May 13, 2008

Today we drove to Monaco, via Cannes and Nice, and I actually drove on the Grand Prix circuit, mind you, it was only at 50 kph, but I was there. It was crowded and heavy with traffic the whole way. We ran into a huge traffic Jam at Cannes, as they were getting ready for the start of the film festival tomorrow, and Nice was just busy.





Cannes and Nice are not anywhere near as pretty as St. Raphael and Frejus where we stayed. They may be known all over the world but I am not overly impressed. However as I said before the roads to and from have some beautiful sections for picture taking. I am trying to figure out a better route for tomorrow to keep us away from Cannes, Antibes, Nice and Monaco. If we can get past these places then it is clear sailing to the Northern Italian Coast.



I'm convinced the drivers over here are All for One and One for One! At an intersection, you don't leave the intersection empty so the cross-traffic can move, otherwise other drivers force their way into the line and block the intersection, and no one can move. If you close up tight against the car in front, no one moves anyway! Weird! On top of this, there was a tour bus double parked blocking the oncoming lane, holding up the traffic, 'cause no one from this side was going to allow alternating traffic. When another tour bus came by, it was unable to go around, 'cause again no one from the other direction would let it by. Where are the police to direct traffic when you need them?

On the way out of Monaco, we drove through this tunnel system that was simply awesome to get the traffic out of the city. The surface streets are clogged with traffic, but the tunnels were flowing at 90 kph with little hold-up. The pictures are a little blurred, as Jan was having problems holding the camera steady enough in the dark.

Tomorrow, we say goodbye to France and plan to spend a little time in Italy. We're hoping to find reasonable accommodations, and also hope the locals understand our English!