Anyways, part of my problems was that my Polo GTI decided to have a cam belt failure 10k before it was due to be replaced. It destroyed the engine and I decided it was no longer economical to repair. This was how it was after I got it back from the garage. Sold it to another VW enthusiast who would repair it themselves.

After relying on public transport for a few weeks, I finally found a replacement. The used car market is somewhat different today with inflated prices, high demand and low supply. I eventually found this 2007 Ford Focus 1.8 TDCi Zetec Climate.

As you can see it’s in a pretty good condition. Being a Diesel I’m hoping it will give me  55-70 mpg on my motorway drives. It’s a much larger car compared to my Polo and perhaps slightly bigger than the VW Golf ‘s which I was also looking at. Not really a stand out car but hopefully it will be cheap to run which was the main thing I was looking for.

This was literally a last minute thing to run 10km, in the 2011 ASICS British 10k London Run! I didn’t do any training or preparation and I was dragged out of bed to Hyde Park corner. It was exhausting, especially the first 6km. I did it in just under 1hr20mins. My only objective was to participate with the aim of finishing! I’m sure the winning time was well under 30 minutes but at least I wasn’t last!

As I didn’t plan on taking part, I didn’t do any fund raising. But you can still sponsor the official charity for this year, Anthony Nolan on my Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/robertliu

But the hotel wasn’t that great so we only really slept and showered here. We didn’t spend that much time in Nice either, just walked around the historic quarter mostly and enjoyed the lovely seafood. La Safari restaurant was particularly nice and quite popular. We just got in for lunch one day before all the other tables were reserved.

Driving on the right hand side of the road was strange. It was my first time to drive on the continent so paid for the extra insurance, just in case. Fortunately, I didn’t need it but it was good to know as I made loads of mistakes on the first couple of days. Nothing serious like driving on the wrong side or turning the wrong way. In fact, driving was quite easy as you just follow the traffic. I tried to change gear using my door handle a few times but eventually got used to the gear stick being on my right. The thing I didn’t like was the multiple lanes and how the exit can be on the left or right side of the road, so everything is happening from every direction. There were at least two times where I entered a junction, went “errrr” and came out the other side still not knowing who had right of way and how I even managed to get through in one piece. Confused?!

After a good night’s sleep we left early to drive to Gorge de Verdon. The famous canyons in France. Heading out from Nice, we passed Vence, St Paul’s de Vence, Tourrettes-sur-Loup and Gourdon before heading towards Castellane.

From Castellane we drove on to Rougon which our guide book said had amazing views. We decided to drive up to the peak but at this point the skies had opened and decided to chuck it down and add a single lane mountain road and a French local who likes to tailgate! I was probably at a 20 degree incline with a 800m cliff face to one side of my car. If I’m honest, I was scared! But everything was controlled. I decided to let the car behind pass when I found a suitable space and he just disappeared into the distance with no fear.

After deciding there was nothing up in Rougon we came back down the same route and continued along the north side of verdon gorge on the famous Routes des Crêtes. Lots of windy mountain roads, which were actually quite fun.

The goal was the lake just under Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. Following that, we headed back on the south side of the gorge passing the villages of Aiguines and Trigance before joining the path back at Castellane. The last part of the drive was at night and there were very few cars on the 3 hour journey back. A fun night drive in the mountain roads finally getting home just before midnight! I would hate to come here in peak season!

The next day we decided to go to the west of this region around Avignon. We actually wanted to stop in Aix and Arles but given the driving time of 3 to 4 hours from Nice, it was actually a good decision not to as we got back around midnight. We only toured around Avignon (on foot) and also went around Avignon as there were lots of nice small villages like Roussillon, Gordes and Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. Just look at the waters here. They’re actually crystal clear and have beautiful green plants growing on the river bed giving this amazing colour:

Our last full day was spent closer to Nice. Monaco was the destination and before we could enter the country we were stuck in a traffic jam. Typical. But once we arrived, I parked up near the Casino (in a multi-storey before you ask) and walked around. As some of you know I’m an avid F1 fan and everything in Monaco just seemed so familiar. They were already preparing the race track for 26-29 May 2011 and I walked around most of it in Monte Carlo.

We actually spent half a day in Monaco and came back in the evening to drive the F1 circuit! Our sat-nav didn’t really take us where we wanted to go but once we found ourselves at the hairpin, I knew exactly where to go

Nearby Monaco is a cute little village called Roquebrune Cap Martin.

Quite typical of South France but each village has it’s own character which I really admired. Quite a fun trip but also a bit exhausting having driven for the majority of it. I was even breathalysed by the French police! Fortunately, I hadn’t drunk anything so was on my way.