French Riviera - 3rd to 5th of August 2010

The 3rd of August is Warren's birthday, but with a full day ahead, no time for a sleep in. We hit the road west, on the way to St Tropez (hey that rhymes!), until we reached mega traffic jams in St Maxine just around the bay. Forced to turn around and with our hopes of celeb-spotting in St Tropez dashed, we had a quick swim in St Maxine, only to figure out there is a little ferry that goes across the bay to St Tropez (unbelievable rhymeness today!). Aside from the mega yachts and Bentleys, its actually a really nice place and somewhere we'd usually love, if not for its snobby air. A little walk around and through some markets where Ange bought Warren a watch for his birthday, and Warren bought Ange a handbag because...?

Back over the bay and into the car for a trip to Cannes, mostly known for its film festival, for a look at the beach and the red carpet.

And then around the corner along a superb coastline to our hotel in Nice. With not many sunshine hours left, we had a quick look around Nice before getting dolled up and having a nice meal in one of the many squares in the old town. Another top birthday spent on holiday after our fun in Croatia exactly 1 year earlier.

Things only got better though, the main reason for doing this leg of the trip in a hire car rather than the trains and buses, was so Warren could drive the streets of Monaco and in particular the F1 track. We day tripped over from Nice the following day, just around the corner along a great clifftop road, stopping off on the way in Eze, a beautiful little medieval village on top of a hill with superb views of the coastline from its cactus garden.

Then on to the glamour of Monaco, for a few laps of the street circuit, a walk past the Ferraris and Rolls' parked out front of the Casino, down to the waterfront and up the other side to Monacoville for awesome views. Back to the car to put on our number 1s so we could get inside the casino. Its a beautiful building, more like a palace than a casino, and we were certainly not at home at the high stakes blackjack table, instead Ange won EUR12 on the pokies - YUSS!!