The views along the Mediterranean made the train ride seem shorter since we could watch the cliffs, nice beach homes and many small coastal cities. I had been to the French Riviera over a decade ago with my parents. I was kind of young to remember everything but Jessie's and my first stop while walking around Nice was the exact beach my family and I had visited. I looked at the view of the nearby cliffs and the stony beach and I remembered it all.
We had another sunny day of weather so we walked around the beachfront and pedestrian malls. It was, not surprisingly, expensive to eat but we managed to find a cheap pizza place when we needed to. I was looking forward to the morning already when we would rent a car and drive to the stages of the Monte-Carlo Rally and the Principality of Monaco.
The next morning I got up early and was waiting at the Sixt car rental agency door when it opened. The online booking had quoted me a tiny Smart Fourtwo car as my example but I have learned not to take these literally. Happily, I not only got the Smart I have been longing to drive for years but it was a convertible! As girly as it sounds, the car made me grin every kilometre and putting the top down made me feel like a millionaire that buys the most practical convertible around. These cars have a turbocharged (tiny 3-cylinder) rear-mounted engine, manual sequential (very slow) shifting gear box, digital gear display, rear wheel drive and a very short wheelbase. In my mind, all the ingredients for a rally car, but 2/3 scale and 1/3 speed. Driving the Col de Torini stage in the Alps above Monte-Carlo was probably the best non-racetrack driving experience I've ever had. The Smart would downshift like a rally car and the engine got noisier and noisier the harder I drove it. Towards the top of one of the passess I noticed the gauge was 8/10 of the way to overheating and I think the driving caused some exhuast leakage somehow. Some of the hairpin turns were so tight even small European hatchbacks had to cross into oncoming lanes. The switchbacks were the best I have ever experienced since they were steeped in motorsport history and afforded excellent natural scenery. Anyway, if it wasn't for the lame stability/traction control I would have left some tire skid marks but I was probably going fast enough anyway. The elevation was over 1500 metres and there seemed to be many hikers and trails for me to explore on another trip (just an excuse to drive there again).
We drove back down the mountains into the Principality itself for sight seeing and swimming. Not content with even the standard convertible, most of the Smart cars in Monaco were the faster Brabus versions but I liked our white convertible just fine for easy parking and manouverability. Going into the city we were "forced" into taking the streets that make up the Formula One circuit every year. I could recognize the finish line straightaway, corners and pit lane from countless video game laps and TV broadcasts. Disappointingly, the "racetrack" portion of town was congested with tourists, locals and preparation for the 18th annual Monaco Yacht Show. We parked our car among the Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, Ferraris and Porsches and walked up the steep hills to the centre harbour and casinos. We admired the Casino and I went inside to conjure up scenes of James Bond battling it out with villians at the various tables and games. It was pretty nice inside but not as nice as the cars outside. Besides the typical Ferraris and Bentleys you would expect to see, there were participant cars of the RoyalRace.de drive. This is similar to Gumball 3000 if anyone is familiar with that.
Jessie and I decided to spring for more parking and swim at the beautiful Monaco beach. We could see many mega-yachts from our vantage point as we swam amongst big silver fish and tiny minnow-looking things. There was a guy on a jet ski skimming the water for jellyfish and sea weed. After I made a full lap of the F1 circuit on foot we headed back to Nice, returned the car and started planning for the Spanish leg of our trip.
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