Up lazy mediteranean hours we finally left the hotel for the (30m) drive to Monte Carlo. On the way we talked to the kids about the density of wealth here, about the history of the country and the role of the casino in lifting the tax revenue. I can see why so many NSW govt have found gambling taxes so intoxicating now, any scouting party sent here to discover the secret sauce would have come away swayed by the attractiveness of this plan. Low taxes, crazy consumption tax, and insane gambling tax revenue make this a billionaire mecca, especially if you don't gamble and spend all your money elsewhere.
 
Ferrarri, Lambourgini, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston, Ferrari, Ferrari, Bugatti! We parked near the yacht club, strolled up into the casino and the Hotel de Paris. We had a late brunch in the square - the most immaculate public space outside of a Disney park I've ever seen. We then headed down the other side of the square into the shopping precinct. The girls shopped eye shaddow and nail poslish, Fid and I went Tie shopping. We grabbed some sandwiches and headed around past the Garibaldi forum and on to the beach (plages) and had lunch watching a guy with a jet/hover board flick himself around. We had a little picnic in the park, kept heading along the beach and eventually decided we'd reached the end of what we wanted to see. 

This is an incredible place. Cavernous, tunnels running everywhere, the GPS stood no chance - round about upon round about confused the poor thing so much - it's a HK style tunnel system twisted into the form of massive multi-story car park, but much more expensive insurance if you bang into anything.

Back to the car we jumped behind a local tour bus and tried to follow them, figuring it would take us everywhere significant. The Gendarmerie wanted us to know that we couldn't just follow the tour bus around - back on our own, we decided we'd seen all of Monte Carlo and headed for Saint Jean Cap Ferrat - what a magnificant harbour town this is. We had an afternoon drink and strolled the idylic streets before picking up the car again.

Once on the road we headed for the Nice old town once again, this time we were convinced we needed to find Renee's Socca store to check it out - well I was anyway Delicious, this had me sorted for dinner!

Back to our hotel I crashed for awhile while everyone else debated dinner, I woke up just in time to find out where we were going - back to the old town. In the old town the kids and I sat for a drink or two while Gab shopped. Once done we let the Kids choose dinner - Big Mistake - Le Pirate - serves crap pizza right across from a real wood fire pizza place - but theme won out over substance. 

Once the silly pirate thing was behind us we wandered up the street towards a Cuban bar where I gave the kids a lecture about Che Guevara (I don't think much went in) and we sat for an hour or two. Then I opened the phone to read email - our hotel in Rapallo has written to tell us the package has been returned (that's 90 euros to send 10kgs a km!) Of course they don't want anything to do with the problem - we resolve we need to head back to italy or kiss the package goodbye. We head back to our room for some sleep before a very early start tomorrow - heading back 2.5 hours to Rapallo to sort out the postage, the ahead 6 hours to Cannes before on to Avignon for our hotel. ouch!