Bonjour (since we are now back in France)

Hope you are all well ?

We had a lovely time in Florence, and would definitely recommend it as a weekend city break. From Florence we drove across to Pisa for a brief look at the Leaning Tower which was actually pretty impressive and is next to a big cathedral too. You can see the Tower for free, you only pay to climb up inside - since this was exhorbitant, and our legs were still tired from Rome and Florence, we didn't bother. Still had to pay the 'parking mafia' a euro though !

So, after Pisa and a long drive / expensive toll ( 34 euro - ouchie) we arrived in the afternoon sunshine at Monaco. It was so great to drive down in to the city, just as you've seen the pictures. We had the roof down on the Golf and James and I both drove the F1 route around the city - considerably slower of course ! James' lap time impeded somewhat by a group of pensioner tourists on a pedestrian crossing and then by being pulled over on a routine police check. We parked our very dirty car outside Gucci (picture attached) for a stroll around the casino and marina, and then carried on. As we drove out we followed a new type of Lambourghini and he was loving driving through the city revving his engine for all the crowds - I have never seen so many heads turning to look - it was great fun for us to follow him. No heads turned for our dirty and overflowing car !!

We then headed on to Nice and stayed at a brilliant little hotel (Lenin lived there once, so that 'impressed' my celebrity side) we had a lovely little outside terrace surrounded by plants. We had a delicious dinner out and then moved on yesterday. James has come down with a bit of a cold so we decided not to hang about in Nice and move on to our next spot, which is staying at our friends Karen and Steves place in the South of France. We arrived at the supermarket at 12.20 without realising it closed at 12.30 so had to do a quick trolley dash to pick up essentials. Karen and Steve have a beautiful villa, we have wonderful gardens to look out on and the sun is shining. This morning we continued our food shop, not without me managing to drop a bottle of wine at the checkout - Mrs Klutz. Thankfully the staff were all very nice about it !

Anyway, time to lunch and hit the sunbed. Much love x x x