France - Menton, Monaco and Nice

13 July
France - Menton, Monaco and Nice

It was with great excitement to see this area and to be back in France. We stopped in Menton originally thinking it was a suburb in Monaco. It's actually a little town outside. The tom tom helped us to get to a camping car parking site. On the Quay. We figured this would be an awesome stop to stay overnight. Right next to the beach. Being back in France they have loads of free public showers lining the promenade. Parking turned out to be free. The only thing is that we couldn't figure out if you could stay overnight. Being overly cautious we read the sign 50 times over in our best French... which is a bit like our best Chinese. Then, decided to forget about it and cycle the boardwalk.

We ended up in another little town called Roquebrune. Don't get too overwhelmed by my cycling capabilities yet. It was like riding from Kings Beach to the lollipop. For non PE peeps – that is about 4.5km and then returned to retire on the sand with the occasional swim.

Town was right there and really beautiful. Again, we roamed the market in search of our fresh produce and returned back to Ruby. There were these annoying little temporary signs saying no stopping or your car would be towed on non other but 14 July. That meant the next day. Then there was about a five page legal essay (all in French) supporting this. It planted doubt in my mind that our stay over would be appropriate.

We headed for Motorhome camping garages. These all turned out to be underground parking lots – where it is not allowed to sleep overnight. Purely just a parking. After a few of these site visits – we headed toward Nice to the closest campsite. It happened to be on the opposite side of Nice. We came within 5 km's of the site and were stuck in the biggest traffic jam ever (well, almost ever). The 13th of July is the day before the Bastille Day/National Day in France. A public holiday. Why did it cause such insane craziness of cars the day before? We did not know. Ruby was getting hot and flustered. So we turned off, drove the opposite direction and managed to find a parking in a lot outside the Superstore which was only opened specifically for this event as it was after hours.

It is important that I tell you we were in the car for 4 hours looking for a new site. Only to be stuck in traffic a few kilometres away. I was getting the grumps. We climbed out the car and followed the rest of the crowd. They took us to the beach front. It was filled with people lining the pebbled beaches, walking the promenade and eating in the many enticing restaurants (I was starved by this point). There was even a band playing. The folks were line dancing to French translated American songs. The neighbouring blocks of flats had a resident and partner slip out for their tango. It was oddly rewarding after such a long trek.

A decision was made that there was no way that we were moving anywhere until after the traffic subsided. It was by this time 10pm-ish. A stop back at Ruby for a bottle of wine, cheeses and any other bits we had were gathered. We joined the masses of families on the pebbles enjoying their tailor made picnics. People swam in the moonlight flittering on the sea. Then out of the blue a loudspeaker poured out opera music and the fireworks began. Now, I know earlier we had seen the fireworks display in Florence and loved every never ending minute. This, however, was incomparable. Opera is such a passionate type of music. The mixture of music with the fireworks exploding on the beats and accentuating on the highs. I do not know much about music. If I did – I could possible explain this better. All I can say though was that it brought tears to our eyes. It was a very special moment.

Nick and I decided to join in a swim under the French night sky. Cooled ourselves. Washed under the fresh water public shower as well as possible – we were not going to shower this night. The crowds had dispersed by midnight and we climbed into Ruby almost certain all the campsites were closed. We headed off to the campsite the tomtom had originally noted. It was closed – so were the four others in the same street thereafter. Ruby parked on the side of the road outside the campsite and we all fell fast asleep.