After saying ciao to Pisa, we headed for France, aiming to get at least as far as Nice. We stopped along the way for a break, and I took advantage of our last opportunity for Italian coffee and I splashed out the necessary €1 for an espresso. It's good to know they're gross here too - I much prefer a bit of milk with my caffeine. Rebecca tried an iced mocha and she even enjoyed it. Perhaps she'll be drinking both coffee and beer by the time we return :)

We decided to have a look at Monaco as it was just across the Italian border. After descending the mountain side on a rather scary road being chased by impatient drivers (or perhaps I drive like a granny?), we arrived and began gawking at the vast number of fancy cars, huge yachts, expensive clothes stores and a whole lot of bling. It's easy to see it's the playground for the rich and famous, so feeling a bit out of place, we moved on.

We got to Nice during rush hour traffic - not a smart move, but we got to see a bit more of the French Riviera from the coolness of our air conditioned car. The beaches were pebbled and well below our expectation of where the rich and famous ought to be. Not that we mind of course - we're happy keeping the sandy paradises of Kawhia and Woodend Beach to ourselves :)

The next morning we went for a "short" walk to the centre of Antibes along the beach road. I managed to buy one of those singlets from the sun as I was under-prepared in the sunscreen department. In Antibes we bought some genuine French croissants for lunch which is something my French teacher inspired me to do about fifteen years ago. I'm pleased to say that they were very very good but not too good that a good Kiwi bakery couldn't reproduce.

The afternoon was spent swimming and reading on the pebbled beach, with my eyes firmly fixed in my magazine as the French aren't all that shy in certain aspects of sun bathing. As the day was set aside for relaxation, not much else happened, but I shall leave you with a recipe we tried that evening:

Fried apple crumble

Ingredients:

- two not so nice Austrian apples with rotten bits

- six packets of coffee sugar from your local Italian Highway Autostop

- German butter

- flour (who buys flour when camping?)

- two glasses of Italian vino

Method:

Drink the vino. Chop and fry the apples, discarding the rotten bits. Mix and fry the rest, stopping at the first whiff of something burning. Assemble on plate. Serves two.

- Brett