The Winter Palace

Hello everyone from the Mediterranean!

We`ve exchanged thermals for shorts and  hiking boots for thongs and  currently lapping up the sun in the coastal town of Menton (adjacent to Nice). It`s certainly a contrast to the Alps.  By luck we found a palacial apartment to rent in a 18th Century building called the Winter Palace. It has huge french doors that open out onto a balcony overlooking the beach, so we certainly feel like we`re living the high life in the French Riveria! Tony has a bad flu and has needed some rest from our road trip, so he has been sitting out on the deck reading the multitude of guide books in the apartment and getting his energy back. It is so beautiful here (seafood everywhere and we love the apartment!) so we may stay until the end of the week and take day trips to Monaco, Nice, Cannes and the remote mountain villiages in the area.

Since our last entry we`ve travelled accross France over the border into Italy and spent an unforgettable evening in a mountain ski resort 2hrs drive from here. I had the most delicious gnocchi ragu and Tony had a pizza the size of a table! It was one of the best meals we`ve had so far. Having a kitchen at the moment has allowed us to visit the market each morning and prepare fresh seafood and salads at home. The produce is astounding! We`re eating raspberries and strawberries by the punnet, plus unusual fruit such as prickly pears and exsquisite yellow figs. It`s melon season too and the local yellow melons are to die for (nothing like we have at home!). This is also an area noted for growing the best oranges and lemons - they are just dropping off trees on the side of the road - so this morning some nuns at a monastry above Menton (that I hiked up to) gave me an orange/lemon syrup (which they make) for Tony to sip in hot water to ease his sore throat. And it`s worked! We`re right on the border with Italy so tomorrow we`re crossing over again to go a huge open air market and will be buying fresh olives and ricotta!

Internet access is still very difficult and expensive and we wish we could leave more entries (so many other amazing  experiences to record here) however it is time to sign off already! Our love to you all until next time. (And Sandy, laughing about the lederhose for Tony!)