Hotel Ideal Sejour Nice

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 ...

... upon me it feels very strange and somewhat daunting. But to my knowledge no one has ever died from teaching children so I am sure I will survive.... My Amazon book order should arrive soon to inspire me. I am really looking forward to discovering the 100 things you can do with a paper plate. Life is never going to be the same!!

More when I start travelling...

... about a dog... Toilet time It is amazing how toilet dramas/stories are always a hot topic of conversation amongst travelers. I feel a little empty this time round as we have averted the problem as we have a Thetford cassette Porta Potti. Called "Theo"... We started out thinking would only use him in emergency situations but with the scarcity of public loos in France and more so in Italy means he is getting a lot more use than first planned. These loos are easy to empty and ...

... weather back home in Melbourne and looked forward to a top of 18 one of the days whilst staying at the hotel and crossed fingers to hopefully get enough sun to enjoy the pool at our shmance hotel. We were very excited for an ensuite AND a double bed AND one doona AND maybe a bath.... Such luxury!!!


On the friday before our hotel stay, which we had decided would be chill time primarily, we decided to try and get some official sight-seeing time in and ventured out on day trip to ...

... the head-ons with scooters we avoided, the pop hits on the radio in French.... Parting is such sweet sorrow, but we're happy to be heading home.

This has truly been a trip of a lifetime for us, a Bon Voyage. We will be returning with two big smiles, a thousand pictures, 1,783 miles on the speedometer and a million wonderful memories.

auf Wiedersehen, Arrivederci, Au revoir, See you back home!

Dawn & John

... comment. I responded with "Yeah, and it helps coy he`s actually running another tour at the same time, by teleconference." Iäm a huge fan of our lame sense f#o fhumour, and it was great to make a stupid commen without having to have it translated into french or something, or have to explain it three times.

The palentine hill was in serious ruins, so there was a lot of looking at foundations. The guide made it good though, telling stories and explaining the era as ...

... early 20th century and where many Russian expatriates worshipped after the Soviet revolution. We walked back through the gardens and into Place Messena through wonderful neighborhoods (condo prices have dropped, entry-level properties are down to E150k now ...) With a 430AM wake-up call (1130PM ET on Thursday night) we decided to keep it low-key in the night. We were very happy to enjoy our return to Nice and hope to be back again next year.

... thumbing a fatter French woman with purple hair picked us up and drove us all the way into the centre of Nice in her super-fast car. What a great way to travel! The scenery was beautiful and our bank accounts were untouched. We spent the evening wandering around the old city and stayed the night in an upmarket youth hostel which was quite swish, quite expensive but very Nice.

... sizes are at the Chinese places in the states. When I saw our chow, I felt like I was getting ripped off, but don't you know? It was plenty. I was full, but I didn't stuff myself. At the end of the meal, this cute little lady who had been our waitress brought us a couple of complementary shots of this clear liquid. Looking into the glass we noticed that there were pictures on the bottom of the jigger. Upon further examination, the pictures were some fairly hard core ...