Cote D'Azur

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Cote D'Azur

The next day we decided to click off some kms on the way to Spain so we hit the motorway and shot through to Mentone in France..about 200ks in 2 hours.

Yes, the motorways are fantastic … but very expensive in Italy. This section cost us 23 euro (about NZ$46!) In France they are only 3-5 euro per section so not so bad.

Mentone is the start of the Cote D'Azur ( the French Riviera), and it is pretty impressive – we cruised through all the ritzy little towns with the flash boats moored in the marinas and then onto Monte Carlo – well, that place just reeked of money – we followed a late model Rolls Royce cabriolet with a very nicely made up blonde behind the wheel as we cruised past all the amazing yachts in the harbour. I kept looking out for Princess Caroline but couldn't spot her, so we just took some photos and came down to Cagnes Sur Mer for the night. I really like this place – today we were going to shoot further down to Spain but I checked the tourist office here and found that there were lots of interesting places to visit. So we did a day of sight seeing – first we hung out on the promenade doing some people watching ( lots of old retired folks enjoying the weather and wandering along with their dogs, plus people running in all directions),and updating the internet with the best cappucinnos on the trip so far, then we drove to St Jeanette which is perched at the bottom of this huge butte where they have installed about 800 anchor points for climbers – we rode up and up to this pretty village and admired the view to the top – some climbers had just come down and they said it only took them 1.5 hours to reach the top but we didn't believe that – it looked pretty high...then we rode up another valley to a vantage point at the foot of the French Alps which was again very picturesque – played around with the camera getting us all in the photo with the view behind so they should be good shots.After that we tried to find a small village called St Blaise where there was a olive mill and picturesque views but my GPS didn't have it and Felix's one was taking us in circles so we decided to visit the Renoir Museum instead - that was a good decision as this was the place where Renoir spent his last 10 years and was still painting when he died, even with chronic arthritis. It was great seeing his inside studio where he did his paintings and also the gardens where he did a lot of his sculpting and scenic works – they had put up several copies if his work in the gardens and you could see the view he painted ( and take a photo of the same views), almost 100 years later. There were about 5 original paintings in the house and we were amazed that the security was so light for such valuable art - only a rope and a couple of security cameras – not like most art galleries. All told, it was a good day we thought.

Today we went to the Nice Harley shop to look for stuff, but couldn't find anything in the right size, so after driving round the coast past Antibes and Cannes ( very beautiful coastline and about 25 degrees) we hopped on the autostrata to St Tropez. We arrived just at the end of a regatta and there were people everywhere – luckily we were on the bike so we could drive and park anywhere but Felix and Rach ( who had gone back to Monte Carlo for another look) didn't bother coming into the town and stopped at a nice beach about 10ks out of St Tropez. At St Tropez all the “in” people were in their sailing t-shirts..obviously a sign of importance if you are crew on one of the racing yachts, but all the restaurants were chock a block, every vantage point was crowded with people watching the races and luxury yachts everywhere – where do people get all this money?? Our $NZ doesn't go very far in this neck of the woods unfortunately.

Felix decided to do some fishing just out of St Tropez and we were wondering why he was taking so long...didn't seem to be doing much fishing, so we sent Rach out to see if there was a problem – turned out that just around the point from where he was fishing was a nudist beach with lots of people doing their stuff - he said he didn't notice them but we think not...

We were hoping to spend the next day on the beach but unfortunately the weather had turned nasty again so once again we hit the motorway. We had two stops during the day. The first at Pont du Gard – an old roman acquduct built to supply water to a nearby town. It was a huge structure – 3 stories high. All these beautiful arches built with large stone blocks – and no mortar. The next stop was at Nimes where there is a roman amphitheatre, still in quite good condition. Your entry price includes an audioguide, so everyone looked quite funny walking round with little telephone thingees in their ears. But it made the visit much more interesting as we learned the history of the arena, how it was constructed, and life and times in that era. We had difficulty finding a campground open that night and it looked like we were all going to be free camping. But we found a very helpful security guard who knew there was a camping place open in the next town and gave us directions. We were very grateful as we ended up getting a cabin for the four of us to share that night …. and it was a VERY VERY windy night. We were so happy we were not in the tent!

Stink weather! We have had enough. What a windy ride it was the next morning – lots of warnings on the motorway for caravans to beware of the wind. So pushing on again towards Spain and hoping at last the find the sun – and we did!! As we crossed the border and looked back over France there were big black clouds, and turn our back on that and look into Spain and it was lovely blue sky! YAY. At last. We found a lovely beach in the afternoon and spent an hour or so there before the wind changed direction and it became very cold and we took off to find a camp. A couple were closed but we found a huge one still open – the cheapest we have been to so far, and we are just about the only people here. Oh us – and about 15 tiny kittens Rachel and Felix have adopted and are feeding!! Yesterday was nice so it was a beach day - and Raci managed to get herself a bit burned. Today we are heading down to discover more of the beaches and coves on the Costa Brava on the way to Barcelona.