Motor Coaching on the Riviera
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The Road Services of a French Railway Company Make it Possible to Motor from Marseille to Nice in One Day, Enjoying the Scenery of a Cliff-side Road Famous for its Beauty.
INjust the same way as the big English railway companies are now interesting themselves in road passenger travel, so has the P.L.M. Railway, that important organization connecting Paris with Lyon and the Mediterranean coast, foreseen the need for being in the forefront as .regards the development of road services. The railway system of this company serves one of the most beautiful and interesting areas of France, and the company has now a remarkably complete system of motor-coach services, both direct and circuitous, linking points of interest in the Alpine and Riviera country.
From three towns on the main railway line from Paris to Marseille, namely, Lyon, Valence and Avignon, coach services radiate to Vichy, Le Puy, Florae, Nimes, etc., on the west, and throughout the mountainous country between Geneva and Di,rue, important coaching centres being Chamonix, Annecy, Aix-leg-Bains, Grenoble and l3riancon. Even in Corsica the company has extensive motor-coach interests. Then there is the Route du Littoral, a service operated daily in both directions throughout the year between Nice and Marseille.
With the object of forming a real opinion of the convenience, comfort and efficiency of the famous P.L.M. Autobus Services, we flew over to Paris recently with the intention of obtaining actual experience of one of the most important routes. .
We selected the Route du Littoral, because this service connects such a variety of resorts spread along a coast which is famous the world over for its beauty, its climate and the enjoyment which it affords the holiday-maker. We knew of the recent develoPmeL;, of the Riviera as a summer resort and
B30 the growing tendency to abandon the false idea that it was only suitable for autumn and winter holidays.
The P.L.M. motor services are operated by contractors, working under agreements with the railway company. The two concerns which operate the Route du Littoral have remarkably satisfactory maintenance arrangements and employ drivers who are very capable and who not only know thoroughly the road and the places of interest through which it passes, but seem to have a knack of arranging that there is just time to stop at each place en route. A description of the .Nice-Marseille service will give some idea of how the other services in the Alps and elsewhere are operated.
The fare between Nice and Marseille, a distance of 259 km., is 125 frs., or just fl, fares for intermediate distances being proportionately less. Leaving Nice at 7.45 in the morning, we travel along the sea front with the Alpes Maritimes on our right, calling first at the little resort of Antibes at 8.40 and arriving in Cannes (35 km.) at 9 o'clock.
West of Cannes the route passes along a winding cliffledge road, with, in many places,
a precipitous drop on the left and a steep and wooded slope on the right La Napoule, Theoule, Le Trayas and Agay are four exquisite little villages along this coast which are seen before reaching the larger town of St. Raphael at 10.45, the scenery along this section of the Esterel coast being, perhaps, the most satisfying of all that is enjoyed in the course of the day. Around each headland waits another lovely vista.
St. Raphael• is important enough to have a harbour and several fashionable shops and hotels where numbers of English people are to be found, both in
summer and in winter. Just after leaving St. Raphael, we come upon the village of Frejus, a little inland, where the driver obligingly pauses to give us a chance to see the ruins of an old Roman arena and an aqueduct, which was formed nearly 2,000 years ago from the hollowed trunks of trees.
Proceeding on to the next town, St. Maxirae (104 km. from Nice), we pass through the more level country of the coastal plane overlooked by the AIontes des Maures,. where the vineyards and orange grove s, closely resemble
those in the neighbourhood of Jaffa. At St. Maxime a halt is provided for lunch from 11.45 to 1.30, after which the coach makes across the headland of St. Tropez to Cavalaire' Le Canadel and .Le Lavandou, three extraordinarily beautiful
spots where red sandstone cliffs, cloaked in pine woods, reach down to a crystal-clear sea of intense blueness. The sleepy town of Hyeres is reached at four in the afternoon and Toulon, the important naval base, 45 mins. later.
Many people have the impression that there are no really attractive resorts west of Toulon, but one need only make the journey by the P.L.M. coach to realize that in Sanary, Banda and La Ciotat, apart from several other villages, one could spend a very happy vacation.
The country here is, of course, rather more flat than it is between Cannes and St. Raphael, but it is heavily wooded in places, the cork forests constituting an important local industry, and tropical palms and cacti, as well as purple bougainvilltea and other reminders of the East, abound, Marseille is reached at 7.30 in the evening and one is surprised to have covered so long a jaurney without feeling fatigued. The vehicles emPloyed on the route are of Renault and Delahaye makes, a n d although some are as old as four or five years all lack nothing in the way of comfort. They are of the single deck all weather type, the older ones having detachable hoods stretched over transverse hood-sticks, which, when not needed, are removed from slots in the body sides and housed in lockers under the running boards. There is ample accommodation for luggage.
The feature of the service du Littoral is that it enables a newcomer to the country to take at least a glimpse of every resort on the Riviera coast between Marseille and Nice. The traveller from Paris may leave Marseille at 7 o'clock in the freshness of the morning sunshine, and when, he is dining that evening in Nice he will have formed a satisfactory choice of the two, or perhaps three, places on the route which appeal to him most for his holiday. He is then able to return to these places spend a few days at each and feel that he has employed his time to the very hest advantage.
From Nice there is a coach running daily to the Italian frontier, for which the fare is 45 francs, .the outward journey being made by the Grande Corniche and the return journey from Menton passing along the coast road through Monte Carlo and Monaco, Beaulieu and Villefranche, so that it is an easy and Inexpensive matter to appreciate the whole of the coast line from Marseille to the border of Italy in two memorable and happy days.