Blackboard would have been proud
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2008
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Trip End
Nov 13, 2008
Blackboard would have been proudBlackboard (of Mr Squiggle fame) would have been proud with the path we took to get to Nice from Barge. Our day started with us gaining an hour as daylight saving had finished the night before; a fact we didn't know until we turned up for breakfast an hour earlier than our hosts were expecting. I commented to Silvia (one of our hosts) that this explained why the church tolled five times at 05:00, but seven times at 08:00 (at least 08:00 according to my non-corrrected watch). It didn't explain the reason for the church tolling around 26 times at 08:30 - I put it down to a training exercise.After breakfast and bidding Silvia, Marco, the four dogs and five cats goodbye we set off for Mt Vissio; what an amazing site. The car-park we used was at 2,000m! The road leading to the car-park was very narrow (at most 1.5 car width), with many lock-to-lock corners comprised of a cliff on one side, and sharp rise (ie a cliff) to the road above. This theme of lock-to-lock corners stayed with us for the rest of our travel to Nice with took place along the Italian/French Alps; tight corners, narrow roads, with either buildings or cliffs on each side. I was certainly quite tired by the time we reached Nice; and Shellie had started to feel a little car sick.Nice itself was our first experience of the French Riviera. One of the things which stands out is the complete southern orientation of the Nice basin (the town is surrounded by hills) and the bay itself; which as a result is bathed in sunlight from dusk to dawn. Although, after seeing what they call a beach - I can understand why the French started exploring and colonising places such as Morocco, and why they holiday in places such as Australia. The beach here is more like a quarry with smooth rocks.Another lasting memory of Nice will be having to continually dodge dog-poo on the footpath. The town was heavily populated with people and those ``micro pooches'' who did not care to clean up after their dogs. The next stop after Nice is Aix En Provence to end the driving part of our holiday, dropping ``Toddy'' off at Marseille airport.
