Nice, France

Managed to get some sleep last night despite the 25 degree heat as we actually had a nice breeze from our apartment, unlike the one we had in Lyon which had no breeze whatsoever.
Up early this morning for a run along the Promenade, the last run we will actually do in France. We figured at 8am the weather would not be too hot, but already the temperature had hit 27 degrees, so a tough run when there is no shade to hide from the sun. However, there were a lot of men running bare chested, and I’m sure Hugh will also attest there were many women running in crop tops along the Promenade, so we managed to get through the kms ok.

After brekky we headed to Monaco to see how the rich and famous live. The drive in was at times pretty hairy as we wound our way around some pretty narrow streets which the French were not particularly fussed with sharing. We managed to get through unscathed but there are now a couple of fingernail dents in the dashboard. All in all great driving by Hughy, I couldn’t have been that cool under so much pressure.

Monaco is another world, full of uninterrupted views of the Mediterranean Sea from all apartments and houses, and super yachts and boat cruises to die for. There is so much opulence in this place they clearly have too much money, whoever they are.
Not only did we see one 60 metre super yacht, called Areti, but parked next door was her sister, Areti II.
For when the missus needs some ‘me’ time!

We managed to find a relatively cheap place to eat, so even the plebes are looked after. After lunch we walked around the marina and saw some amazing vessels, not to mention the odd Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes and of course one Bugatti which Hugh was in awe of.

It was the EB Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. The Super Sport version of the Veyron is the fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a top speed of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph)

It’s street price…£1912000! Check your conversion rates and that is a cool $2.7 million!!!
No wonder it was roped off.
We also saw a Mercedes SLR McLaren, which is a veritable steal at $750k. Just parked on the marina…
After deciding how to spend our next Tattslotto winnings, we jumped back in the car, saw the front of the famous Monte Carlo Casino……twice, took a wrong turn.
Two Rollers, a Bentley and a couple of Porsches illegally parked right outside! And a burnt orange Ferrari just parked illegally opposite…no probs…..book me, whatever!
We gave our VW Polo a pat, it’s ego bruised, and headed to a little place called Beaulieu-sur-mer which also housed many boats, obviously for those who could not afford the fees at Monaco.

We managed to squeeze in a beer whilst overlooking the marina and headed back to Nice.

We decided to drop the car off at the airport tonight as we no longer needed it. Checked out the directions on the map, pretty straight forward so off we went. What we didn’t realise was that the airport exit was on the far right hand side of the right lanes and in France it is impossible to cross 4 lanes at the last minute, although the French seem to be able to do it.
Finally got to the airport, managed to follow directions for car rental and caught the bus back into Nice.
Dinner in our rooms, then off again for our last night in France.

We walked along the Promenade Des Anglais watching the lights of Nice come on, highlighting the landmark buildings of this famous street….and we kept walking, and walking…till after about 3.5k’s we rounded the bend to the high point overlooking the whole strip and bordered by the Mediterranean.

Champers out, as well as our very special plastic Eiffel Tower glasses, and we toasted our time in France.

We wondered back thru the old town, and caught the encore from Earth, Wind & Fire, who are here performing at the annual Nice Jazz festival.
Yep, you heard me correctly….”Jazz” festival.
Not sure where this band fitted into that schedule, but good fun anyway.
3.5k’s back, and home by about 1am.

Tomorrow we fly to Naples and begin our journey through Italy…..bring on the coffee!!
Au voir xx