Kyriad Cannes Centre Hotel

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...

... if we want to via a plug in the side of Scooby. We've only hooked up to mains twice and found that we can charge all our gadgets from the leisure battery without running out of power. Laptop, Camera, phone, iPod, eBook and GPs. The fridge goes 3 ways off Mains when plugged in, off battery when the car is running and off gas when stationary. Mad Mary We have a GPS with EU maps installed. She was christened Mad Mary by the previous owner due to her sometimes ...

... to Nice to our hotel.

The next day we had a full free day of wandering and sight-seeing. We walked along the Promenade des Anglais and climbed to the top of a cliffside to take in the breathtaking views of the promenade, the azure blue ocean and its beachfront and the old town from Parc du Chateau. We took heaps of photos then spent most of the afternoon chillaxing. In the evening we had a really nice dinner ...

... we eventually found a cute place that by some miracle was open. Emboldened by some food, we found our way back to the station and decided to proceed on to the next stop, Cannes. It was a little disappointing, as it seems that it is quite a small town area and we can't quite work out why they would hold a huge film festival there, but anywho. Dee kept on the lookout for Brad Pitt or George C, but no luck unfortunately as the festival was much earlier in the year. We saw some locals ...

... went into character as the, “Bear Jew,” to auction off a private screening of the film.  

Things were pretty much surreal the whole time, especially when 50 Cent, dressed in a grey suit (think Sean Connery as 007), came up to our table and introduced himself to everyone. Then the kid from Twilight, Robert Pattinson, humbly paced the stage as father’s bid for the ultimate sweet-sixteen gift, a kiss on the cheek from the vampire heartthrob. Two kisses ...

... but I can't remember it) and for dessert, I had a lemon tart. Everything was very good-- definitely worth the 21 Euros. However, as I said before- France has not lived up to my culinary expectations. I'm waiting for my trip to Paris to splurge on an expensive meal. On Wednesday, a few of my friends and I took the bus down to Nice for the evening. The train would have been a lot faster, but the bus was only 1 Euro. I ended up sitting next to some old Italian people ...

... I made my way through the shopping area. Cannes is a long stretch of beach backed up with a few streets of shops and hotels, that's it. The film festival t-shirts were ugly, everything else was priced in the thousands. What's a girl to do? I decided that instead of finding something with Cannes printed on it, I would find something that just said Cannes to me. I entered a store facing the beach and was surprised to ...

... drive along the spectacular coastal highway past St-Raphaël Fréjus and Ste-Maxime to St-Tropez. At Ste-Maxime we see a municipal sign pointing the way to a restaurant, orthopedic medical centre and a sex shop. Business is business in France, and after having your feet seen to you can pop in for bit of sex, and top it off with a nice lunch. http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/var/straph/ straph.htm, http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/var ...