8:30 am departure from Den Haag Centraal saw us begin our 3 week, 7 language journey through the south eastern corner of Europe. Our fist stop saw us arrive at Paris Gare du Nord for our 3 day stop in Paris. The first 2 days were pretty kind to us weather wise meaning we were able to see the major tourist destinations and the extravagant, densely packed buildings all on foot. I think we would have covered what felt like 1000kms in these few days, it was worth it cramming in the major sites (Louvre, Tour de Eiffel (day and night), Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Notre Dame Cathedral, des Champs Elysees etc) and a few stories courtesy of the free New Europe tours i.e. New Paris. 
Although Paris was a nice place to see it was a quite dirty even so for a large city. I am also not too sure if the French like tourists all that much. Being in Paris didn’t really give you the greatest feeling. It was at times no matter how hard you tried to be polite as though you were too much of an inconvenience as due to your inability to converse in French. Even if you were in a restaurant with an English speaking waiter/ress and English menus you still at times felt a little uncomfortable. None the less we still managed to find some activities to lighten the mood. On our first night we made an effort to head up on the Metro to Blanche to indulge in the stereotypical French cuisine - snails and frogs Legs (photo), and then off to see the Moulin Rouge stage show. A definite must do if you have the chance and well worth the money. While a visit to Euro Disney and Disney studios was loads of fun, especially with the overcast weather and the mid week visit meaning a wait no longer than 10 min on any ride...not sure we would get that again. 
After our three days in Paris we hopped on a plane and headed further south to Nice. We arrived just after sunset, which was amazing to see as we landed, but even better than that was the night time temperature of 13 degrees. I know , I know, 13 doesn’t seem like much however when you have been happy to see a temperature above zero for over three months anything in double figures feels like the tropics. After checking into our hotel we headed out and found a small tapas restaurant around the corner called Pinxcho (which means Tapas or so we are told). Great food, good price and awesome people, a must visit if your ever in Nice, Thanks Christian, Ben , Laurent, and Mary. Check out their website - www.pinxcho.com if you are ever in Nice and after a good feed. The main reason for our visit to Nice was to race the Nice Cote De Azure - Monaco Half Marathon taking it easy the day before the race was a bit of a priority. This proved to be pretty easy given the great weather including the 20 degree day time temperature, allowing us to take in some of the amazing scenery and get ourselves ready for the race. One way was to check out the Port de Nice. Just down from our Hotel.... All I can say is WOW!!! There were some pretty impressive boats, one called “Australis”, anyone know who this belongs to? And another called “Sarafsa” which was bigger than most Hotels. The paint job on the thing probably costs more than my house. Given the size of some of these yachts, I don’t think money would be a problem for those guys considering an advertisement for a mooring space in the harbour was advertised at close to 200,000 Euros a year.
Ready to run (pun intended) we woke on Sunday ready for the race (see my previous posts if you are interested in the race review) which delivered a great result for both myself and Alicia. It was then back to the beach enjoying the rest of the day of sunshine and gelato while sitting on the beach. A much needed dose of vitamin D. France we didn’t get off to the best start but you delivered for us in the end. Next stop Spain..........
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