South of France

For my second year at university, I was lucky enough to be sent to Nice in the south of France to study for the year.  I could have been sent anywhere in France for the year, so to have had Nice chosen for me, I felt very fortunate!  

So while planning my summer holiday in 2022 I planned to make a return visit.  That year was also the last time the French Formula 1 Grand Prix was due to be held for a while and so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone so to speak!  I spent a lovely few days revisiting old haunts in Nice and then headed west to pick up a Roadsurfer rental camper van in Aix-en Provence.  This was my first time renting a camper so I was a little apprehensive about the whole process, but I needn't have been as everything was straight-forward and I got to grips with how everything worked pretty quickly.  I loved how quickly everything could be set up once you arrived at a campsite, and how it instantly felt like home!  This was definitely the start of my new-found love for van travel!  I'd looked at renting one for a while, and it's the kind of experience where you don't know how you're going to find it until you give it a go.  Thankfully, I loved it and the rest is now history - as you'll see from my other posts and photos.

Gorges-du-Verdon

Once I'd got to grips with the camper, staying in a lovely campsite near to Aix-en-Provence for a couple of nights, I ventured further afield and explored some of what the French Riviera has to offer.  The particular highlight of this trip was the Gorges-du-Verdon.  Often called the 'Grand Canyon of France' - and understandably so!  The drive to and from it was quite something as well, and certainly got me used to driving the camper pretty quickly!

Speaking of getting to grips with driving...  I also revisited Monaco on this trip, and just had to take a drive around the F1 circuit (or as much of it as is accessible to the public, anyway).  When I was at uni in Nice, I took a few trips along the coast to Monaco, but never in my own set of wheels.  It was pretty cool driving around the streets I've grown up watching on the TV.

The culmination of this trip was attending the French Grand Prix.  As this was the fourth race I'd been to, I knew pretty much what to expect from a race weekend.  However, France threw a slight curve-ball at this one - 35 degree heat!  This added a new dimension to the experience, but thankfully, living in Bermuda had prepared me well for such eventualities, and while the 30 minute or so walk to the track each day was a very sweaty affair, nothing would stop me enjoying the experience to the full!  Check out my F1 post here for a few photos of my trips to the races.

Nice port