1st - 3rd (pt 2)

Thursday we headed east along the coast through some wonderful little towns with great bays and more lovely villas in the hills and on the rocky coast itself. We drove through Cannes and on to Nice where we parked the car and walked along the promenade. The beach front hotels were impressive, it had a slight art deco feel about it. Stopped at a typical south of France bar restaurant right on the beach for a drink, but whilst we were there the sun came out and it was so great sitting there we stayed for lunch! The colour of the water was a fantastic turquoise, but as Carol and Chris found out it was very cold! The views were great and we were really enjoying them until an older French guy decided to get changed just outside the bars private beach, as Carol said ooh lala!

After wandering around some more we went back to the car and continued on along the coast to Monaco. It was great driving into it and as we worked our way round towards the harbour we found the roads used for the F1 race were all open and still had the barriers, billboards etc up! Instant loss of 30 yrs Chris and I were boys again! We stopped on the starting grid, pole position of course and burned off the car to our left, this called for manual gears and flappy paddles! We were able to do the whole circuit including the hairpin bends and the famous tunnel, where we chased a black Mercedes sports car, which Chris nominated as Vettel and proceeded to offer suitable advice including famous lines from an old TV show, Mr Mannering! It was incredible to be able to drive around the track and experience going around the narrow roads, hairpin bends and out of the tunnel before going past the big yachts in the marina. Everything is so close, to do it at their speeds is bordering on madness.

We parked up by the marina and walked around part of the track, stopping for photos, before walking down the pit lane which was still had the road markings for the pit stops. Lynn spotted what we think was Kobiashi’s and was very excited! Having exhausted ourselves we had a look around the marina at the fantastic yachts before stopping for a drink in a bar right on the track. Here we watched the flashy sports cars being driven past, in some cases by boys who don’t look old enough to drive let alone have cars like that!

When we had recovered we returned to the car and set off back down the coast just as the sun was setting, the views were great. It took a while to get back to the camp stopping to pick up a take-away on route, so we didn’t get in until well after 10pm, another full day!

Before we knew it, it was Friday and time for Chris and Carol to leave. It has been, as usual great fun and we have certainly seen the Cote de Azur. Thanks for coming out to see us guys it was a great few days and we look forward to seeing you and the video clips when we get home!