De France Juan-les-Pins

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 ...

... we still would not be being tourists until 10am at the earliest. Because of our limited space Kim has become much more aware of the amount of rubbish we throw away as we have to take out the trash after every meal. Upside to Campervaning... the freedom is great. You can go to all of the little villages which are so difficult to get to when your backpacking. You're not tied to accommodation bookings or having to hunt out hostels on arrival to your destination. And you ...

... at the Monte Carlo Casino. Mark was super keen on feeling like James Bond. He so wishes he was James Bond. It is kind of odd because once you are in the casino it is really quiet and not busy at all. Mark won about 300 euro so we were happy.

We checked out the start and finish line of the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix, along with the famous hairpin turn. Even the locals fang it around that corner.

We headed ...

... that we were still in french territory, we feasted on delish pastries galore. Dee sampled her first proper French choc eclair...OH MY GOD was her reaction! Lewey even had dessert envy, and we both laughed at the fact that our tea cost more than the dessert (so very cheap in France for the desserts, bad bad bad as we are rapidly tripling our size, wondering how we will fit on the plane home)!

Feeling a little too much like a backpacker, and needing a tidy up before donning a bathing ...

... The neighbors were all so surprised that a mulot had gone into the house and said that had never happened anywhere in the neighborhood before. Just the Patry’s bad luck I guess!

The Tremelet’s daughter and husband had graciously offered to prepare us a french dinner prior to the arrival of the mulot. After it’s departure we were still able to enjoy this. What a pleasure it turned out to be. We really appreciated ...

... of a walk to get back and forth from the beach- stairs and elevators up to higher places; but pleasant ...

Today we took a train to Nice, France. We had no clue what was in store for us there. All we knew was that there was a beautiful park & a waterfall overlooking the city and beaches. The entire main boulevard was under contradiction from the train station down to a piazza just above the beach front. While walking down it we were a little worried, it looked a little trashy. But then we saw a huge fountain that changed height/pressure in height. There was a large shallow ...

... that. Not a big deal though because I was there for hours as opposed to days. In the evening I returned to Nice, watched the Italy soccer game (quarterfinals at this point...and of course everyone knows they went on to win the World Cup. Forza Italia!), and took my train to Florence. One last note-a great part about watching soccer games in a pub is that the bartenders all speak English (they are all Australian or Irish or English) and it's just so much easier and convenient.