Nice is a fantastic base city. It’s very laid back and gives you the opportunity to quickly jump on a train and visit Monaco. I’m classing this as a new country because it’s a principality. It’s technically the second smallest country in the world! This was one of the places I was most looking forward to because I am a massive formula one fan. Monaco is synonymous with the sport and is one of the greatest challenges a formula one driver can undertake. I really wanted to walk the track!



We had a look at all of the incredible boats in the harbour and found the ‘Force
Blue’ which, after some superb googling, we discovered was Flavio Briatore’s. It’s truly steeped in F1 history so I was so excited when we began to wander the track…backwards. We walked from the tunnel to the Loews Hairpin. This is one of the most memorable corners of the track. One of the more peculiar things we saw there was a heart defibrillator on the side of the road. Thankfully, no one needed it while we were there.



As much as I enjoyed this, Monaco was slightly disappointing for riches. We were hoping to see hyper-cars and super-cars surrounded the casinos but the highlights were a couple of Ferraris, a few Maseratis and an Aston Martin. Still pretty cool but no Bugatti Veyrons! Sad times!

The Palace was the next pit stop on our tour of Monaco. Through completely luck we got to the palace just in time to see the changing of the guard. It happens once a day so it was a fantastic spectacle to watch. There were fantastic panoramic views all around the palace looking over the town and out to the ocean. The old town (on the Rock of Monaco) is a fantastic place and generally what we expected from Monaco. Fantastic architecture and another beautiful church. This is where Grace Kelly was buried. A really beautiful location.

We travelled back into Nice where we ordered pizzas, got a couple of bottles of wine and watched the sunset on the beach. A really relaxing night that was pretty cheap too. Later that night, we wandered around and perused the street performers. One guy painted fantastic landscapes with spray paints while another bloke played country and western drums from inside a van. In the future, if my career goes down hill, I’ll buy a van and roam the country drumming. We also watched some skaters perform jackass like stunts and get a little hurt. I don’t rejoice in other peoples pain but it was pretty funny!!