Auberge Le Soleil Eze

ok, it was more "collecting a new country" than being really interested in Monaco. Strange, when you go there from Nice airport by bus it costs you 18 € one way, when you go from Nice bus terminal it costs 1 € one way. Monaco is a very clean city. I have never seen so many big and expensive cars. I saw the casino and the castle. Nice, but not spectacular.

I know I always write the same...great weather, such a nice city, good food....but I have to say that Nice was a (very) big surprise for me, I can say that it is my favourite city in Europe (ok, number 2 after Lisbon). You have the mountains, the Cote dŽAzur (when you see the water you know why the name is Cote dŽAzur), the market with fresh vegetables, fruits, honey, oil, soap, you have great restaurants ...

... gesture. We can't change the world but we can change the way these children start off in life and who knows where that will lead....

It is less than 4 weeks now until I leave. There is much to do. I am trying to prepare myself for "teaching" 20 - 25 children. A bit of a challenge that. Much as I have known that I have always wanted to do something like this, now that it ...

... not limited by bus and train timetables. The other upside is that we are quite comfortably staying within our 50 Euro a day budget (25 Euro each) - yep that's fuel, food, the occasional wine or 3 out at a bar, entrance fees, the lot!! Downside of campervaning... it is a lot harder socialising and meeting other people. In a hostel this is easy especially if you are in an 8 bed dorm with a bunch of strangers. In a van you don't have this opportunity and most other vanners ...

On this morning we left Switzerland and travelled south into Italy en-route to the French Riviera. The scenery was pretty spectacular, with snow-white capped, jagged mountains that seemed to swallow the highway. Surreal!

When we arrived at our hotel we had about 30 mins to get ready for our trip into Monaco! On our drive to Monaco we crossed the bridge that Grace Kelly was killed on in a car accident. The roads are ...

... was just pebbles, and has now decided that the women of Nice must be covered in cellulite from all the pebbles! Les sun-roasted locals did not seem to mind the lack of sand one bit and glared at Dani's lily-white arms and legs which were sooo pale they are almost see through (she bought some tanning lotion the next day... feeling very self conscious!). Dee balked when she saw boobs hanging out for all to see on a woman many times her age (sooooo not right!!!).

Despite the pebbles ...

... for the day. The hotel we found was right in the old city within a couple of blocks of the Roman colliseum and theatre. They still hold bull fights in the colliseum which fortunately we missed. The only wildlife we saw there were hundreds of pigeons. The stadium still holds 20,000 people. From Arles we drove to Avignon with a few stops along the way to visit Pont du Gard (Roman Aquaduct), chateau de Baux (cute hill town ...

... there was a Tank there which reminded us of Allo Allo. We did have lunch there and continued on for 2.5 hours with a short toilet stop. Another hour and we were in Nice or should i say passing through it. We went straight to our hotel which was the Park Inn at 7.30pm. It had been a long day but with our guide being more informative and a few naps it went surprisingly quickly. The hotel was great but we didn't have much time to take advantage of it. We ...

... nijako neprekazala, specialne ked jedlo v nej bolo fantasticke. Zo Sanrema do Francuzska je to iba asi 10-15km. Zmenili sme trochu plan a povedali sme si, ze si ideme obzriet Nice a potom pojdeme najst nas kemp. Zostali sme ale v zapche v Nice asi na pol hodiny tak sme si povedali, ze asi najlepsie urobime ked si rychlo nieco kupime v potravinach a pojdeme spat. Okolo piatej sme uz aj byvali v malom plne vybavenom kempe so super vyhladom na more ...

... some sort of patsyio and noodle mixed into little balls coverd with spicy sauce. It was the best meal I have eaten since I have been here. My mouth is watering at I write this. We ate slowly and talked for about an hour. We didn't have anywhere to be. We took the bus back to Nice where we parted ways. They are headed to a small town before going to Florence on Sunday. I am going back to the hostel for a good nights sleep and wake tomorow for ...