The French Riviera. Think…. heat, sunshine, blue ocean, expensive yachts, beautiful people, brown bodies, expensive cars and lots of boobs, then you have the right picture.

Arriving at Juan-Les-pines and getting off the train, we were greeted with the heat of the afternoon, as we towed our suitcases through the busy streets making our way to our hotel we got a taste of what this town was about. A full on Holiday resort. Arriving at our hotel sweaty, greeted by the doorman in a suit and a Bentley in the drive we didn't take too long to get into holiday attire and fall out on the beach. The warm water captured us for the rest of the afternoon as we floated around absorbing the sights, which of course in true French beach fashion included topless sunbathers and bronzed ab'd men in speedos. (along with some not so ab'd rich fat millionaire looking creatures with young beautiful woman on their arms)

The place comes alive as the sun goes down. When we headed out for dinner, we found streets of busy restaurants, all with similar menus all bargaining for your patronage. We settled on sharing a pizza , yeah I know, not very French, but just about every restaurant was Italian, we did however, wash it down with a nice Rouge French wine.

After our meal we wandered onto the beach front promenade and found it lined with street stalls. We started to notice that huge crowds were lining the beach front, and before long we learnt that there was going to be a fireworks display. We decided to join the crowd and found a place to sit and we waited. The wait was well worthwhile. I don't think I have ever seen a display so big and well planned. It was set across three boats out in the harbour, there was load music playing (all modern English music ironically), and it went on for a good 25 minutes. It was so powerfully absorbing and the sound of the fireworks coupled with the music was exhilarating. At one stage I decided that if the end of the world was like this it would be pretty amazing. Funny that I had that thought as the next day when David and I were recalling the display, we both shared the same thought. I think it was that all the explosions were directly above us and the sparks and lights seem to fall towards us. An absolutely fantastic experience which I tried to capture on video and I hope it presents something of what we experienced.

By the time we got back to our hotel we literally fell into our beds, and with plans to get going early in the morning to Monaco we fell into a deep sleep

Unfortunately, with no alarm set, early wasn't really achieved. But we were soon on the train to Monaco. The train follows the coast line for the 1 hour journey, and it was this trip that really gave us the taste of the French Riviera. The beautiful coastline, expensive boats, packed beaches and houses hanging of the cliffs and climbing up over the hills.

Monaco was hot. The temperate gauge outside the rail station read 40 and it was a struggle making the 850m walk down to see the casino and the Grand Prix race track. We hugged the shade as much as we could. The casino area was busy with huge crowds and lots of flash cars. We found a table at the café right by the casino, I'm sure it was the one that mum and dad, and Hayley and Steve had recommended for people watching. We ordered a club sandwich to share along with a beer and glass of wine and settled in to enjoy the spectacle. David was clicking the camera as Aston Martins, Ferrari's, Rolls Royces cruised passed. He gave up on the Porshe's as they were as common as a Toyota in NZ.

We wandered then down to the waterfront and viewed the tunnel for the race track. Took photos of the Palace and then gravitated to the Gelato Ice cream shop.

The climb back up the hill to the train station was hot and hard, we stopped to look at some pictures of super yachts that you could rent… we would really love to do this sometime. We found a couple that might work out just right for a holiday, so if anyone is keen let us know. They have 5 - 6 rooms and are available at $160,000 Euro per week. So if we split this between 6…………………

On our trip out I had noticed a beach below one of the railway stations so we jumped off there and took the steps onto the beach, we soaked there for a couple of hours and then sun dried (as we hadn't brought towels with us - but not needed in this heat) This beach was just north of Nice and was certainly a popular spot. We then we caught the train back to Juan Les Pins and were pleased to be back in the air conditioned room once again.

We dined this time on the beach front, and the fireworks this time were in the next bay along. Possibly in front of Cannes, which is 9 minutes by train. We enjoyed them from a distance and marvelled at the fact that there are many thousands of starving people in the world and yet here in the land of the rich and famous, thousands of dollars of fireworks were set off free for entertainment. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed it…. But it does seem a bit out of balance.

For our last day at Juan Les Pins we decided to be like the many beautiful people and we secured a beach sun lounger and umbrella for the low low price of $20 Euro each. We read, we swam, we read again… it was pretty much, 20 minutes reading 1.5 hours swimming… just to help us survive the temperatures. We took a break in the inside pool which was quite a nice interlude from the busy environment of the beach. The rules in the pool were amusing , Well more for me than David. We were "informed" on our arrival, that board shorts were not acceptable in the pool. Speedos or tight men's swimwear were all that were acceptable. I had found a bright orange pair of speedos for $48euro, but David just COULDN'T squeeze into them. So he happily swum in his TIGHT boxes.

What also amazed me here was how brown some of the people are…. It was beyond reasonable. Particularly with the oldies that appeared to be in their 80s,,,, it looked like they must have literally been sitting on those beaches for the last 20 years. One old boy in his green speedos caught my eye as he showered on the beach, he had obviously been wearing a hat as his bald head was not a match with his body. Some of the woman were SO brown it was weird. Hey I have always been for a tan, but this was truly beyond ridiculous, I'm sure it must have been some sort of oil tan, quite unnatural.

There is also so much evidence of botched cosmetic work…. Oh and sure a lot of successful stuff as well. But you saw woman with puffed up lumpy lips and strange noses that it was quite staggering. There were a lot of woman that were so incredibly beautiful lying beside old fat men. My only assumption was that they were rich. David pointed out that a few of them were probably not as young as they looked as he saw evidence of the work they had had done.

There were lots of boobs, old ones, saggy ones , huge ones , and fake ones. We were definitely in France.

We came off the beach and cold showered and attempted to pack our bags for our next trip. I managed to depart with my ¾ jeans and my tight black jeans,,, in this temperature I don't think I will miss either of them.

We dined on the waterfront again and then once again collapsed into our beds totally exhausted from lying on the beach all day….. what a life J