Logis De France Le Relais Imperial Saint-Vallier De Thiey

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 d´Azur (when you see the water you know why the name is Cote d´Azur), the market with fresh vegetables, fruits, honey, oil, soap, you have great restaurants ...

It is Sunday and very wet and miserable here in Antibes. Quite a change from the glorious day we had yesterday. Ideal for computer work in fact... (Except that then things didn't pan out as planned and it is now Monday)

It wasn't my intention to have an entry before my departure but the response to my initial circular has been so overwhelming that I feel it merited an ...

... messy or smelly with is good since it's my job to clean Theo out. I have coined the phrase "Feeding Theo" as a euphemism for going to the loo which Kim thinks is gross!! But I'm sure she'll be using the term in no time ;-) Gas... not bad flatulence We filled up our two 4.5kg gas bottles before we left London. The rest of Europe do not use UK calor gas bottles so at some stage we will have to buy a EU standard gas bottle - the only standard bottle is Campingaz which is ...

... of Prince Albert - no joke), then walked along the harbour. The harbour had a full fairground atmosphere with rides, games, food, lights etc. We had the most delicious kebab for dinner from a stall :-) So posh!

We then followed the curve of the harbour to gape at the boats moored there. The amount of money people obviously have is just obscene!

Next we thought maybe we would have a go at trying to win ...

... Prince' (The Little Prince), a gorgeous and very well-known kids book which is also an allegory, was based there. So the monastery/hostel has little pics from the book everywhere and is generally really cute. They were so nice, had a pick up bus service into town (as the hostel is located on a mountain about 15min walk into town). The hostel had an awesome communal kitchen, but also came with a chef that we did not expect, and every night they offered 5euro pizzas or a roast and veggie ...

Leave from nice on the Chemins de fer de Province (diesel train) to Touet-sur-Var. And then the steam train to Entrevaux, city with amazing views. On the way back a quick stop in Puget-Théniers.

My camera battery died once we hit Entrevaux so no photos :(

... again just to see all the city lights. It is a magical place. The next day we left the port of Nice. Originally, we were to moor off Monte Carlo and tender to shore. Because of the windy weather, the seas were too rough for that so we docked at Villefrance instead. For anyone familiar with the geography of this area, Villefranche is about 15 miles from Nice (by road) and Monte Carlo is about another 8 ...

... beautiful and we found the main shopping strip and a 4 story department store called FNAC that luckily had digital cameras. after this we took a short train ride to Monaco. Monaco is its own sovereign state, separate from France, but it is so small, only 1.95 km squared. the main attraction here is the world famous Monte Carlo Casino. Monaco also has formula 1 racing, the palace you can tour but it was closed when we got there, and a ...

... did not care to linger, as we had a lot of walking planned. After lunch, we headed towards the port. We walked past many gorgeous yachts - included the 344-foot Lady Moura, owned by a "business man" from Saudi Arabia, according to Blackberry Man. One yacht was clearly expecting the arrival of its owner/charterer, as the crew, in their blue sweaters, waited on deck. Trying to reach Monte Carol, we walked under the road/hotel to emerge behind the Opera. We walked through some ...