I used my Irish passport for the first time and I breezed through immigration.
Day 1& 2: Nice
We stayed in Old Nice which really felt like France, but in the SMALLEST hotel room. The room was so small that the toilet was in the shower!
The beaches were amazing...
We quickly fell into a routine with our meals: Our days began with a petit dejeuner (an espresso with a croissant), lunch was a baguette sandwich from a bakery, eaten on the beach, and dinner was anything with goat cheese and maybe some seafood for me.
Day 3 & 4:
Hyeres. Our favorite beach was Notre Dame on an island off of the coast (Porquerolles). It was one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen. To get there, you needed to take a ferry and then hike several kilometers along the island - well worth the trip!
Day 5, 6, 7: La Ciotat and neighboring towns
On our first day there, we took a boat along the coast to see Les Calanques.
The next day, we had an even better experience when we hiked them and swam at their beaches.
Our second favorite beach was outside of St. Tropez, Pampelonne. This is a very famous beach and with reason - it's gorgeous and stretches for 5km.
Day 9: Frejus/Agay
We went hiking into the Massif de l'Esterel mountains.
Day 10: Juan Les Pins
Day 11: Antibes, Middle Corniche (scenic driving), Monte Carlo (by night)
Antibes
Picasso Museum
Poor Smart Car...
Middle Corniche (in route to Monaco)
Monte Carlo Casino
Damian and I gambled 50 euros and lost :(
Despite the elaborate, opera house design of the casino, the bathrooms were subpar. The bathrooms in the gas station were nicer than those.
It seemed like there were more Ferraris in Monaco than their were Toyotas in Chicago! Monaco has the highest per capita income in the world and you can tell just by walking down the street.
Day 12: Monaco by day
Day 13: In route to Germany
We stopped half way to Tuebingen at Lake Como. We didn't spend much time there, just had lunch on the lake.
While getting on the expressway at Switzerland, we were stopped by the police on the ramp. We were supposed to have purchased a sticker to legally drive on the expressway. Since we didn't have the sticker (because we were not aware of this), we received a 200 swiss franc ticket (approx $215). Yikes, welcome to Switzerland! I was determined to hate Switzerland forever, but the views and the chocolate won me over. Before we left, I had a list of several towns within 2 hours of a drive from Tubingen were Damian and I will be visiting in the coming weeks/months!
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