France to Italy

Aix en Provence really was a disappointment.....very busy and slummy. Trying to park was a nightmare.....Too much to tackle and so short a time. There was the Renior museum, but absolutely impossble to find a parking spot.....Not sure how the tourists do it in high season. Mick was not overly dissappointed....Oh well.

That night, we treated ouselves to Pizza and while we waited a lovely Frenchman bought us a glass of wine ...What a nice gesture. The Pizza was built by hand from the dough onwards.....superb!!

When we checked our internet, Mick discovered that there was a gas shortage and strikes in France and was very worried we would not have enough to get out of France if we went to Nice....So an argument ensued, Claire thought Mick was over-reacting...He wanted to go straight to the Italian Border, if we could not get gas.

Next morning at the first fart of a sparrow we left to go to the autoroute and hopefully gas as well!

Guess what...Claire won!!....humph from Mick....Nice beckoned us. It was a pleasant but long drive and eventually we dropped down from the coastal mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and Nice.

We found our second Formula I hotel (best deals going). We walked and saw some lovely architecture near the Marina on the southside.
The very long promenade to the centreis a paralell to Miami

After the promenade the next stop was Monte Carlo.

The drive from Nice to Monte Carlo was ....STUNNING!!....I wish it for anyone. Such beautiful vistas at lots of turns as we wound our way up the coastal mountains. We can understand why people are attracted to this area. It is the retirement area of France. Claire thinks it is the most beautiful place she has seen in her whole life!!

San Rapheal between Nice and Monaco is a photographers dream

As time was a'ticken we made headway to the autoroute and skirted over Monte Carlo. The autoroute is faster and the engineering feats through the mountains via tunnels and viaducts is incredible... we went through hundreds of them.  Why can't we do that in BC?  If we had time and took the cliff hugging costal route we would have needed 3 or more days extra!...Italy awaited, so we moved on.

!