We have spent the last 4 nights staying in Nice, on the French riviera. We also did day trips to Cannes, and Monaco.

Nice was pretty nice, except for the seemingly endless roadworks on the metro tracks. The harbour was pretty amazing ? full of massive boats. The beach was a bit disappointing, as the sand was more like large pebbles. OK to sunbake on, but walking on them was really painful. There was a Swedish replica sailboat docked in the port which was pretty cool. They had some free tastes of Swedish foods, so we duly helped ourselves. Meatballs were the highlight.

Cannes is home to the world's most famous film festival. Preparations were underway when we visited. We had ourselves a photo or two on the red carpet, and checked out some of the stars' handprints in the footpath nearby (we didn't recognise many names). The beach in Cannes was great compared to Nice ? normal sand. The long baech was split up into public areas, and private areas where you have to pay for sunbeds, umbrellas, towels etc. We stuck to the free bits. Cannes also had an amazing harbour full of luxury boats. We sampled some French crepes, one with 4 cheeses and an egg in the middle, and another with salmon & caviar. They were pretty tasty.

Monaco was seen differently by each of us. Since Monaco hosts one of the most famous Formula 1 grands prix, I was mainly interested in walking the circuit. Zills humored me, and dragged me off the circuit for food and other sight-seeing. Now I'm not a religious person, but walking the Monaco circuit was probably the most religious experience I've ever had. Having grown up marvelling at the unique track, to be able to walk around it was brilliant. From the tree-lined main straight, around sante devote and up the hill, around casino square, loews hairpin and the tunnel, the swimming pool section and la rascasse. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The experience was enhanced by the many Ferraris, and occasional Lamborghini cruising the roads. Very memorable. There was also some other cool sights around the city as the photos show.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings.

Paul.

ps. Zilla here, thought I should add what I thought about the French Riviera:

• Firstly there is no river, so I was quite confused about why it was called the french riviera.

• The beaches were filled with budgie smugglers on old men (with wrinkly brown guts hanging out) it wasn't pretty! There was also a lot of topless sunbaking but the general age for this was 35-60, a little wrinkly.

• As Paul said we had to walk the Grand Prix track, I didn't quite understand the need to take a photo of the road every 100m and stop and wait for a ferrari to come round his favourite corner, but I guess it was a pretty good way to see the city.

• The beach at Monaco is a cross between Cannes and Nice, there were small thumbnail sized rocks.

• I managed to drag Paul along to the changing of the guards at the palace in Monaco and to the cathedral where Grace Kelly's grave is.

• There were defibrillators everywhere in Monaco (and signs pointing you to the nearest one) so I felt very safe incase I went into cardiac arrest.

• There was also an abundance of toilets in Monaco which made my day a lot easier!