Our train ticket allowed us to get off at several stops and so on the way back we decided to visit Eze (we’d seen on “Below Deck” that is a pretty village on the top of a cliff).There was a beautiful beach next to the station so I convinced Callum that a swim would be good. We then spent a few hours there as it was so peaceful and the sea was amazing. Albeit, as it was a pebble beach getting out made us look like Bambi on ice but so did the locals.

At about 4, we decided to see the village and walked up to the road where there was a bus stop to get a ride up the cliff. Bearing in mind, that I was wearing my sandals this seemed like a good idea. But no, we had to walk despite the signs saying the path needed sturdy shoes. We met lots of people coming down the path; a few of whom clearly thought we were mad. One old man actually tutted at me! We stopped to admire the view many times during the 450m climb (the same as the hike we had done in Spain, when we were organised with correct footwear and drinks of which we had none!). There was talk of an Aperol spritz at the top but when we got there, there were only very posh restaurants ( and one less than salubrious place which didn’t fit my bill). We ended up with filling up water bottles for free and a very crushed packet a snacker jacks! Not at all what I had been hoping for. The really annoying part was that we couldn’t find the route to the castle at the top as there was no WiFi and we had no map! Felt like we had gone all the way up for no reward. 😡 I came down very gingerly with Callum ready to catch me.It was definitely a “brace , brace” situation. To add insult to injury, we then had to run for the train.

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Tuesday, was meant to be a trip to Nice but after the previous day’ s exertions, some legs (mine) were definitely not up for it. Instead, we both exercised and then lazed on the sunbeds. ( Callum went down to the seafront, ran 10k and swam whilst I did yoga and jumped about!) Late afternoon, we drove down to Cap d’Antibes and had a people watch and swim on a nice sandy but busy beach. Very lazy but lovely. Nice will have to wait for another trip as it’s Verona next!

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We got up fairly early and made our way down to the station at Biot. It took a while to master the ticket machine but it made us feel better to meet an Irish couple having the same issues. It was a pretty journey on the top deck of the train along the coast through Nice.

We made our way through Monaco to the palace for the changing of the guard. We knew about that because I had made Callum listen to a podcast by a boring American on the drive across France. Have to say it was not as impressive as the one at Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards that I saw a few weeks ago. We wandered the streets of the old town, bought some lunch and sat with a lovely view. I made it into the cathedral where Callum had a nice sit while I looked round. Next, we found the casino which, of course, Callum wasn’t allowed in despite his unbeatable formula for winning. Callum marched determinedly past Cartier as quickly as he could and wouldn’t allow any window shopping there at all.

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We made good use of the sun loungers and even dipped into the pool over the next couple of days. We enjoyed quite a bit of boat shopping and set off for Saturday night in Antibes! Unfortunately, nobody invited me on a yacht and so we had to make do with an Aperol in the old town. The next day, we headed out to the beach at Juan Les Pins for a few hours on the beach and a bit more “shopping”. I was very excited to finally find my boat, the Sirocco from Below Deck Mediterranean! We ended a lovely Sunday with family FaceTime. A fab weekend!

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We had another few hours of driving and then we arrived at out little Airbnb in Biot, a quaint village above Antibes.Have to say we were pretty tired so a French Just Eat ordering of pizza was called for. The Airbnb is much nicer than it looks here!

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