Almost there! What better way to start the final day than to go in the wrong direction? We followed red and white markers out of Aspremont but that turned out to be the GR51. Needless to say, the GR51 does not go to Nice but instead wanders off towards the west without actually reaching the Mediterranean until Cannes. Thank you, friendly French woman who ran after us and pointed out the GR5!

At this point we couldn’t feel our toes anymore but it was the last day. The GR5 climbs up the slopes of Mont Chauve using a path that is just made up of random stones and rocks piled on top of each other. Once we finished that the climbing was over and the rest of the GR5 was just downhill. We definitively prefer climbing to descending but hey, almost there! While the GR5 does its best to avoid suburbs and towns at this point it just wasn’t possible anymore. We entered Nice through a park where we took off our boots for the last time then just kept going south.

Apparently, the GR5 used to finish officially in the middle of Nice at Place Alexandre Médicin, which is the stupidest idea ever. Just keep going south. There is a brilliant ice cream parlour on the way. We checked Google Maps and we’re pretty sure it’s Arlequin Gelati, on the Avenue Malaussena, just north of the station.

Nice was hot and busy and confusing after twenty days of hiking, so after wading in the Mediterranean we took the train back to Grenoble the next day. We wore our camp clothes in the train rather than our malodorous Icebreaker shirts. We're not barbarians.

Day 20: Aspremont to Nice