Monaco, Nice, Cannes, the Landy and me

Monaco may be great for formula 1 but not so much so for Land Rovers; there is a very steep little road leading into it which was packed with cars when we arrived and we had to manoeuvre very carefully so as not to bump into anything else! Once in town though the roads were easier and after a sneaky photo op for the car on the roundabout in front of the casino where all the Lambo's and Bugatti's hang out, we walked around for half an hour, had a very expensive coke and set off for Nice. Despite its name, nice it isn't. At the beginning of our trip, I was probably most excited about the south of France but now I can understand Eli's reluctance to stay any length of time there. Granted the view of the Med is great, but the little strip of beach looked packed with people and on one beach entrance I saw a sign saying Journee la Plage: 14 euro. Maybe its great out of season though! We drove on to Cannes, only a little further along the coast, where Eli's friend's parents had kindly found us a bed for the night, and who also took us out for dinner and walked around Cannes a bit with us. After a long day driving in the heat and a long two weeks in a tent, it was most appreciated! The next morning we were keen to get away from the holiday beaches and decided to go to the Camargue, the largest river delta in Europe at the mouth of the Rhone and where the white Camargue horses run wild! We wanted to stop at St Tropez on the way, which sounded easy enough but actually involved at least 3 hours of almost stationary traffic in the glaring sun on the only road leading there. Once we arrived, very hot and sticky, we had a beer with Eli's client who works at a very fancy hotel in Ramatuelle next to St Tropez and he drove us around the hotel grounds a bit and showed us the incredible view. The Landy started acting up a little just before we reached the Camargue, so we found a campsite closer to where we were which turned out to be really cheap and cheerful and apart from it being right next to a high speed train track, pretty peaceful too. We unpacked the car the next morning and drove into the Camargue national park where we saw some of the famed wild horses and some not so wild ones all saddled up and ready to ride. The Camargue is also famous for bull breeding and apparently bull fighting too. Apparently unlike Spanish bullfights, these ones are not destined to die during the spectacle though. Still sounds like the poor animal must be frightened half to death. This too is the only place in Europe where they have flamingos living in the wild. We saw quite a few strutting around in the marshes along with loads of other birds. Makes me wish I was a birdwatcher so I could tell what they were! Anyway it is an incredible, unspoilt place and we were about to experience its other claim to fame because the Landy sputtered and died while we were still in the reserve. I guess if you're going to drive a very old car halfway around Europe you should know what can go wrong with it. Luckily (for me), Eli has replaced or repaired most of the car and so knows it very well. So I had faith in him finding out what the problem was. He did eventually and we were on our merry way after about 3 hours, but not before the Camargue's notorious mosquitoes had had their merry way with us. Cheeky buggers. Anyway today we are itching our way along towards a place called Prades which we will call home for about the next week. It sounds lovely and remote and a good place to rest for a few days.
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