Author: freedombird

Friday 17th April 2026 – Nice didn’t evade us after all….

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Whilst wandering around the village yesterday, we popped into the Tourist Office to enquire about catching the train down into Nice and so today that is exactly what we did….

It was an hour’s journey meandering down through the mountains, passing and stopping at many valley villages on the way and arriving in a considerably hotter and sunnier Nice….

We wandered along the seafront (another fantastic french promenade) and around the headland to the beautiful old port, suitably complete with a number of gin palaces but a large number of brightly coloured smaller wooden boats as well, giving a fine mix of new and old….

Returning to the main town past the WWI Memorial carved into the rock face….

We wandered back along the sea front….

Catching views of the (surprisingly to me at least) shingly beaches as far as the eye could see – Castel Plage, Plage le Paillon, Ruhl Plage and Plage du Negresco….

Sitting for a while, watching this speed boat giving it’s parasailers an aerial view of the city…

Before making our way back to the station, passing Hotel Negresco and the 14th July 2016 Memorial Garden on our way back through the city….

A good day out and I’m glad we made the effort to visit Nice, would I go back? Probably not.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles walked – 10
  • Beaches – 4
  • Train – £17.08
  • O/N – £14.25

Thursday 16th April 2026 – a relaxed day wandering around Sospel….

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After the chaos of yesterday, we are just happy to potter around the village of Sospel, enjoy this glorious sunshine and just be….

Many of the streets the buildings are only a meter or so apart so it is definitely one of those places where it is pretty essential to get on with your neighbours but seems a nice social town with plenty of folks enjoying the sunshine and outside tables and chairs of the bars and cafes by the river….

Today’s stats:

  • Miles walked – 4
  • O/N – £14.25

Wednesday 15th April 2026 – Antibes and a birdseye view of Monaco….

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A beautiful day as we leave Montauroux behind and make our way back down to the coast with Antibes and Nice in our sights – well that was the plan.

However the reality was indeed somewhat different as first Antibes attempted to sabotage things with no parking anywhere near the centre, in the end though we found parking in a residential street near the Juan les Pins area, south of the main old town and took a nice stroll along the promenade above Plages Golf Juan, Pont de Lys and Juan les Pins – all three beautiful white sand beaches with dog bans!….

Too hot to attempt to cross to the otherside of the headland and find Antibes Old Town and we also wanted to visit NIce today so time wasnt really on our side. So we made our way back to the van and headed off for Nice….

Well there was an hour and half of my life that I will never see again as we followed fruitlessly every road sign for parking to be confronted at the last moment with a height barrier – much of Nice’s parking appears to be underground and as we ended up on the outskirts (still no suitable parking) for the third time, we gave up and joined the motorway heading east towards our park up for the night.

The bonus and saving grace for the day was the motorway Aire and viewing point perched high above Monaco (where there is definitely no parking) affording fab views to the Principality below…

That is as close as we are going to get…. Returning to the motorway for a short distance until we took our turning up into the mountains following the hairpin bends all the way up and backdown again to our Aire in the small valley village of Sospel….

In time for a nice stroll around the village in the slightly cooler late afternoon sun – more of that tomorrow.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 85
  • Miles walked – 4
  • Beaches – 3
  • O/N – £14.28

Tuesday 14th April 2026 – Lac du St Cassien….

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After yesterday’s long walk and coupled with the fact that it is hot outside, we decided against another drive and long walk, opting instead to spend the morning doing bits and bobs around the van and then in the afternoon, driving the short distance to a lakeside car park, with a view to taking a walk along the shore.

It didn’t turn out to be much of a walk as there doesn’t appear to be much of a footpath around the lake but we did however enjoy the change of scene and shelter from the full sun and for Tilly the opportunity for a potter and good sniff….

Then having discovered a laundrette not far from the Aire we spent a delightful but necessary couple of hours doing and waiting for said laundry, before returning to the Aire ahead of what looked like a massive thunderstorm which seemed to echo around the hills for a quite a while, before shedding a few tears for about half an hour and carrying on on its merry way. Shame really, the van is so dusty it could do with a proper downpour – now it just looks all smeary!

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 6
  • Miles walked – 4
  • O/N – £13.14

Monday 13th April 2026 – from Theoule-sur-Mer to Cannes….

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A slightly overcast day for us, still warm but actually ideal for the long walk along the seafront that we ended up doing today.

We started (after a fairly hairy journey over the hills) with a brief visit to Theoule-sur Mer as we were unable to find anywhere suitable to park, though we did get a couple of pics when we pulled into a viewing area…

The hillside properties have unbelievable views out across the sea but you would need a good set of lungs to get anywhere on foot! A little further along the coast we found suitable parking in Mandelieu and set off along the promenade towards Cannes. Unfortunately all of the beaches had dog bans in place (though there were a few dogs on the beaches) apart from this first one – Plage du Robinson….

After a little play, we were happy enough to walk along the promenade, as I’ve mentioned before there is no firm sand to walk along which makes it heavy going. In quick succession we walked by the other beaches of Mandelieu – Plage des Sables d’Or, Plage Troude l’Ancre and Plage de la Bocca….

There was a whole string of beaches (all really part of the same stretch of sand) leading up to the centre of Cannes – Plages du Rubine, Font de Verde, des Rochers, de la Nadine, du Midi and Festival Beach….

We took brief wander around the Port of Cannes – filled as you would expect with some pretty awesome gin palaces (I wonder how much use they actually get?), edged with beautiful terraces of Provincial buildings with the castle sitting up above…

Around the corner to the uber modern Palais of Festivals and the path of fame….

And onto the last couple of beaches of the day – Plage Palais de Festivals and Plage de Croisette….

At this point we stopped for a well earned drink and rest, before making our way all the way back to the van and ultimately back to the same Aire as the past 3 nights as we were unable to find anything any closer.

Thoughts of the day:

  • I may be being a bit paranoid but I have read so many reviews about campers being broken into, both when parked and when actually occupied overnight that I really don’t want to stay in or around the coast for the rest of this little adventure along the Cote d’Azur.
  • The old town’s are really quite pretty in a sunbleached kind of way – at least they have character unlike so many other resorts I have visited.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 45 (pretty hairy ones at that but I am trying to avoid tolls)
  • Miles walked – 10
  • Beaches – 13
  • O/N – £13.14 (CCP Montauroux)