Nice

Nice

Perfect place to recuperate. We flew in quite late so we were pretty tired the next morning. We decided to take a stroll around town, checking out the flower market in the old town. It was full of lots of yummy goodies like dried fruits, sweet glaced fruits, spices, fresh fruit & veg and lots of flowers.

Masenna Square

These 7 human statues on a poles placed in the middle of the square represents the 7 continents in the world. They lit up in the evening- really cool

Walking along the beach:

1st night's dinner: So hard to find French food in Nice After walking around for 1 hour looking for French restaurants recommended by TripAdvisor (they were all fully booked), we finally found somewhere to eat that wasn't Italian food; (Nice was once part of Italy- it became part of France in 1860 but it looks like everyone still loves pasta):

Escargot (snails); Foie Gras with apple crumble on the bottom- crumble was very yum; Nicoise Salad; Duck stuffed with goats cheese; Beef; Yummy prawns; Yummy scallops

Monaco

The next day, we went to Monaco. It was a quick 20 minute ride by train from Nice. We walked up to the palace to get a better view of the area before we started our hop on/off bus tour around town. We were just in time for the changing of the guard ceremony but Michelle and her mum think they saw Prince Albert (the current reigning monarch) and his wife Princess Charlene drive up to the palace entrance and quickly ducked in, it was more exciting than the changing of guards according to Michelle. I couldn't stop wondering if the Prince Albert piercing had anything to do with this guy...

View of the Marina from the Palace. Some pretty fancy Yachts!

The Royal Palace:

View of the palace from the Marina:

Walking around near the palace, found a giant baby in front of the Oceanographic Museum:

St Nicholas Cathedral: Where Prince Rainer III and Princess Grace Kelly got married. This is also where the royal tomb stones are located, in this church- the most popular ones of course are Princess Grace & Prince Rainer III.

Prince Rainer III's car collection

We got tickets for the hop on/off bus and made our way to Prince Rainer III's car collection. This place has over 100 of the coolest cars I've seen, and only 6Euro entry My favourite was the Lamborghini Countach, just like in the classic "Cannonball Run" movie!!!

Some fancy Version of the Mercedes SLR Mclaren... I think

A collection of Ferraris:

Me and the Countach

I had no idea Cadilacs were so big!

Monte Carlo Casino

You had to pay E10 to go inside the main gambling area Guess its a good way to keep the tourists out... We didn't go in but were still able to donate a small amount of money to the casino via the pokies so not a total loss for them.

I think the best bit was when a kick arse lamborghini pulled up when we were on the way out. Was a little difficult to stop drooling.

In the background is the most expensive hotel in Monaco

Dinner back in Nice on our last night: Finally some duck!!

Chicken soup & cheese soup; Duck breast with figs; Duck breast with raspberries; Beef with foei gras on top (apparent was very good!) Very yummy dinner

That's the end of our trip with Michelle's parents as they return home It was nice to be pampered. We lost a bit of luggage weight but gained a bit of body weight with all the yummy food we had the last 2 weeks - at least it'll keep us warm in the cold weather...

Our bags are stocked up with vegemite, warm clothing, food from home and we are ready to head for the cold weather in Scotland.

Au revoir France..

xoxo B&M