dehydrated us we helped with some soft drinks until we escaped the heat taking the car back to the mountains.
At a gasoline station we bought some drinks, 1l of oil as the CSR seemed thirsty and filled up the tank to take the famous Goldeneye James Bond route, which was chosen for the scene where a Ferrari with Xenia Onatop hunts Mr. Bond in a Aston Martin DB5. On the way uphill a lot of historic cars came in the opposite direction. As we found out they belong to the historic Monte Carlo rally from Hero Events.
After we passed the famous stone tunnel we drove over great planes with high speed straights and hilly regions through forests and alongside some cattle's. We arrived at around 18.00 in Castellane and passed without a stop to the lakes further north called Lac de Castillon. The water was clean and about 25 degrees. After changing clothes we jumped into the lake and spent time playing with the GoPro camera in the water, swimming and cooling down.
As it tended to get late and Mr. Toothpaste wanted to be home at noon the next day, we jumped back into the cars and enjoyed the route up along the Verdon and later towards Colmars. As there were no hotels available we took the road further up to Allos. We stopped at a hotel where the lady just locked her counter and wanted to leave. She told me after asking how many rooms and for how many nights we need it, she is booked out. On her reaction I can clearly see she was just too lazy to work which made me not so happy. We checked via Internet and booking pages hotels in Briançon and Barcelonette and finally found the Grand Hotel, which was friendly, even speaking English after hearing my French and offering a garage and 2 rooms plus accepting us arriving at midnight.
We found a nice restaurant with a great evening dish in Allos and enjoyed some wine and the food. As a digestif if even stated we will make the Col d'Allos we got some local delicacy offered, which honestly was necessary to digest the food we ate.
Back in the car Mr. Toothpaste cowardly mounted his roof and we drove up the hill in pitch black dark night. All along the road were caravans parked ready for the tour the France passing along the passage 2 days later. The passage is tricky and I knew how steep it goes down if I would do a mistake on the wheel. We listened to Scooter with Hyper Hyper and other very 90ties music to stay focused and safely but slowly arrived in Barcelonette.
The Grand Hotel was in the middle of the square downtown the village. It was a very old but lovely hotel with a garage and a hotel manager which liked riding in the Se7en to the garage and parking with me. Pascal parked the plastic Lotus outside, as in 5 hours he was anyway planning to leave. Whilst Navigator Christoph and myself had a few beers at the square, which was still full of people having drinks, singing or playing guitar. Pascal and Kylie went to sleep as 5 hours later they would leave and take the boring highway back home.
At 09.00 we met for a delicious breakfast and enjoyed the balcony view over the square. It was an awesome morning with a nice sunshine and great weather. We packed up and stuffed all in the Se7en. The route took us via Col de Vars over the "Boule" again up the hill and down to Guillestre, passing over col de l'Iozard, still one of the best passages getting to Briançon for gasoline and drinks.
The road took us up the hill to col de Galibier doing the peak as well and then down to the bottom passing col de télégraphe. It was getting more and more hot and the heat was damaging our good mood. We therefore decided to put the sun roof up and take the pussy - wings of the Se7en to get at least some warm wind in the face instead of less wind.
Via highway we arrived the entry of the col de Madeleine which we climbed up in a good speed enjoying every corner. Some very crazy bicycle drivers cut is and almost hit us in the middle of the road with high speed, whilst the other pilots were rather careful. On top we enjoyed the hospitality of the peak restaurant having some pasta and tried to start driving afterwards again. Unfortunately the Se7en did not start, as the battery seemed to get weak. As the red flash in the main indicator started to flicker, it was obvious there is something with the generator not all right. We could roll the car on and the engine started, but the flickering stayed on. We drove without lights and sound off down the col de la Madeleine to hit the highway towards Alberville. We decided to take the pussy route home, as we suspected the Se7en would not keep running for long and the highway would probably be the saver choice.