We were driving to Greece, so we needed to cross southern France, cross northern Italy and then follow the Adriatic coast of Italy south to Brindisi where we would catch a ferry to Greece.
Emerging from south west France into the sun at Nice on the French Riviera, we left the autoroute to drive along the corniche, the coast road that hugs the magnificent Bay of Angels through Nice and Monte Carlo.
These photos were taken from a moving car as we drove along the Boulevard des Anglaise in Nice.
It was our first real view of the Mediterranean and our first taste of the summer sun. The white line markings are the bicycle lanes on the promenade, not the road.
Day 3 of the Tour de France was to be here the next day for the first time trial. It had been newly asphalted and felt as smooth as velvet.
Sponsorship and promotional material was being set up for the best part of a kilometre, maybe more.
This is the famous Belle Epoque hotel Le Negresco, part of English aristocracy's European Grand Tour all those years ago and the setting for at least one Agatha Christie mystery, if I recall. Can't you imagine Hercule Poirot taking the sea air on the balcony?
The promenade footpath is as wide as this for several kilometres along the waterfront with all buildings on the other side of a six lane road with a very generous green median strip. It is truly gorgeous with very little retail permitted, only accommodation and restaurants.
The traffic was still flowing as we drove through around 2pm but the signage warned of a partial closedown a few hours later, followed by a full closedown on the morrow.
The retailers never miss an opportunity to sell a t-shirt or two.
While the Velibs in Paris were brown, here in Nice they are appropriately blue.
As we approach the end of the promenade, the road begins to wind around to the port of Nice and we catch our first sight of the ferry terminal where we caught the 6am ferry to Corsica (French territory) and Sardinia (Italian) in 2011. And because you have to have your car in the queue at least 60 minutes before departure, we were glad to find some enterprising people selling fresh croissants and coffee in the car park to hungry tourists who had left their beds at 4.30 am.
Winding our way around the port we headed for the corniche along that cliff top in the background.
Up the corniche and, for once, a clear stretch of road ahead. Paul put his foot down.
Looking back over the wide blue arc of the Bay of Angels and the port of Nice.
These brick arches are a very common sight along the cliff top roads around the Mediterranean - they are very attractive.
And right on cue, as we are watching, the ferry heads off to Corsica to bring the Tour de France circus back to the mainland overnight.
They would have called in additional ferries for the large numbers of people and equipment involved.
The huge passenger tour ships, like these two, can't anchor in the main Nice port because of the ferries, so they come into this bay further along the coast where passengers come ashore in little rubber boats and are, presumably, bused into the centre of Nice.
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