The Frogs' House French Riviera - Cote d'Azur

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 ...

We sadly departed Paris (don't think we've been happy to leave a place yet, except for Honkers and that was different!) and took our first Eurail journey to Nice, located on the lovely French Riviera. As Dee turned 26 in October and is no longer a younging, we had to buy first class tickets in order to sit together (more expensive, but totally worth it!). So we were geared up for our first train journey. The train itself was unbelievable, the seats were soooo comfy and much more spacious than ...

... resort village of Juan-Les-Pins, part of Antibes. It’s another small town with a bay full of yachts. We booked a hotel online at the last minute and got a great price on a room with a huge terrace at the Helios Hotel ( http://www.hotelhelios.fr/ ). The terrace was literally a room of its own with loungers, a big table and chairs to relax in. Additionally, we got to be entertained by the Rear Window style voyeurism available in a nearby ...

... little place called La Turbie, which had awesome views down to Monaco - our last Riviera stop. We had a wonderful time in Monaco ... we didn't see any stars, but certainly a few people who thought they were! We loved it down at the harbour ... you know, we tried really hard, but we just couldn't find Howellsie! You would think not knowing his schedule, or even the name of his boat, we would have been able to find him in Monaco! After all, it's only 2 square kms! The over-the-top ...

... to the border of France and Italy and then find a train but it seemed like a big hassle and we knew the strike was only lasting 1 day so we decided to stay an extra day in Nice and explore it more. we climbed the hill where the Chateau Nice used to be. on the way there we walked through Vieux Nice, the old market place of Nice that has tons of vendors selling all sorts of different things including gorgeous flowers, food, baskets, etc ...

... narrow steps, onto a small balcony - until we found ourselves - indeed - at the back door of the train station. The elevators from the station entrance to the departure level were hilarious - they were dark, with eerie red lighting, and played space music. The kids said they definitely expected to ride a roller coaster after the lift. Back at the port, we stopped at a small café on the walking street for coffees. Then walked back up the Rock, to the car. The cost of parking was ...