It seems that not only did everyone from Sugar Free survive their charity bike ride, but they actually enjoyed it! Furthermore, while us lot suffered from very inclement weather on Wednesday and Thursday, they in turn had fantastic stuff. Thursday was by far the worst day on the Riviera with rather spectacular mini-tornados, around 3pm, hitting the coastal region from Menton, across Nice and down to Cannes. Chateauneuf suffered very heavy bouts of rain and storms which interfered with both our electrics and internet service though the most noticeable was the incredible drop in temperature: so much so that I had to dig out an old jumper even though our heating had kicked in.

This morning as I drove over to St Tropez to pick up the rental bikes, I was astonished to see snow already capping the Alpes-Maritimes, the range of mountains separating France from Italy. As it turned out between 5 and 10 cm of snow fell above 1,500 metres yesterday - which could be good news for skiers. Last year the Alps had a very poor covering of real snow and many skiers ended up hiking around the resorts instead. Météo France are predicting further bad weather as of next Tuesday. Just shows you the type of micro-climate we have along the French Riviera.

If bad weather wasn’t enough to end the week, 1,600 cruise passengers from the Island Star (tonnage 46, 811 and owned by Island Cruises since 2002) found themselves unexpectedly in Villefranche-sur-Mer yesterday, rather than ending their cruise in Spain. Cooling problems with the main engines caused the ship to divert and off-load all its passengers - a great many of them British. Evacuated by bus, they arrived at Nice airport, but it took the whole day before everyone was safely on their way home. The company’s blurb reads "A cruise should be about leaving the world of timetables where it belongs" - a memorable epitaph for yesterday’s escapade . . .

I returned the bikes to Villeneuve-Loubet and used the occasion to take a few photos of this remarkable marina. Seen close up it is a stunning piece of architecture. The lads are planning to return next year to raise more money for Sugar Free, but this time starting from St Maxime and then heading across to Toulon. Thankfully, although asked if I would like to help them organise it, I am happy to report that I shan’t need to ride a bike - the last time I did was, oh my, at least thirty years ago . . .