Saturday 19 September - Menton to St Martin du Var

[Photos: Monaco, Eze, Nice shops x2, Boule in St Martun du Var]

Slept very well. We can see trains out our window, but can barely hear them. Had our normal cornflakes, muesli and yoghurt breakfast. We should have done some Couchsurf requests the night before, but didn’t think of it, so did a couple in the morning without much hope of success given the short lead time. The hardest part of setting up Couchsurfs is that you need good internet access to set them up, but you also need to be able to pick up the replies in good time. Managed to get Alastair on Skype for the second time, the first being a couple of days ago at the D’Ambrosios’ home. Texted Bella after her 21^st party to see how it had gone – all well by the sound of it, though one of her best friends had fallen off the bar (when dancing) and broken a bone in her foot. I’m sure it was best we weren’t there!

We headed to Nice for another look about, and also because we thought we would be able to find free internet there quite easily. It’s pretty odd travelling around the streets with Karen clicking on the wireless icon to see if there are unsecured one, then trying them out if there are. It all has to be done quite quickly so we haven’t gone past the broadcast site, or I have to rapidly find a park (normally just double-parking with hazards on like everyone else). Despite our best efforts, there were no unsecured sites we could get into, so we parked the car, put the lappy in my bag, and headed into the old town again. Enjoyed cruising the narrow streets looking at the shops. Some lovely sites, like a shop full of coloured women’s gloves, and another with glace and marzipan fruits, including a very realistic bowl of black and green olives. Picked up our email in the one internet café we saw – they are remarkably rare considering the area is a tourist Mecca – but one rejection from a couchsurfer only.

We had Le Train des Pignes on our list of things to do. It heads up the Var River, through gorges and past little towns perched on the heights. The times were a bit tricky, the first train being quite early, so we thought we would head up the line a bit so the start would be later and the finish earlier of our trip, travelling as high up as Entrevaux, a village with a Vauban fort. Drove up the Var Valley, with the GPS making a fool of itself for once as the road had presumably changed dramatically since the GPS maps were done. No problem as long as we followed the road signs instead. Navigating with a GPS does require some common sense – you sometimes need to follow road signs and ignore the gizmo for a bit. Found our way to St Martin du Var easily enough, and a cheap “hotel” when we got there. More like a motor camp cabin than a hotel, but we had no choice anyway. Went along to the village for a look while our room was being made ready, bought some supplies, and watched a game of boule. They were very good, super accurate considering the ground was lumpy with tree roots and anything but level. Headed the other way up the road to check out some odd buildings which we think are a very old factory, bought some local wine from a place that looked as though to might be cheap but wasn’t anything special, and back to unload the car.

We checked out the railway station to find the times for the Train des Pignes, and they fit quite well, giving us a useful amount of time in Entrevaux. Dinner was a dead loss as we didn’t like the look of the local restaurants, so Karen made sandwiches and I thought I’d treat myself to a falafel burger and chips, turned out to be overpriced and not even nice.

We have the TV on. It’s a mix of game shows, tacky drama, and badly dubbed US and UK programs. There are some French-made programs, but a remarkably low proportion. I don’t think I’d be very happy being a French viewer.