Mougins, French Riviera Tuesday 18th June

Tuesday 18^th June, Mougins, France

We left the hotel in Italy about 50 miles south-west of Ancona early Sunday morning after a very nice breakfast and drove across the spine of Italy via Perugia to the west coast about 30 miles north of Pisa. It was a beautiful drive with wide open valleys in the centre and some spectacular perched villages on the hill tops. The Italians certainly like their tunnels and bridges as the route cut through some really steep valleys and hills. Summer seemed more advanced as they were haymaking in places and cereal crops seemed on the point of being ripe.

We picked up the motorway for a while as we went north as the coast road seemed to hug the cliffs and little villages coming off just west of Genoa. Once off the motorway we drove along the Italian Riviera coast road. This part of the coast from northern Italy to Southern France is basically where the Alps meet the Mediterranean so is very rocky and steep with huge dry valleys and little towns and villages clustered around any available flat space or hillside that can be built on. As it was one of the few decent weekends they have had for a while it was packed with people, fortunately most were going the opposite way to us but the roads were very busy.

That said the driving must be seen to be believed, narrow winding roads hugging the cliffs with sharp hairpins chock full of suicidal scooters and motorbikes plus car drivers with a death wish overtaking on bends, hills and hairpins when they came up behind us! Then in the towns people double parked, pulling out, pedestrians and the manic scooter drivers. I was glad when Viv spotted a camp site right next to the beach for the night to stop.

Monday morning we set off after the early morning rush and after an hours driving along the coast road making about 20 miles decided to bite the bullet and go back on the motorway for a while. The coastal route is very pretty but very slow and demanding towing a boat.

We wanted to see Monte Carlo so we turned off the motorway and drove down towards the town. Unfortunately we came up behind a Porsche that had broken down in a little narrow road and ended up blocking the route for a while until with help we unhitched the trailer and turned it round.We high tailed it out of Monte Carlo back to the motorway you can have too much scenic routes and hairpin bends after a while!

Monday afternoon we arrived at Mougins a town about 20 miles from Cannes at the apartment we had booked into, very nice and I am looking forward to leaving the car in the garage for a day tomorrow.

The route we took was very scenic but once off the motorways (that soon add up with the tolls) very twisting and slow and after a while not good fun with a boat. Having been there and done it next time I would go back the way we came through Austria, Germany.

Tomorrow we set off back towards Calais and have booked a Formula One room at Dijon to break the journey for the night, only E29-80 for the night only a couple of euros more than a campsite in Italy.