The Drive from Italy to France

Today we only saw 2 countries as opposed to 4 on the first travel day. We left Como, Italy this morning and got to Nice, France about 1:00 this afternoon.

I got this picture because I thought it was cool to be heading toward Milan. Note that we didn't actually go to Milan, but we were headed in that general direction:

We stopped for gas and snacks just outside of Como and found these little gems. If you ever see them, get them. You won't be sorry.

 So, much to our disappointment, most of the drive along the coast of the Mediterranean looked like this:

Yep. Tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels. Some short, some long, some well lit, some not. It's crazy how many of them we went through. I almost wish I had counted. Almost.

When we weren't in tunnels, imagine miles and miles of this:

Almost the entire way to Nice once we got withing eye-shot of the sea was mountains with houses along the side of them. I can't even imagine how many people call "the coast" their home. I also shudder to think how many of them have literally fallen out their window or front door down a mountain side. Crazy!

Everytime we enter a new country, the car announces "Welcome to _____!" It's become something we look forward to hearing! Yesterday her announcements would sneak up on us, but today I was ready with the camera. It's blurry, but you get the idea, "Welcome to France!"

Then, not 10 minutes after we enter the border, she announces that we're approaching a toll booth. Now, keep in mind, we've been through several of these throughout our trip. Most countries (other than Germany apparently) charge people to use their highways, so we paid through ever country yesterday and today as well. Italy was the only one that was expensive at 26 EU (for 2 hours of driving) for a stretch, the rest have been less than 5 EU. But *this*one! This one had a line forever and we waited to pay our 2.80 EU for about 20 or 30 minutes. This was the line when we drove up. If you blow the picture up, you can see the toll plaza way up there. It was SLOW moving.

When we finally paid our measly toll, very soon we were approaching Nice. Wow. Literally. Wow. We said that a few times as we approached. What a beautiful place in the world!

Once we got here, this was the scene on the "Promenade de Anglais". This is the street next to the sea and our hotel is also on this street.

And here was the view from where we had lunch (on the roof of our hotel):

I can't even believe we're in the French Riviera. Unbelievable.

This one seems to fit right in.

Oh dear...