"Sunny Provence is still wet. Up at quarter to 7. After breakfast walked through gardens (camp is on a hill) to look down on the amphitheatre of Orange. Statue in middle; seats repaired, lighting, so obviously still used. Mass of irregular red-tiled roofs and narrow streets hemming it in.
Making for Riviera - lots of vineyards. (Geoff handed out free toilet roll each - pink!) Countryside gradually more rocky, small bushes and square red-tiled farm houses. Further south - hilly, forested, towns on hillsides.
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Nice - palms, blocks of flats, little stations, 2 triangular multi-storey luxury hotels. Drove along famous Boulevard des Anglais - beach front and exclusive hotels. Up mountainside and along coast - very steep, lots of trees and houses perched high up, view should normally be incredible. Superb bays.
Into Monaco - saw palace on hill; very densely housed. Brief glimpse of Monte Carlo Casino as drove past. Very prosperous looking restaurants and boutiques; lots of young people. Made a stop for shopping outside "La Madone" hotel, as yet haven't been told to move.
Extract from letter home: We bombed down through the Riviera - Nice, Monaco - all in the pouring rain! Typical - always knew the weather on Skye was the best! So we went on into Italy along the new auto-route which is a series of tunnels and bridges across valleys and towns. At the border the Italian customs man tried to get us to give him a bottle of whisky so that he wouldn't ask us to unpack all the luggage! However, we managed to get away with doing neither.
At Italian border, customs officer tried to barter for a bottle of whisky (unsuccessful!)
Italy wet, houses rather drab in rain. Road follows coast, tunnels and viaducts crossing valleys and towns, views out to sea. Making for Pisa - had a sing-song in back of bus and Shirley's dried apple!
14 hours on the road."
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