As the saying goes....

Menton is dowdy, Monte has brass, Nice is Rowdy and Cannes has Class.

I’d like to bring this up to date


Menton has character, Monte’s seen better days, Nice has Romanian beggars and Cannes full of gays.


Ok so it doesn’t rhyme as well as the original but it’s a lot closer to the truth.




After a night with the view of a campsite wall we’re off round the coast with some spectacular scenery ahead first up is Nice which seems impossible to stop and park so hopefully we’ll get back here later. here's a few photos as we drive through.

Onto Villefranch-sur-mer,

Then Eze


 Before arriving at Monaco which I must say from what we saw of it, it doesn’t live up to its expectations, looks like it needs knocking down and modernising,

 off through the suburb of Monte-Carlo

 before arriving in the old colonial resort town of Menton which is supposed to have the best weather on the Riviera, however not at the moment as it’s raining, though that may mean of course that it’s snowing further down the coast.

Having seen enough of the beaches for a while we drive inland up into the mountains to see some of the “perched villages” travelling through Sospel

 before arriving at Saorge which is spectacular to say the least, tall thin houses with doorways on five different street levels, built into the hillside on top of each other some as high as a 30 storey building from its foundations to the top of its roof, narrow corridors which never see the light of day linking the buildings and leading to hidden gardens and terraces, a postman’s nightmare. It could also do with its sewers bringing up to modern day standards – and we visited on a rather coolish day....

As it’s starting to get dark we decide to park up for the night just outside the village on the only piece of flat ground for 20 miles, the railway station car park.