Don't miss your turn off or you'll end up in Italy!

Does 'Mediterranean Blue' refer to the colour of the sky or the water? They are both stunning

Foodie moment

Today we got to enjoy another 'Menu de Jour' (due to a super cheap day yesterday). For our entree we had Tartare de Saumon and Salade Nicois (Again!!) and 2 traditional dishes to Nice for our mains; Daube Nicois (Slow cooked beef stew with carrots, onions, red wine, tomato, herbs - served with pasta) and Filets de Rouget with Ratatouille (Fish fillets with eggplant, zucchini, capsicum in a tomato sauce). Of course we had the house red with it (4.50 Euros for 50cl!) and it was a lovely meal! Sorry there is no photo of the main as we dug straight in and completely forgot to take one till our plates were clean!

Mark learnt the French word 'Glaces' very early on - it means ice cream. Whilst my favourite ice cream shop was in Annecy (lemon tart flavour!!!), Mark found his today. He had Choc Orange and Choc Chilli and i had Choc Orange and Bounty. The Bounty flavour was exactly like the chocolate bar, and Mark enjoyed the Choc Orange very much! The array of flavours was amazing, and we were intrigued (yet not tempted enough) by the savoury flavours such as tomato and basil, and black and green olive.

Cultural moment

Many European drivers seem to have a dubious reputation as drivers - road rules seem to be less rules and more gentle suggestions. We've found that French drivers are not necessarily bad drivers but more selfish! Double parking is a regular occurance, even if that blocks off the whole lane of traffic. They will happily cut you off on a roundabout it they have found out they are in the wrong lane for the direction they want to travel in. They will pull out right in front of you on the motorway to pass a slow truck rather than wait for you to pass to pull out; even if you are travelling much faster than them and they can't match your speed. A couple of hair pulling moments, and maybe a couple of bad words have been uttered whilst Mark has been driving.

Wow moment

The roads between Nice and Monaco are famous for Grace Kelly's scenes in a Hitchcock film, as well as her death in a car accident later. They also have spectacular views around every turn, so much so that you need to remember to keep your eyes on the hairpin turns whilst uttering 'Wow!' These roads are called the Grande and Moyen Corniche (Big and Medium Ocean road). The Grande Corniche runs at the top of the cliffs, whilst the Moyen is slightly lower down. The lookouts are spectacular (for a lack of a better word!), and whilst on the Grande Corniche you can go to the National Park which takes you even higher on the peaks, looking down over the glitz and glamour of the Cote d'azur from a dizzying height! One of the most amazing sights was the Alps... As you are looking over a beach sparkling in the baking sun, in the distance tower the Alps with snow capped tops - quite a surreal image!

What we learnt today

Nice roads are ridiculous!!! That's the city, not the adjective! They are unforgiving to visitors, one missed turn has you heading 9km across the city with no escape. The roads sometimes have two 2 way streets next to each other, giving you the terrifying feeling of being on the wrong side of the road (we normally have this feeling anyway, but this situation is doubly confusing!). We even spent some time (legally) driving on the left! Needless to say, Mark will be happy once we drive our little 'Navi' out of the streets, avenues and motorways of Nice to more sensible roads!!