Rather than spending another beautiful day on the beach – which already isn’t a bad choice – Jan and Nastassia decided to up the ante by getting some vehicles involved. A few weeks ago, Deanna and Nastassia had raved about Vespa’s and scooters, and how they really wanted to try them. And fast forward to just a couple days ago, Jan looked at a map of Nice and realized that Monaco is only 22 km away. So today we put two and two together and decided to go for a scooter rental, and to add another country to our lists. Holiday Bikes offers scooter rentals, starting from 25 euros per day. A scooter up to the size of 50CC is included in a standard drivers license. So with all of our research done, we went in today and got a couple of Piaggio FLY Scooters for a little joy ride.
There are three routes from Nice to Monaco. The first is highway driving, straight through. Second is higher alongside the mountains, and the third takes you right alongside the coast. Since our scooters topped out at 45 km/h and because we were in no rush, the sea-side route promised us a more scenic, leisurely option. We stopped several times along the way to take in the view and to snap some photos.
The scooters gave us no huge problems, and the route took us through a number of sea-side towns on our way to Monaco. The whole drive in total took around an hour, with photo-stops, 30km/h town zones and a little traffic on the way. The only issues at all were with Nastassia and the scooters kick stop. She just couldn’t seem to get the hang of parking it and of pushing the scooter off the stop, no matter how many times it had to be done.
Once in Monaco, we drove through a few spots where the Formula 1 track is, just to get a feel for the course that is placed into the city every year. Then we paid a quick visit to Casino Monte Carlo, to see the venue. There were really so many gorgeous cars outside this place, that you felt like any number of the movies filmed here could be a reality – swanky to a whole new extent. After a quick lunch on the grass, we saddled up to ride a bit more around the coastline.
Down the road and back to Nice, we took in the views on one of the mountainsides. It was a little hike to get there, but once up top, we understood why it’s called the “Côte d’Azur” – the sea is so beautifully aqua and turquoise blue it doesn’t look like it could be real.
Our scooter rentals were due back at the rental shop by 18:30, and so we dropped everything off an hour or so early, and walked back home. On our way we stopped by the local grocery store to pick up some supplies and things for burgers.
A good summer meal, we fried up the burgers and melted some cheese on them, and then spent the rest of the night blogging and packing. Tomorrow is our last day in Nice, and we don’t want it to end up being too rushed!
Bonne nuit!
Jan & Stacia 