Nice and Monaco by Kev and Mel

Hi everyone,
Today I won’t do my regular blog. As I have the main computer, I’m the one using it to book things, do a bit of work for my business, sort out the billions of pictures I take; so when the other 3 are blogging, I am often doing a lot of other things too. Which is exhausting and I am behind with my blogging! I will let the other 3 telling everything about our few days in Nice, a city in the south of France on the Mediterranean Sea. We spend one day catching up with the whole family from Nice (lunch with 15 people and a few dogs). We also visited Nice and Monaco.
What I would say as it is our last stop in France is how grateful I am, to have the time to catch up with my family and friends. We were received like kings and queens by everyone. We had such a fantastic time. Every time we had to say goodbye, it was hard. I will miss them all. The hardest part is not knowing when we will see everyone again. This is the hard part about living the other side of the world.
After Nice we move to Italy, where our first stop is Genoa.
I’ll see you there.
Mel

12.7.2025. We spent the morning just hanging around as there was a big family get together planned. Not for us, this is something that happens all the time. We just happened to be here for it, which worked out great. Marco and Sylvie spent the morning getting a lot of stuff ready. I wanted to help, and did I guess by staying out of the way. Just after 12, people started turning up, Sylvie's side of the family, most live in and around Nice. We started with apero, drinks and snacks. Then came the food, salads that Sylvie had been preparing and Marco was on the bbq for ages. Andrew was in heaven and ate his fill of meat. There was a young fella there, he was 8 I think. He and my two got on really well, even though they couldn't understand each other. We ate and drank, ate some more and had to have a drink with that. I drank Ricard for the first time. It's an anise flavoured liquor, they mix it with water. It seemed to make Sylvie's dad happy when I tried it, apparently that's all he drinks. After we'd had enough food, we made a move. We walked to Sylvie's parents place, about a 10min walk. Their house is beautifully made and decorated. The reason we're here though was for a swim. A nice size pool with a bar area that made me just a little envious. Time for a dip! I spent a good while in the pool, chucking the kids around and dodging the dog jumping in. Hopped out and dried off. Time for more apero. Snacks were placed out and drinks sorted. I tried some spicy pickled green tomatoes, really nice, especially when you pair it with some cheese. It was starting to get late again, can really sneak up on you when you're having fun. Hopped in the car with Marco and headed back. Kids in bed, I had a nice soak in the tub then slept off all the food and drink from the day.
13.7.2025. Today we blogged a little bit in the morning after breakfast. We then headed into the centre of Nice with Marco and had a look around. We walked up, up, up to the top of a hill, through a park. It overlooks the beaches of Nice, which are pretty bloody big. It also offered us a great view of the mountains and countryside all around. Nice is a beautiful place, a bit too busy for me, but I am just visiting. Later that evening we met up with Sylvie's family again at a restaurant on the shoreline. Afterwards we stayed for the fireworks. French national day is the 14th, but several years ago something truly horrific happened here in Nice during the celebrations. So now they celebrate on the 13th, and let people remember and mourn on the 14th. The fireworks were great, and people were everywhere. We said goodbye to everyone again and made our way back home.
14.7.2025. Today we are visiting Monaco. A city state, a Principality, within France, and the second smallest country in the world. It's also the most expensive place on earth to live. No wonder it's the world leader in millionaire density, with around 32% of its population being millionaires. Here I was, in my best star wars t-shirt and shorts. We wandered around, looking at money everywhere. Whether it was floating or on wheels or decorating some person. If you've got shit loads of cash and love flaunting it in people's faces, have I got the place for you. The place was clean and tidy. There were parks and trees. But it was too built up for me, too tight. Almost like you couldn't breathe here. I don't know how they manage to race a grand prix here. It was nice to visit, and I enjoyed looking at some of the things I'll never own. We were visiting Cynthia this Arvo, and without noticing it had become the Arvo. So, with only a small amount of trouble, we found where we parked the car and headed to Cynthia's. At Cynthia's we had a tour around the house, then settled in with some cool drinks and the chatting began. We had to leave because she had an appointment. Goodbyes were said, knowing we wouldn't see her again anytime soon. So a bit sad. Back to Marco and Sylvie's, a little dinner and bed.
15.7.2025. Guess what! It's new country day! Yay! Thankfully, we packed last night, so just breakfast to do this morning. After that, we said our goodbyes to Sylvie, then Marco drove us to the train station. More goodbyes, then we hopped onto a completely packed train, with big bags. Yay! Soon into the train ride we get texts from Telstra, “welcome to Italy”. Hey we must be in Italy, alright. Telstra only sends you texts to remind us that they have international packs available. No thanks. A changeover of trains, then continue our journey to Genova. Mel done good, our stay is only a 10min walk from the train station. No need for a taxi. We met the guy who owns the place, nice old fella who gave us a pretty decent run down on the area and places to visit. We had a bit of a walk around just to have a look at the place, then had dinner close to our apartment. Pasta with basil pesto, not bad. Back to the apartment, clean the smelly kids and off to bed.
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