Hotel Le Passy 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 ...

Keeping Clean... the shower offensive Scooby is only the size of a delivery van... 4.8m Long and 2.3m Wide... fits snuggly into a shopping car park space. Height is not an issue as he is 2.6m tall so plenty of room for us shorties! The point is that space on the inside is at a premium, so the shower is "cosy"... but it does the job. Best of all we have a gas water boiler so the water is HOT HOT HOT!! We need to fill up our water tank every few days as there is only enough ...

... curly so it really isn't surprising that accidents are a regular occurrence.

Monaco is the world's second smallest country (after Vatican City) less than 2 square km, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in decadence! Streets are manicured, lavish hotels and casinos line the waterfront, and the harbour is chock a block with gigantic, plush boats.

Once we arrived we visited the Palais du Prince (or ...

... and Cannes. Dani was pumped for Cannes as this is where they hold THE Cannes film festival. Unfortunately, just as our luck would have it, the train we took was delayed by almost 2 hours, and we still don't know why. So it took us much longer to get to our first stop on our journey which was Antibes. We had been recommended to have some lunch there and apparently they have an awesome market. However thanks to the aforementioned delay, and our silly Dubcheck moves which will be revealed ...

... The golf course had some of the best views of this trip.  You could corsica from some of the holes out into the med and also small towns sprinkled throughout the valleys.  Julie was my caddy for the day, i rented clubs and had a pull cart as the regular carts are reserved for members.  My goal was to break 100 and i ended up shooting a 94.  julie was a trooper walking all 18 holes, even helped me read a few putts.  Some different things about ...

... very steep and narrow and are tiled with smooth cobblestone, decorated with many stonestar burstt flower compositions on most steps. This is a medieval village, a pleasure to ...

Last night was spent drinking cheap red wine down at the beach in Nice with a group of people I had met in Marseille. Was good fun. The hostel here doesn't allow alcohol in the chill out room and the kitchen and court yard shuts at 8pm, pretty ordinary, but we have our ways. So today I went off to Monte Carlo, Monaco, spent a few hours there drooling at the boats and the pristine water. The place is pretty amazing. Some of the boats were just ...

... goodbye at the train station at the end of the week. She had done so much for us and I could only hope that it wouldn't be too long until I was in Marseille again, maybe a few years down the track, there was still so much in this area that I didn't get to see, Corsica and the whole of North Africa. It's the bad half of travelling, finding such good people about the place and having to say goodbye too soon, but it does give you a reason to come back. Back to Bandol and back to work.