Goodbye Italy, hello French Riviera

We next set our sights on the Nice, France. Since we couldn’t find an open campground in the area, we had booked a room in the lovely Hotel 64 Nice for two nights and planned to find a secure parking spot for the camper. Taking the main roads, we hugged the coast through the mountainous region. The deep ravines were traversed by bridges high above the towns that seemed to be tumbling out of the mountains into the sea. I was driving but judging from the brief glimpses I got of the towns below - they were very pretty. However, the rain, the lateral, gusty winds and sharing the road with many trucks going on dozens of bridges and tunnels made the drive nerve-wrecking!

Once we hit France, Dermot took over driving and struggled navigating the city traffic to find parking that could accommodate the height of our van! He circled the train station but the parking all seemed to be either height-restricted or under construction. We finally found a place under an overpass and somewhat nervously left our van hoping the battery would last. The hotel was a real treat and we indulged in meals out in atmospheric old Nice, walks, and shopping. In the mornings, Dermot would walk to the van to pay for parking (even though we could pay by phone) and to ensure it was okay, then we'd grab almond pastries for breakfast. Yum!!

Nice is a much bigger city than I remembered but it’s very walkable. Each time we're in France we notice that the residents are generally much more stylishly dressed than in other areas of Europe - and much more so than in the states (ourselves included).

Our photos here.

I had been here years ago and there were many new barriers along pedestrian areas. We visited the memorial to the victims of the terror attack in which a truck drove along the seaside Promenade des Anglais hitting and killing 86 people on Bastille Day in 2016. 

We tried to visit the Matisse Museum in the morning on our way out of town but we couldn’t find a parking space anywhere. It was the same story when we drove into Antibes. So we gave up and headed for our campsite outside of Cannes. Here we were met with a closed reception area and ran into problems which could have easily been solved if there had been any staff in the campground.  Since we had no code for the gate, we couldn't even leave to get change for the washer and dryer until we convinced a kindly couple camping nearby to give us the code. We're chalking this up to one more of the things we've learned in our first multiple month campervan life - both the high and low season have their share of difficulties. It's just that in the low season, it's also chilly!