Cannes Mouans Sartoux Mouans-Sartoux

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.

... have an amazing view from Colline du Chateau. On saturday (November 28) we had sunshine and 19 degrees (end of November) and I was even swimming in the sea (15 gegrees), on sunday, November 29 we had rain and thunderstorms so that caused a delay of the plane of three hours. Best breakfast in town you find in "Les pains a tables" close to the market. Nice is a city IŽd love to visit once a year minimum.....

... Not only have the donations received already far exceeded my expectations, but the kind words and general interest and support that I have received have been amazing. So thank you all. It is all very much appreciated and I can't believe that between us we really will change these little lives. It is my motto here in Antibes, but this is the ultimate "think globally; act locally ...

... for 2 showers each and dish washing water. In France filling up the water tank was pretty easy and cheap (2-3 Euro) via staying in an Aire d'service. In Italy, it was not immediately obvious where we could fill up the water - a lot less signs than in France... but we have found fill up points on the highways and managed a lot more free/wild camping in Italy then we did in France... in fact we have not stayed in a designated campsite at all in Italy. Need to talk to a ...

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 ...

... French Riviera is all that its cracked up to be, absolutely gorgeous views, the water was so blue and clear, and relatively warm in comparison to Melb beaches, and had it been a few degrees warmer, we probably would have dared a swim. Ah well. There's always Barcelona! But seriously Nice is absolutely lovely, and apparently 17 and overcast here translates as not a cloud in the bluest sky we've ever seen, with sun shining.... life's tough aye...

With the lovely weather (in comparison ...

... consisted entirely of a Gallic shrug in the direction of the luggage carousel. Had I been quizzed at 2am on my reason for visiting France and the provenance of my funds I probably would have caused an international incident. Thankfully, I had my friends and we returned to the enormous house in which they are resident as guardians. It is near a town called La Colle-sur-Loup in the hills north of Antibes. The French Riviera is a stunning part of ...

... a street performance in Finland this summer! At home, Sonja had just eaten breakfast, and we made a lunch/dinner (I don't really know the difference of that anymore.) Satu made spaghetti and sauce, while I was ordered to entertain them with some guitar-playing. We ate outside, and the food was good. Afterwards, we lied down in the hammock and talked about how our clowns are. Mine is a very shy, scary taboo-loving girl. We went inside and dressed up. I wore Karo's pirate trousers ...

... wash some clothes. While we were in there, a beggar girl came in and bothered us for money...."MONey...MONey...MONey..." she wouldn't leave us alone, even after I yelled "NO!" in her face. She only left after she grabbed a shirt I was going to throw away. Annoying. Lessons learned: 1. Nice beaches are ROCKY 2. French pizza is GOOD 3. I still don't know how to get beggars to leave us alone 4. Australians go on holiday for 6 weeks at a time. Very enticing!

I was here on 01 January 1982. I went to the famous casino here to cash a travellers check as all of the banks were closed for the holiday. I got a good exchange rate because I guess they wanted to put me in a good mood to gamble my money away. One look at the beautiful ...