Nice

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Today we leave Italy and move on to France. We had another early start, in surprising crispness, and our first overcast day so far. As I write this, we are on our 3rd train and into our 7th hour and we’ve paused on the French border. Miraculously, the cloud and drizzle cleared as we headed out of Genoa and now we are travelling with sun-burned, parched steep hills to the north and glossy blue Mediterranean to our south. And gritty black sand and a depressing array of holiday flats as far as the eye can see as the flatter land permits. It hasn’t all been so though, there were snatches of spectacular Cinqueterra cliffs plunging into the sea, bridges soaring across deep ravines, tiny hill towns perched right atop the Tuscan hills. The terrain has dried out by this point, the sun is still baking this part of the coast, and Dennis’ lunch of two hours ago has worn off and he’s tucking into his picnic of cheese, bread and salami. God knows where he puts it.

Brett -

Saturday night in Nice. Way too many drinks in Wayne’s - big Irish pub with an English cover band. The crowd got up and danced on the tables (I danced on the chairs - the ceiling was too low). We took time out after the trip for an Introductory Walk along the strand. Beautiful old hotels and a pebble beach with the most incredible blue water. Hence the ‘Cote d’Azur’. An excellent Nicoise meal; platters of assorted entres including aniseed mushrooms, real French fries… Indescribably good fries we have no idea how they did it. Ailsa and I followed that up with Aubergine Gratin and Nicoise risotto - all delicious.

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