After our very relaxing few days in Hyères we were ready to enjoy a short and easy drive to Diano Marina, a place I had visited previously on an other trip across Europe with TW560.
The Côte D’Azur is particularly well suited to TWIKE’s as the road surfaces are typically good and large parts are limited to 50km/h – ensuring full relaxation whilst enjoying many stunning views.
Today’s entry will have many photos of just this – us marvelling at the scenery and enjoying ourselves whilst driving in the ultimate vehicle for this environment save, of course, the old Citroën Mehari.
Ever so often we come across a smaller town or village and enjoy the attention we get from everyone.
If we stop we can be sure to be approached and asked the usual questions about the TWIKE.
Our road meanders in and out of many bays with upscale restaurants and many ‘grand design’ buildings nestling beside older, grand villas.
With this view we decide that it’s time for some more pics with TW560 as the main visual item.
After around 100km we get to the glitzy town of Cannes, where we compete for road real estate with many supercars and drive past the usual selection of super yachts.
From Antibes we can see both Nice and the first Italian hills.
In Nice we hit heavy traffic and decide to drive around it, over Nice’s main hill – a very good decision as the views of the town from above are beautiful!
I’ve driven across Monaco with a TWIKE before – following the F1 track and it was a great experience – including making our way to Monaco’s country club, where we were able to take some interesting pictures with TW560 being parked in a Ferrari dealership 🙂
Today, however, we decide not to push further as Google shows us heavy traffic all over town.
We decide to take the longer route above town – again a good decision – with many very nice views of the town from above.
It is at this point where TW560 starts to make some worrying noises when rolling. It sounds like the universal joint has run dry and is in dire need of some lubrication. It might also be the main ball bearing of the left axle.
Hear for yourself. This needs urgent attention!
We push onwards and arrive at the very last part of France – we do like the ‘go left for Italy’ scenario below.
Italy welcomes us with unusually good road surfaces and – since it’s evening – perfect temperatures and warm light.
Another 50km later, we arrive at our hotel, where since the last time I visited, they have installed a wall box for charging and now charge for parking – yes, even for the TWIKE.
We’re happy with secure parking and after some negotiations very reasonable pricing for both parking and charging. – I immediately plug in the TWIKE and start charging before anything else.
As always, I’m curious to see if the Type2 charger accepts my hacked cable … and it does!
For some unfathomable reason I only took two extension cords with me – this is the reason the charge is only on two phases.
Nevertheless, I’m happy to report that my TWIKE still manages to charge at the full 7.1+ kW it should be charging when fast charging. Still happy to have chosen to spend a lot of money on the additional chargers 13 years ago – an investment that still pays off today.
With TW560 happy, we settle in and start relaxing again.
Italy’s beaches are drastically different to other beaches along the Mediterranean – most are super organized and clean. A sunbed is rented and some even come with in-place service. Nothing we particularly like – we nevertheless found a free beach during a long walk along the beach – a first drink marks our arrival in Diano Marina and the continuation of our relaxation…Italian style.
More drinks were had at the ‘free’ beach we found earlier.
With this – what do our stats for today look like?
